What are people doing with smaller amounts of savings?

[Frimley111R]

I have about £8k sitting in a current account that could sit in a savings account but the interest is a pittance and so I ma wondering what else I could do with it? I am almost sure I could trade a car and make more than I'd get in interest!

[ringram]

What tax rate are you on?

Do you have any other savings?

How long do you need to keep it for?

Do you have debt?

etc... insufficient information.

[bogie]

you can get 5% gross on some current accounts when you leave money in there, I get 4% on mine if I have a months salary in there or so as backup. No point in transferring it elsewhere

[scottri]

I'm dripping some into a regular savings account giving 6% gross. Some in an ISA. Given the rates are generally so crap it doesn't seem worth the effort of spending much time trying to find another 0.5% here or there.

[Lady_Beefmaster]

Depending on how easily you need to be able to access the funds you could either look at one of those current accounts that pay 3%+ interest up to a certain balance (Santander etc). Alternatively if you are able to lock up the funds for a year First Direct do a regular saver where you can put away up to £300 a month which pays about 6% before tax. If you don't pay the full £300 in a month you can top it up the following month etc,

Or you do a combo of both - have the cash sitting in a higher rate of interest current account and then sweep the £300 a month across to a regular saver with a higher rate of interest.

[mackay45]

Depending on your appetite for risk a peer to peer lending website could be a good idea (Zopa etc.).

I've also had a decent amount of success with Funding Circle (peer to business lending) but wouldn't invest more than I could afford to lose.

[Craikeybaby]

Frimley111R said:

I have about £8k sitting in a current account that could sit in a savings account but the interest is a pittance and so I ma wondering what else I could do with it? I am almost sure I could trade a car and make more than I'd get in interest!

Santander 123!

[oyster]

Frimley111R said:

I have about £8k sitting in a current account that could sit in a savings account but the interest is a pittance and so I ma wondering what else I could do with it? I am almost sure I could trade a car and make more than I'd get in interest!

£2,000 TSB
£2,500 Nationwide
£3,500 Santander 123
This will get you approx £330 a year before tax in interest.

You'll need to move 6 direct debits from your current bank.
All 3 could be set up with automated funding for about 2 hrs of effort one evening.

[Elderly]

oyster said:

£3,500 Santander 123


.

Santander now charge £5 per month for a 123 account.
£3500 will gross you £105 per annum - that's £84 after basic rate tax;
Subtract the £60 annual account charge from £84 ........ .

[Sargeant Orange]

Dire returns for those who chose to be prudent during the good times

[emicen]

You can hold 2 TSB accounts;
£2000 TSB account 1 - 5%
£2000 TSB account 2 - 5%
£4000.01 Lloyds account - 4% (needs 2 direct debits)

[oyster]

Elderly said:

oyster said:

£3,500 Santander 123


.

Santander now charge £5 per month for a 123 account.
£3500 will gross you £105 per annum - that's £84 after basic rate tax;
Subtract the £60 annual account charge from £84 ........ .

Good point.

Though you do get cashback on some items. My £5 monthly fee is paid for by the cashback I get from council tax and utilities.

[33q]

Tesco pays 3% ....no DDs needed

Bank of Scotland pays 3% but you have to fund it each month. Easy .... Just circulate the cash by standing order.

Nationwide regular saver is worth a look. 5%.

[Craikeybaby]

Correct. And as I understand it, from next tax year the first £1,000 of interest will be tax free too...

[PositronicRay]

Santander
TSB
Premium bonds

[lauda]

swerni said:

Just stick it in premium bonds.
At least it makes opening the post interesting.

This.

I'd need to earn a lot more interest than £330 a year pre-tax to bother with the hassle of opening three different bank accounts.

[BoRED S2upid]

swerni said:

Just stick it in premium bonds.
At least it makes opening the post interesting.

And you can contribute to the 'haven't won anything for ages' thread on here.

[Simpo Two]

swerni said:

I'd rather have the chance of making something than the absolutely certainty of getting the square root of not very much for the effort.

Agreed. It's called 'wking for coins'.

Then again, you can 'invest' it and lose.

The only good news is that inflation is about zero, so if you make zero, you're quits.

Best way to make money is probably to work for it.