High interest savings accounts

Iwouldratherwalk

Hi, my mum wants to invest £120,000 into a high interest one year, or six month savings account.  We were looking at Zenith bank, as mentioned on this website but don't know anything about them.  They don't provide an online portal to 'see' your account and only deal with emails and phone calls. This didn't sit right with me.   Am I right in thinking if it listed on this website, that it is a sound place to invest?  It is a 6 month at 4.8% deal.  She would put £80,000 into this account then £30,000 into another account- although don't know where yet!  She doesn't need easy access to this money but wants the highest interest rate.  

Any advice on Zenith would be greatly welcome, and any advice on where to put the additional £30,000 would be a bonus.  Would it be mad to put it ALL into Zenith?   Last year she had it all in Investec and got a very good return.  We didn't really think about the implications of being covered for £85,000 if anything untoward happened. 

Thank you!

allegro120

Zenith accounts are covered by FSCS, that's what matters the most.  I've never had an account with them but remember them being around for a long time. If the strategy is to lock the money in then 1 year might be a better option because the rates are likely to decrease in the next 6 months.  There are still some 4.75%-4.77% 1 year fixed accounts available. Choose two and split the funds between them, it is a peace of mind not going over £85k limit.

jaypers

Don’t know much about Zenith but they are covered by FSCS up to £85,000 from the short check I’ve done (do your own due diligence too). 

Look at Chip and Atom who have limited access accounts paying 4.85% which may suit your needs. Again, no more than £85k anywhere.

dinosaur66

i only bank with nationwide simply because imo they fit in the catergory of to big to fail

a 1 year bond allowing up to 3 withdrawls without losing intrest gives 4%

by no means best rate but i bank there because its safest rate when your savings exceed 85k

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

Middle_of_the_Road

dinosaur66 said:

i only bank with nationwide simply because imo they fit in the catergory of to big to fail

a 1 year bond allowing up to 3 withdrawals without losing interest gives 4%

by no means best rate but i bank there because its safest rate when your savings exceed 85k

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

I don't think Nationwide offer such an account. Their triple access online saver is not a fixed bond. It does have a variable rate of 4% though.

Middle_of_the_Road

dinosaur66 said:

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

An account with an interest rate of 5% will return you 25% more interest than one paying 4% interest. That's an additional £1k per £100k deposited.

Bigwheels1111

Please understand FSCS protection, it covers 85k per bank.

Great, you put 85k in a bank and it goes under you get back 85k, No interest as its over the 85k limit.

So only put 80k in any one bank and that way you would get your interest and savings back.

If she has not taken out an ISA this year Trading212 is offering 4.9% easy access, rate can change.

Raisin could be ok as well, refer a friend offer £50 extra.

https://www.raisin.co.uk/refer-friend-bonus/

Iwouldratherwalk

Thank you for these replies. I have to pop out but will look into your suggestions as soon as I get back!  

dinosaur66

Middle_of_the_Road said:

dinosaur66 said:

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

An account with an interest rate of 5% will return you 25% more interest than one paying 4% interest. That's an additional £1k per £100k deposited.

as you highlighted more important to ME

4.6 to 4.8% with the online banks best rates at the moment

i play it safe with nationwide and will accept less interest when my 2 year runs out in oct.

the banking crash in 2007 made me cautious.

i was not with icesave/northern rock/.bradford and bingley etc etc but it made me wary and in todays internet age not hard to imagine a tweet for elon musk about a bank from snowballing.

ok if you have under 85k and bank is protected.

Iwouldratherwalk

dinosaur66 said:

i only bank with nationwide simply because imo they fit in the catergory of to big to fail

a 1 year bond allowing up to 3 withdrawls without losing intrest gives 4%

by no means best rate but i bank there because its safest rate when your savings exceed 85k

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

Yes, I would agree with you.  My mum on the other hand would squeeze that extra % by putting all of her savings in a bank my cats had set up!

jaypers

dinosaur66 said:

i only bank with nationwide simply because imo they fit in the catergory of to big to fail

a 1 year bond allowing up to 3 withdrawls without losing intrest gives 4%

by no means best rate but i bank there because its safest rate when your savings exceed 85k

you can earn more with the smaller banks but peace of mind and ease of use ie branches not closing is more important to me than gaining 1% extra interest.

Your first sentence is factually incorrect. Look at Nat West…..in 2008 the Government had to bail them out or they would have failed. Nothing is impossible. 

I would consider myself cautious, but with FSCS protection I don’t see any issues with the so called smaller banks.