Advice: What Next afer high interest accounts

johnD17 · 18 April 2017 at 12:24PM

Hi All -

Whistle stop summary:

I'm lucky enough to:

Own my own flat
Saving towards a house (joint) with my g/f who has no savings
Have savings in 1. Santander 123 2. RBS Vantage 3. chunk of premium bonds and have just opened 4. Nationwide Flex.
G.f has just opened a Vantage account and a LISA (stocks and shares) with minimum investment until a standard (non investment) account is launched in the summer.

I have recently gone from being employed, to being self employed as a limited company. I'm 28 and don't yet have my own separate pension setup.

Reading the site, there doesn't seem to much else out there (without long term tieing money up, or risky investments).

I have a large chunk in premium bonds. Conscious I'm not getting much out of this, but as rates are garbage elsewhere, who knows....

Any advice is welcome

Shame Santander cut its rates as it would have been worth opening a joint account with g/f and getting her one too.

chockydavid1983 · 18 April 2017 at 12:53PM

From what I hear, as a limited company, pension should be a priority as it's very tax efficient.

johnD17 · 18 April 2017 at 1:04PM

Thanks - I've heard that too - i suppose it's not something I was planning to look at until the end of the year when i know 1) if i get an extension and 2) the money in my business account to play with. Funds for retirement arent really my priority either. Main goal is maximising personal savings for a house, and I'm actually worried my large chunk will be eroded as house prices continue to rise.

jimjames · 18 April 2017 at 1:13PM

You say what next "after current accounts" yet only list a limited number and no mention of regular savers. So what next - use all available accounts

johnD17 · 18 April 2017 at 1:51PM

Next step would be tesco - but that requires another 3 direct debits.

The regular savers all require a current account, so i could open Santander but your getting a tiny 90. It's when the number of accounts, DDS and hassle starts to outweigh the returns, hence my post - isn't there anything better ? Higher interest?

chockydavid1983 · 18 April 2017 at 2:09PM

Not really if saving for a house.
Current accounts and regular savers take a bit of work initially to set up but then take care of themselves pretty much via SO's.
You can open Tesco internet and instant access savers for DD requirements.

kidmugsy · 18 April 2017 at 2:25PM

You are aware that your gf's LISA won't be useful for buying a house jointly with you since you already own a property?

Westie983 · 18 April 2017 at 2:31PM

johnD17 wrote: »

Next step would be tesco - but that requires another 3 direct debits.

The regular savers all require a current account, so i could open Santander but your getting a tiny 90. It's when the number of accounts, DDS and hassle starts to outweigh the returns, hence my post - isn't there anything better ? Higher interest?

There are some regular savers out there that dont require a bank account, namely from the building societies, (Kent, Virgin, Bucks, Saffron) and some regular savers just require you to have the account but you can fund the regular saver from another bank account. (TSB I believe) so could get more interest over a year or more to bulk up your house fund.

Westie983

eskbanker · 18 April 2017 at 3:06PM

kidmugsy wrote: »

You are aware that your gf's LISA won't be useful for buying a house jointly with you since you already own a property?

That's news to me, and to MSE too, judging by point 3 at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-ISAs#buyingaproperty:

If you're a first-time buyer making a purchase with someone who's owned before – you can still open one and use it towards a home purchase together.

This obviously assumes that gf hasn't owned a property before, but you appear to be specifically suggesting that OP's ownership precludes gf from using a LISA for a joint purchase, which wouldn't seem to be accurate....

EachPenny · 18 April 2017 at 3:18PM

johnD17 wrote: »

Hi All -
Any advice is welcome

Possibly not the kind of advice you were thinking of, but maybe the best investment advice you could ever get in your situation is to make sure you get good legal advice on how things work with joint bank accounts and jointly owned property - in terms of being in a relationship together, co-habiting, and perhaps getting married.

The last thing most people think about in a relationship is what happens if it ends, for whatever reason, and not planning ahead can be very costly. I don't want to put a downer on your relationship and plans for your future together, but for both of you a small investment in legal advice now will pay you back many times over in the future.

Having recently helped a friend through a difficult divorce, the number one thing she would do differently next time is to make sure she understood the legal situation and did things 'properly' from day one in the relationship rather than assuming everything would work out ok. Even the friendliest splits between couples is not a cheap process if it involves joint assets which are not easily divided between two. My friend's divorce, with no net assets between them, still racked up legal costs in the order of 50k :eek:

Discussing what happens in the future if things go wrong is not the most romantic thing to do, but it is essential for both of your future security and welfare. Consider for example if you jointly own a house but are not married and something happens to you - what would happen to your gf's home?

So again, apologies if this in anyway comes across as negative, but the very next investment you should consider is legal advice, if you have not already got it of course

With very best wishes to you both.

johnD17 · 18 April 2017 at 5:31PM

Thanks for the above. Re couples advice, i agree, I'm quite objective anyway but probably a bit early in terms of any legal ramifications!

Re all the accounts out there, it's just so frustrating that they have such caps on the amounts. I did see a UK fixed bond offering c. 10% but no good to me as the house is will come sooner than the term.

Re LISA this site specifically calls out that i would be ok as she hasn't owned in her own name.

Advice: What Next afer high interest accounts

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