Time to make my savings actually work for me - advice?

[UTH]

I've had all my savings sitting in a Lloyds standard savings account for years - 0.5% AER - pathetic.
Finally after watching enough of Martin Lewis etc telling me I'm basically an idiot, I want to do something about it. I've just signed up to the Lloyds bank monthly saver - I'll be putting £250 per month (max allowed) into it, with 4.5% interest paid in 12 month's time, so that'll be a bit of a bonus.

But what should I do with the rest of my savings? It's a 5 figure amount, so not insignificant so I'm assuming I could be doing better than 0.5% I'm currently getting?

Please point me in the direction of a thread that might be discussing this already if there is one?

[steveo3002]

moneysaving site lists the best accounts daily

choose if you want instant access or prepared to lock it away for a little more , any thread on here is just repeating what that site says really

[UTH]

steveo3002 said:

moneysaving site lists the best accounts daily

choose if you want instant access or prepared to lock it away for a little more , any thread on here is just repeating what that site says really

Cool thanks I'll have a look. Probably happy to lock a fair bit of it away for a while so I assume that'll give the better rate.

[steveo3002]

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

yes lokcing it away for longer gets more , but then will the b.o.e rate increase before then?

[UTH]

steveo3002 said:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

yes lokcing it away for longer gets more , but then will the b.o.e rate increase before then?

Good point.....it goes up on Thursday or next Thursday apparently?

[Greenmantle]

keep checking savingschampion website.
BofE announcement tomorrow might see new better rates hitting the high street.
I've locked decent Cash ISA and Fixed Bond for 3 years last month.

[The Leaper]

Yep, I fully support the Savings Champion website. So easy to use for comparisons, and includes direct links to set things up. Far less confusing a site for savings decisions than the DM/ML effort.

R.

[UTH]

Sweet, I'll put that on the list of life admin to do over the weekend.

[Mr Pointy]

Have you maxed out you & your partners ISAs - it's the first place to place money.

[UTH]

Mr Pointy said:

Have you maxed out you & your partners ISAs - it's the first place to place money.

Nope, clueless about ISAs to be honest.....

[SturdyHSV]

You'd currently get £175 for switching your current account to First Direct, and then could open a Regular Saver with them, could deposit £300 / month and get a fixed 7% for the next 12 months.

Just as a thought.

[Spevs]

UTH said:

Mr Pointy said:

Have you maxed out you & your partners ISAs - it's the first place to place money.

Nope, clueless about ISAs to be honest.....

ISA's are tax free savings accounts, so for example if you had £30k in an account at 5% you would receive interest of £1500.00 per year, currently everyone who is a standard 20% tax payer is able to receive £1000 interest from savings in any tax year tax free, (if you are a 40% tax payer this allowance drops to £500) so in this example £500 of the interest you would earn would be subject to tax. If all the monies was invested in an ISA the whole £1500 interest would be free of tax. The question for you is how big is the 5 figure number, if it's lower than £20k a normal account would be fine, however, if it's nearer £50k or more, then it would certainly be worth considering an ISA. Please be aware this is a very simplistic explanation and many other factors can affect whether an ISA is right for you.

[Mr Pointy]

UTH said:

Mr Pointy said:

Have you maxed out you & your partners ISAs - it's the first place to place money.

Nope, clueless about ISAs to be honest.....

Personally I think ISAs are almost as important as pensions & if I had to choose I'd have a £1m ISA rather than a £1m pension, but that's just my circumstances. The advantage of an ISA is that gains are tax free (as described above) & you & your partner could squirrel away £80k in the next five months (£40k this tax year & another £40k on April 6th).

At the moment it looks like you could get 4% on a Fixed Rate Cash ISA from Barclays:
https://savingschampion.co.uk/best-buys/personal/f...

[valiant]

If you find a bank offering a good rate then act quick.

It seems nowadays that a bank will offer something attractive and then become oversubscribed and quickly withdraw it.

[UTH]

SturdyHSV said:

You'd currently get £175 for switching your current account to First Direct, and then could open a Regular Saver with them, could deposit £300 / month and get a fixed 7% for the next 12 months.

Just as a thought.

Well that certainly sounds appealing.

What's the difference between switching and just opening an account? I'm guessing they need proof that I've shut my Lloyds account and all the savings etc in it have moved over to First direct?

[UTH]

Ok thanks guys, adding "learn about ISAs" to my to do list.

[Mr Pointy]

UTH said:

SturdyHSV said:

You'd currently get £175 for switching your current account to First Direct, and then could open a Regular Saver with them, could deposit £300 / month and get a fixed 7% for the next 12 months.

Just as a thought.

Well that certainly sounds appealing.

What's the difference between switching and just opening an account? I'm guessing they need proof that I've shut my Lloyds account and all the savings etc in it have moved over to First direct?

Many accounts require that there are regular payments into them so they aren't just used to park money. The amount you can get 7% is also limited to £300 a month so £3600 a year so not useful for holding large sums. It's just a bit of flashy marketing really to get you to transfer over.

[UTH]

Mr Pointy said:

UTH said:

SturdyHSV said:

You'd currently get £175 for switching your current account to First Direct, and then could open a Regular Saver with them, could deposit £300 / month and get a fixed 7% for the next 12 months.

Just as a thought.

Well that certainly sounds appealing.

What's the difference between switching and just opening an account? I'm guessing they need proof that I've shut my Lloyds account and all the savings etc in it have moved over to First direct?

Many accounts require that there are regular payments into them so they aren't just used to park money. The amount you can get 7% is also limited to £300 a month so £3600 a year so not useful for holding large sums. It's just a bit of flashy marketing really to get you to transfer over.

Ahhh ok that makes sense.
And yeah, £300 a month whilst nice isn't helpful for my full savings amount I'd like to put somewhere to earn 'proper' money.

[Spevs]

As a starting point you could open a Yorkshire Building Society Internet Saver Plus Issue 12 account and if sub £50k you could have 2.3% interest and easy access to your money. Then next year when you are more informed move most of it out. for sums over £50k they pay 2.65%

[Mr Pointy]

UTH said:

Ahhh ok that makes sense.
And yeah, £300 a month whilst nice isn't helpful for my full savings amount I'd like to put somewhere to earn 'proper' money.

You need to decide how quickly you need access to the funds. If you lock it away for a year you will get more than if you can accept getting at it in 120 days which will get you more than if you need instant access.

The Savings Champion site as mentioned above seems very useful
https://savingschampion.co.uk/