What to do with my savings

knowlesv83

I am hoping you lovely people may be able to help me out, my husband and I currently have a (very) modest amount of savings and the accounts I have them in are all reaching maturity - I am trying to figure out what I should do!

Over the last year my husband and I have been putting £150 a month into the First direct 7% account - this will port to a regular savings this week. I had planned to open another 7% after the current one matures and closes. Currently £1800 (plus whatever the interest will be)

We had £5250 in a Barclays blue rewards saver (and I have been rounding up by a few pence and pounds every month after the interest goes in - hence the exact figure) I have received the notification that blue rewards will not be paying £5 a month - so looking to shift this else where.

A random £150 sitting in first direct current account

£700 in an easy access Barclays saver (This is used for car insurance/ roadside recovery payments usually, so needs to remain accessible, I would like to keep a minimum of £500 in this account).

My husband and I will be putting £200 a month into some form of savings - I think £100 of this should be easy to grab if need be, but the other £100 could go else where if required.

So a quick overview:
£1800 FD 7%
£5250 Blue rewards
£150 FD current
£700 Easy access saver Barclays

I have accounts with Barclays, RBS, FD, Halifax and a mortgage (Fixed at 2.28% for another 8 years, so not worth overpaying) with Nationwide… I don’t wish to risk any savings investing, I just can’t wrap my head around what would be best. 

Any help would be very much appreciated 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

For a start why not up the First Direct regular saver to the full £300/month?

It's not going to be life changing but it is a very easy ~£130.

Yorkie1

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

For a start why not up the First Direct regular saver to the full £300/month?

It's not going to be life changing but it is a very easy ~£130.

And I imagine they could have one each, if they wish to put money aside for a fixed period of time again.

jameseonline

I'd ditch Barclays asap & move elsewhere, so Santander Edge Saver (need Edge account 1st & you don't need to pay in to that or setup direct debits etc but it might be worth exploring for ongoing Santander cashback on Edge account, you can also get cashback through TopCashback/Quidco for opening an Edge account) on £4000, then upto 3K on Cahoot (part of Santander) Sunny Day.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/?utm_campaign=mse_home .

Santander pays monthly interest.
Cahoot pays monthly or yearly interest.

Then consider other Regular Savings accounts.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts/?utm_campaign=mse_home

Most regular accounts allow you to close & access your money easily without affecting your interest, the only thing you may not be able to do is have the same account again within the same year.

Also consider maxing out any regular savings accounts you currently have or plan to get, this will ensure you get the best return possible, eg your First Direct 7%, max deposit is £300 per month.

Also if you don't need a lot of money in your current accounts I would move majority of that money into a high paying easy/instant access account too then move out when actually needed.

Jaguar98

Max out the First Direct regular saver to £300/month and consider moving your Barclays savings to Santander Edge Saver for better interest rates. You can also open multiple regular savings accounts for more flexibility.

jameseonline

Just realised you have accounts with RBS, Halifax & Nationwide, they all have regular savings accounts.

RBS Digital Saver pays monthly @ upto £150 max deposit.

(Also consider getting the NatWest Digital Saver that way you can do £150 in each every month, because it takes ages to hit £5000 in just the 1 digital saver)

Halifax 5.5% is £250 max deposit per month.

(Also consider Bank Of Scotland at same rate, also with Halifax you can't withdraw without closing the account, with BOS & Lloyds/Club Lloyds you can)

Nationwide 6.50% is £200 max deposit per month.

Should be pretty easy for you to get all 3 as you already with them.

The more banks/building societies you already with the better your options are.

jameseonline

Also when you say a Blue Rewards Saver do you mean the account called Blue Rewards Saver because that only pays 3.56% AER on months with no withdrawals.

You'd be better off with Rainy Day Saver at 5.12% AER on upto 5K, (1.16% AER on anything over that)

Rainy Day pays monthly @ 5%

In any case Rainy Day is easy access & is the only decent savings account Barclays do so all your Barclays savings (upto 5K, anything more needs to be out of Barclays) should be in that account if not already.

kimwp

I would put everything into a Chase savings account 5.1% (diarise to switch when the rate drops in January).
Open two first direct regular accounts IE one each (is this not possible?). Max the £300 per account so you put £600 a month into 7% until you only have £5k in easy access. Then reduce the amount to the amount you are regularly saving.

knowlesv83

jameseonline said:

Also when you say a Blue Rewards Saver do you mean the account called Blue Rewards Saver because that only pays 3.56% AER on months with no withdrawals.

You'd be better off with Rainy Day Saver at 5.12% AER on upto 5K, (1.16% AER on anything over that)

Rainy Day pays monthly @ 5%

In any case Rainy Day is easy access & is the only decent savings account Barclays do so all your Barclays savings (upto 5K, anything more needs to be out of Barclays) should be in that account if not already.

I have the rainy day saver maxed - but with my own savings at the moment

knowlesv83

I should have been clear - I fully intend to re open the first direct 7% as this seems like the highest rate. Maxing it to £300 makes sense. We didn’t want to do that this year in case we needed the money as we moved house at the end of 22. However feel more confident to put that money aside.

It was more where to store the rest of the money to funnel through to FD - where we wont get penalised for sending money to FD each month.
Barclays will be ditched!

elkiedee

Not strictly savings but a possibility of getting £200 to add to your joint savings next year (£100 for you and £100 for your husband) with a little effort. You mention that you have a mortgage with Nationwide, fixed for a few years. Do you and/or your husband have current accounts there? Customers with a qualifying current account and either qualifying mortgage or savings have had a Fairer Share payout of £100 in June 2023 and June 2024, and this year there were also offers for switch bonuses to existing customers and a savings bond - neither suited my needs at this time but I thought they would be excellent offers for some Nationwide customers. 

Your mortgage presumably qualifies - the current account qualification was made much easier this year, as it was paying £500 in in 2 out of 3 months between January and March last year. This year it was the £500 pay-in or 10 transactions in 2 of those 3 months. I had paid in money for school meals and Council Tax and then paid out to meet the £500 pay-in threshold and have found this new routine works quite well for me, but in the process I've met the 10 transactions easily and I think it's less effort. You could put money for Regular Savers in on pay day and then make those payments with no penalty, and it's an excellent return even if you keep all your savings proper elsewhere and move your Fairer Share payout to those savings. 

From my experience with Nationwide and with my other current account bank (HSBC), I do find it really useful to keep at least some money in instant access savings with the same providers - the savings rates may not be the best, but I can put in and take out a little money even just for a few days with no hassle. I have slightly higher savings rates at Coventry Building Society but money isn't quite as instant access (and that's fine too - I don't necessarily want all my money immediately!) So if your main current account is First Direct, keeping a little of your current savings balances there too, in addition to saving some more in their Regular Saver, is probably a good idea.

For your maturing savings accounts, I would try and put most of the money in a cash ISA - but you need to decide whether you want to lock it away at a fixed rate or put it in limited access (3/4 times a year) or instant access at a variable rate which might well go down. My Nationwide and HSBC rates haven't changed but they're not market leaders - the Coventry Building Society is still paying me interest at the rates when I opened the accounts in February/March and I'm watching out for a drop, but they are now offering less for similar new accounts . There are better rates out there but each has its own terms and conditions, and some of the accounts I've seen that I think would suit my needs require identity documents that I don't have at the moment (don't drive and don't currently have a  passport).