best place for my money

amiehall

hiya,
i have a bit of a complicated set up so bear with me

basically i'm a student who has finally managed to convince the slc that they messed up my assessment in the past and i've just been granted a lump sum payment from them of £2000 (obviously more loan!!) that i wasn't expecting. i'm finding it hard to work out the best place to leave this. obviously i'm paying interest on it at 4.8% currently so it needs to outperform this or i might as well give it back.

i've filled my isa allowance for the year, i also already hold a barclays monthly saver which i fund with the money from my wages that i don't need to live on.

i would probably like access to this money in around 12 months time although i'd be willing to lock it away for longer for an amazing deal. obviously i wasn't expecting this money and had budgeted without it so it's not like i'm missing it. it's currently sitting in a 6% saver until i work out what to do with it as obviously after tax it's simply breaking even as it stands.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

isofa

If you can lock it away for a year, you'll get some 7% fixed rate bonds (Icesave for example at 7.01%) which is probably the best you'll get at the moment, after tax that's 5.6% so £2000 invested for a year will bring you £112 interest.

If you want easy access, you'll get 6 to 6.3% gross) in general on-line.

Check out the best buys for both type of accounts at MoneyFacts.

You could also look at the NS&I Index Linked Certificates which provide a return, based on inflation + a fixed rate all tax free, you can withdraw money after the first year, but the terms are normally 3 and 5 years. It's a better deal for a high-rate tax payer, but as inflation isn't likely to fall any time soon, they are still a good deal.