Sorting my Finances

SieIso

elkiedee said:

Having more than one current account can be useful for all kinds of reasons, but keeping £35K in one is a bit of a waste. £3K in another sounds like a lot to me but if you have a large mortgage and your monthly outgoings come close to that it might not be as much as some of us think. Is the TSB (£250) an active account or one you no longer use much? 

Which one(s) do you pay all your bills from? Do you have debit cards/an overdraft facility (not that you need it) etc with one or more, and are there linked perks? Is one your nominated account for withdrawals, Premium Bond prizes etc? Having a current account, even a secondary one, with a fairly token amount in it, in the same place as your most substantial easy access savings could be useful when it comes to making withdrawals.

I'd work out what you feel you need in your main current account to cover monthly day to day spending, and keep a more token amount in the others (£50, more if you're feeding it into a Regular Saver). Could you add most of your £38K to the Chip account? Or you can find another easy access savings account or two paying a good interest rate - and if you need to open another current account to access savings, that doesn't mean you need to keep a lot of money in there. 

You're presumably already earning more than your personal savings allowance (£0/£500/£1K at in interest on the Chip non-ISA savings, and putting £35K+ into savings from your £38,250 in current accounts could double your interest income next financial year. Will you stay within the same tax band? Do you have plans for next year's ISA allowance in April? 

Mortgage has been cleared.

TSB is not really active anymore.

£1500 is probably more than enough to hold in the current account for bills etc.

Bridlington1

SieIso said:

elkiedee said:

Having more than one current account can be useful for all kinds of reasons, but keeping £35K in one is a bit of a waste. £3K in another sounds like a lot to me but if you have a large mortgage and your monthly outgoings come close to that it might not be as much as some of us think. Is the TSB (£250) an active account or one you no longer use much? 

Which one(s) do you pay all your bills from? Do you have debit cards/an overdraft facility (not that you need it) etc with one or more, and are there linked perks? Is one your nominated account for withdrawals, Premium Bond prizes etc? Having a current account, even a secondary one, with a fairly token amount in it, in the same place as your most substantial easy access savings could be useful when it comes to making withdrawals.

I'd work out what you feel you need in your main current account to cover monthly day to day spending, and keep a more token amount in the others (£50, more if you're feeding it into a Regular Saver). Could you add most of your £38K to the Chip account? Or you can find another easy access savings account or two paying a good interest rate - and if you need to open another current account to access savings, that doesn't mean you need to keep a lot of money in there. 

You're presumably already earning more than your personal savings allowance (£0/£500/£1K at in interest on the Chip non-ISA savings, and putting £35K+ into savings from your £38,250 in current accounts could double your interest income next financial year. Will you stay within the same tax band? Do you have plans for next year's ISA allowance in April? 

Mortgage has been cleared.

TSB is not really active anymore.

£1500 is probably more than enough to hold in the current account for bills etc.

£1.5k still seems rather a lot to be kept earning no interest. Another option is to keep the whole lot in savings accounts and transfer funds to your current account as and when you need it. Faster payments from an EA account will arrive in your current account instantly if you choose the right account and you could also open regular savers with Co-op (7%) and TSB (6%) as well as others which like your NatWest Regular Saver allow penalty free withdrawals if absolutely necessary.

Personally I keep all of my current accounts at a zero balance, the only exception is if I have a DD due to go out the next day or if I'm stoozing a 0% overdraft (in this case the balance goes below zero). The last time I used a current account for savings was when I had the VM M Plus account paying 2% when the top EA rates were still below 2%.

If you must keep money in a current account there are also some current accounts that pay interest which could be worth using instead to minimise your interest losses.

badger09

3 current accounts is not excessive IMO. 

I think immediate step should be to open RS at both Co-op & TSB and start paying £150pm into NatWest RS. Also move the bulk of that £38500 into a decent EA savings account. 

Unless I’ve missed it, OP has not mentioned their age, marital or dependents status, or pension provision. More info would help with suggestions for the longer term but I agree that’s a lot of cash earning nothing. 

Grumpy_chap

An obvious thing to do is to max out this tax year's ISA contributions before the end of the month.
To a certain degree, it is not so important whether you select the best ISA, more to get the funds qualifying before this year's allowance is forfeited.  There is money in the current account at zero interest that will allow you to achieve this.
If you then decide that a different ISA would have been better, the funds can be transferred while still keeping their ISA-status.  
If you decide that a different solution altogether (i.e. not ISA) would be better, you can still follow that path.

badger09

Grumpy_chap said:

An obvious thing to do is to max out this tax year's ISA contributions before the end of the month.
To a certain degree, it is not so important whether you select the best ISA, more to get the funds qualifying before this year's allowance is forfeited.  There is money in the current account at zero interest that will allow you to achieve this.
If you then decide that a different ISA would have been better, the funds can be transferred while still keeping their ISA-status.  
If you decide that a different solution altogether (i.e. not ISA) would be better, you can still follow that path.

As per 1st post, OP has already used this year’s ISA allowance

cloud_dog

Bridlington1 said:

SieIso said:

cloud_dog said:

...and why three current accounts?  Move the £3k also.

Valid question and I don't have a good answer.

Many open current accounts for the ongoing rewards/perks, i.e. NatWest/RBS reward gives you £3/mth (if you discount the fee), Santander Edge gives access to the 7% Edge Saver, Club Lloyds gives you access to the 6.25% CL regular saver etc. I've got over a dozen current accounts at the moment, largely for this reason, though I certainly wouldn't consider keeping money in them if they pay no interest though.

Yes, I understand.  Similarly the £3k could just be in there to pay a bill, perhaps?  All that was happening in the early posts was to shake the tree, to see if it was reasonable, required, etc.

MEM62

SieIso said:

You have £38K in current accounts that is doing nothing for you.  That needs to go into an interest bearing account.    

SieIso

Thanks all for your help. I have done some adjusting this morning and below is now my current setup, what further actions are recommended?

amanda1024

SieIso said:

Thanks all for your help. I have done some adjusting this morning and below is now my current setup, what further actions are recommended?

Personally, I would move the £6k out of the current accounts. Even if you go for easy access savings at Natwest/co-op so you can move money back into current accounts instantly, that’s still over £100 interest a year, or £48 a year for each £1k you put in the Chip easy access account.

Like others have said, how long-term are you thinking? What’s your pension provision like? Mortgage? Saving to buy a house?

Grumpy_chap

badger09 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

An obvious thing to do is to max out this tax year's ISA contributions before the end of the month.
To a certain degree, it is not so important whether you select the best ISA, more to get the funds qualifying before this year's allowance is forfeited.  There is money in the current account at zero interest that will allow you to achieve this.
If you then decide that a different ISA would have been better, the funds can be transferred while still keeping their ISA-status.  
If you decide that a different solution altogether (i.e. not ISA) would be better, you can still follow that path.

As per 1st post, OP has already used this year’s ISA allowance

Thanks and ooops.
I saw the £10k cash ISA at the bottom of the table and did not also notice the S&S ISA higher up.