Is multiple saving/investment accounts a good idea

Ocelot

Bridlington1 said:

Chloboshoka_2 said:

redpete said:

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Is multiple saving/investment accounts a good idea

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I hope so, I have 30 savings, investments and pension accounts, Mrs RP has a further 10, and these are spread across 29 different providers.

Wow that’s a lot do you find it hard to keep up with sometimes?

I've gone even further than that. I'm on 50 savings accounts, 3 investment accounts, 15 current accounts and 2 credit cards.

Most of the savings & current accounts have a minimal balance though. Many of the savings accounts are there so that I can get access to any loyalty rate savings accounts in the future so don't require much attention. Many more used to offer top rates but have now lagged behind and been emptied as a result and are still open just in case the interest rate shoots up (and also I can't be bothered to close them). Again this requires little attention. A lot of the others are regular savers so require just one transaction a month usually and others (including 2 of the investment accounts) exist because I can pay into them by direct debit or debit card for the sake of the reward accounts. Most of the current accounts only require a few transactions a month to get the perks so again requires little attention and one of the credit cards is only used for one transaction a month to get a direct debit out of it.

I have a list of sort codes/account numbers of accounts which I have opened and highlight the ones I've closed so I don't lose any accounts. I then use a spreadsheet to keep track of where my money is. 

That's more than me. I only have 46 savings accounts and 4 investment accounts, with 2 current accounts and 4 pensions.

redpete

Chloboshoka_2 said:

redpete said:

>>>>

Is multiple saving/investment accounts a good idea

<<<<

I hope so, I have 30 savings, investments and pension accounts, Mrs RP has a further 10, and these are spread across 29 different providers.

Wow that’s a lot do you find it hard to keep up with sometimes?

Not too bad.  Pension investment accounts don't need much attention apart from periodic rebalancing (although imminent retirement will obviously need management). Several of the savings accounts are term investments or limited max value accounts which are just filled and left until the term is up.  Regular savings accounts need some attention, although once the sequence to feed them is set up then it just runs until the end of the term.  GIAs/ISAs use multi-asset funds that are left alone long-term.  Crown-funding investments need attention only when I have spare money that I want to invest, otherwise leave alone long-term, P2P accounts similar.  Whisky investments (whiskyinvestdirect) can be treated as a trading account but that's an interest into which I'm willing to invest some time.

Microsoft Money and spreadsheets help me keep track of values and keep on top of what needs action.