Best Easy Access Account For £25,000.

Towner_2

I have been most fortunate to be given £25000 and would like to put it into an account that offers maximum interest whilst not being too harsh on the access. Any advice much appreciated.

natman

Most fortunate indeed -
On Martins Savings tab at the top, he offers some good companies to save with - I wanted a decent return for some flexibility with easy access,I have £20,000 to invest.
I decided to split my money up into chuncks. Money which it was more difficult to get hold of and money which i could get hold of in a matter of minutes. I decided i would like to get my hand on 10% OR £2000 very quickly and the rest of my dosh could be a invested a bit better.


1 - got my self an easy access ISA( Currently transfering to Newcastle building soceity from ING Direct 6% Tax free) £7000

2 - Got myself an easy easy access High rate savings account at ICICI. When you join up at ICICI you can choose to invest into fix term deposit accounts - Therefore in ICICI I have £3500 in the high interest savings account 6%( instant access - takes 3 days to get to my bank account) I have £7500 in a 1 year fixed term account offering 7% ( this is a little more difficult to get hold of)

This leaves me with £2,000 -I opened up Yorkshire building soceity instant access account at 5.5% with ATM card to withdraw from hole in the wall.

This in my opinion gives me the following -
A chunk of my savings being tax free with a good interest rate which is pretty easy to get hold of if really needed.
A Chunk of my savings being in high interest accounts and deposit accounts giving me a decent return - but can get hold of the money if really needed.
A chunk of my savings being extermley easy to get hold of offering an ok intrest rate.

So yeah -my accounts are
ISA Account - Newcastle Building Soceity
High interest savings account - ICICI
Easy access account - Yorkshire Build soceity or Bank of scotland

isofa

Try these for starters:

http://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings/bestbuys/internet-savings-accounts.aspx

[Deleted User]

I'd do the following:

1. Fill up your ISA allowance of £3600 for this year - for example, Bradford & Bingley 1 Year Fixed Rate 6.25% AER looks good. No need to worry the rate might drop in a few months time.
http://www.bradford-bingley.co.uk/sa...ISA-issue4.asp

2. Split the rest between this step and step 3 depending on hor much access you need to the dosh (easily accessible here). Put whatever amount you feel comfortable with into the best instant access savings account you can find, for example:

Kaupthing Edge 6.50% AER, at least 0.30% (gross) higher than BoE rate until 01/02/2012. You need to have a minimum of £1000 in the account though to get this rate.
http://www.kaupthingedge.co.uk/OurPr...gsAccount.aspx

3. Short term fixed rate bonds (money tied up for 6 months, 1 year etc, guaranteed rate of return), for example:

Icesave 7.01% AER, 1 Year Bond, min £1,000 deposit - meaning the money is tied up for 1 year in this bond but you're guaranteed 7.01%AER.

http://www.icesave.co.uk/fixed-rate-savings.html

4. Finally you may like to investigate Index-linked Savings Certificates:

http://www.nsandi.com/products/ilsc/index.jsp

JohnAnt

I've looked into the B&B e-saver, as I'm interested in putting 350K into a high interest account that will enable me to pay my monthly rent from the interest and have a bit left to add to the savings pot, and I need a bank that will provide a reasonable chance of deposit safety. But when I looked at the small print and checked it with B&B staff on the phone, I realised that B&B's e-saver account, although it is 'easy access' doesn't actually pay any interest at all until a year has passed. So although interest is 'calculated on a daily basis' if any money is withdrawn, they say, it is withdrawn from the capital, so it's rather like having a one-year fix with a no penalty closure fee. The irony is that if you do close the account before the year is up, you get your money with all the daily accrued interest. B&B advertise this account as "Make unlimited transactions with no loss of interest" but - unless B&B's staff have unwittingly misrepresented the true facts to me - that website terms&conditions statement appears to be misleading. If you make regular monthly withdrawals from this account, you'll be losing an increasing amount of capital+interest as the time goes by.
I find this puzzling. What would be the point of such an account? Possibly the terms are better than they've been depicted by the bank's staff?
Anyone know of a UK account (and no, I don't want to put that amount of money into an Icelandic or Nigerian bank, nor to have the bother of opening 10 new accounts!) that will offer a decent monthly rate to cover a monthly withdrawal from the interest, without penalty? Northern Rock looks like one of the best from that point of view - 5.65% pa AER with a monthly net of 4.4%. Not fantastic, but not bad either.
All creative suggestions welcome!

KeithEssex_2

JohnAnt wrote: »

I've looked into the B&B e-saver, as I'm interested in putting 350K into a high interest account that will enable me to pay my monthly rent from the interest and have a bit left to add to the savings pot, and I need a bank that will provide a reasonable chance of deposit safety. But when I looked at the small print and checked it with B&B staff on the phone, I realised that B&B's e-saver account, although it is 'easy access' doesn't actually pay any interest at all until a year has passed. So although interest is 'calculated on a daily basis' if any money is withdrawn, they say, it is withdrawn from the capital, so it's rather like having a one-year fix with a no penalty closure fee. The irony is that if you do close the account before the year is up, you get your money with all the daily accrued interest. B&B advertise this account as "Make unlimited transactions with no loss of interest" but - unless B&B's staff have unwittingly misrepresented the true facts to me - that website terms&conditions statement appears to be misleading. If you make regular monthly withdrawals from this account, you'll be losing an increasing amount of capital+interest as the time goes by.
I find this puzzling. What would be the point of such an account? Possibly the terms are better than they've been depicted by the bank's staff?
Anyone know of a UK account (and no, I don't want to put that amount of money into an Icelandic or Nigerian bank, nor to have the bother of opening 10 new accounts!) that will offer a decent monthly rate to cover a monthly withdrawal from the interest, without penalty? Northern Rock looks like one of the best from that point of view - 5.65% pa AER with a monthly net of 4.4%. Not fantastic, but not bad either.
All creative suggestions welcome!

I personally wouldn't place that much money with any one (commercial) financial institution.

This is a classic case of risk versus reward. You won't get that higher rate unless you i) risk losing your capital with one company or ii) spread it around to ensure you are protected by the £35k rule.

If you really don't want to split it between companies then I would put the whole lot into an NS&I income bond which pays 4.80% AER and allows access to your cash within a few days. You then won't need to worry about your money being reduced to £35,000 in the unlikely event of any Bank failure.

At least you will be able to sleep soundly at night that way.

Another alternative is to put it all with Northern Rock whilst the Government is providing guarantees.

SpinnerB

JohnAnt wrote: »

I've looked into the B&B e-saver, as I'm interested in putting 350K into a high interest account that will enable me to pay my monthly rent from the interest and have a bit left to add to the savings pot, and I need a bank that will provide a reasonable chance of deposit safety.

>>snip <<

With that sort of cash I think you should really be spending your time finding a good IFA, 350k into a high street savings account will just see your capital reduce in value over time ...

Towner_2

Thank you so much Natman and davidmt83 for your detailed replies. I was thinking of lumping it all in to one account so as to maximise my interest, but your ideas make sense. Thanks once again to all who posted.

Jonbvn

Towner wrote: »

Thank you so much Natman and davidmt83 for your detailed replies. I was thinking of lumping it all in to one account so as to maximise my interest, but your ideas make sense. Thanks once again to all who posted.

Absolutely right. £350k into one (1) account is far from ideal. You really should engage an IFA. They really will save you more money than you will lose, despite the bad press they may get on MSE.

The_Fiddler_2

Jonbvn wrote: »

Absolutely right. £350k into one (1) account is far from ideal. You really should engage an IFA. They really will save you more money than you will lose, despite the bad press they may get on MSE.

I think you'll find the OP had slightly less than £350K so he would be covered by the £35K rule if he placed it all in one institution

Jonbvn

The_Fiddler wrote: »

I think you'll find the OP had slightly less than £350K so he would be covered by the £35K rule if he placed it all in one institution

Oops! - I was reading more than one thread at a time!:rolleyes: