Where best to save 10K?

akira181

I'm currently saving for a deposit for my mother so she can move a little closer to me as she's retired, living alone in the country, and not as mobile as she once was.  Hopefully this year some time, depending on when she can sell her current place.  She's still in the process of cleaning and getting a new coat of paint on the walls before it goes to market.  I've got 10k sitting in my current account that earns zero interest and I'd like to move it out before I spend it on something I don't really need.  Some family members may be pitching in at some point, so the amount may increase.

I was thinking Ford Money Instant Access but 0.4% doesn't even cover the daily coffee en route to work.  With the current climate, it's no surprise interest rates are low, is this my best option or is there something else I should consider?

eskbanker

Slim pickings at the moment in terms of traditional easy access savings accounts, but in that context a popular alternative just now is Premium Bonds, with an 'average luck' expected return in 0.9% territory and the minuscule chance of a big win....

billy2shots

Risk free then you need to be creative. 
Halifax reward account. Stick £5000 in there and pay in (then withdraw straight away ) £1500 each month. That will return you £60 a year (£5 per month in rewards). Circa 1.1%

 Open 2 accounts (partner?) And that's the full £10k taken care of at circa 1.1% risk free.

MX5huggy

Premium Bonds, invest before the end of the month as you need to hold them for a whole calendar month before they are entered in the draw (which is on the 1st working day of the month). See the premium bond calculator on here to understand the potential of getting no “interest” to winning a million.

jimjames

Bank of Scotland current account will take £5k at approx 0.8%. Virgin money at 2% for £1000.

Depends how many accounts you want to get a decent rate but 2 current accounts would get you over 0.7%

akira181

I'd like to avoid the hassle of opening multiple accounts, especially since its for fractions of a percent.  Really not worth the effort, it would be easier and more cost effective to stop buying my daily coffee and make my own.

Never thought about premium bonds though.  I'll do some more reading and probably just open an account to get the money put away.  The miniscule chance of winning a million is better than it sitting in my account.

akira181

signing up with NS&I online just doesn't seem to work.  Trying on firefox and chrome, disabled adblocker, addons, etc and so far, random buttons (like the find my address) just don't work or the next page times out and you need to refresh and restart.  Doesn't inspire confidence putting money there...

colsten

You don't mention that you cleaned cookies and browsing history?
Have you got a vanilla browser you can use, i.e. one that doesn't have anything you installed on it? Can you try Edge?

The NS&I website is working just fine for the majority of people.

When/if you do manage to open an account, please make sure you remember all the answers you give to security questions. You will need them when you make withdrawals.

Lomcevak

colsten said:

When/if you do manage to open an account, please make sure you remember all the answers you give to security questions. You will need them when you make withdrawals.

If you've forgotten (as I did) don't despair though, as long as you have a phone number set up so they can call you (then you type in a code displayed on screen) the security question can be reset easily.

akira181

got an account opened today and transferred in the money.  No idea what was wrong before, I tried Chrome, Firefox, Edge, cleared browsing history, restarted computer, etc but same issues.  The site just kept timing out or buttons didn't work. 

Today it worked almost flawlessly with FF and all addons enabled.  The joys of technology