Savings accounts.

[Gingerbread Man]

I'm looking to put near to ~4K away to earn myself interest, Or should the question be - where should I put ~4K to earn the most amount of money while I sit back.

I currently have an ISA with Abbey that I took out many moons ago and have never used. I think the maximum I can put into this is £3600 (?). I'd be happy to put £3600 in this and put the rest into my current account and use towards furnishing a flat I'm looking at.

There seems to be a few different saving account options.

Do the high interest accounts work on a - put your money in here and we'll give you X interest, but you can't touch it for a given time.

I gather that you can take the money out willy nilly with an ISA but it pays to keep it full.

Anyway, guide me in my errors.

David

[grumbledoak]

Pretty certain you can put £5100 p.a. into a cash ISA now. You'll still get feck all interest, but at least it won't be taxed...

[Gingerbread Man]

grumbledoak said:

Pretty certain you can put £5100 p.a. into a cash ISA now. You'll still get feck all interest, but at least it won't be taxed...

£5100 for the over 50's I believe. I on the other hand am under half that.

[grumbledoak]

Gingerbread Man said:

£5100 for the over 50's I believe. I on the other hand am under half that.

Good point; I think that's allowed from next year.

I'd try a comparison site for ISA rates, e.g. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/

Looking like 3%, but at least that's tax free...

[Gingerbread Man]

So currently an ISA is better than bugger all but nothings amazing out there still.

[grumbledoak]

That seems to be the case, but as long as you can leave the money in one you may as well take the allowance- you cannot get it back for years that you don't.

[Gingerbread Man]

Okay, so using that link. I want:

Min Investment: Has to be lower than my 4K I want to invest.

AER: To be as high as possible.

Notice Period - What is this?

[grumbledoak]

Gingerbread Man said:

Notice Period - What is this?

How many days notice you need to give to take some/all out. You normally get more interest if this is longer, but a) it still won't be much, and b) they all seem to be 'instant' on that page. They differ more on whether or not you can go into a branch or do it by post.

You might be able to beat the 2.65% if you google about; various newspapers publish this stuff regularly.

Best of luck (I'm pretty much resigned to just paying into one I already have to keep the allowance, so I've not shopped about).

[Gingerbread Man]

grumbledoak said:

Gingerbread Man said:

Notice Period - What is this?

How many days notice you need to give to take some/all out. You normally get more interest if this is longer, but a) it still won't be much, and b) they all seem to be 'instant' on that page. They differ more on whether or not you can go into a branch or do it by post.

You might be able to beat the 2.65% if you google about; various newspapers publish this stuff regularly.

Best of luck (I'm pretty much resigned to just paying into one I already have to keep the allowance, so I've not shopped about).

But some say 18 months, some 1 year, some 4 or 5 years.

Surely that's not notice to take the money out?

[grumbledoak]

Gingerbread Man said:

Surely that's not notice to take the money out?

I cannot see what you are looking at, but it probably is.

[Gingerbread Man]

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/ That link, 3rd column in from the left.

[grumbledoak]

Ah, with you! I was only talking about Cash ISAs, due to the tax exemption- all of those are Instant (give or take electronic transfer).

For the Bonds at the top of the page you linked to- yes, you really have to tie up the money for that whole period.

[Gingerbread Man]

grumbledoak said:

Ah, with you! I was only talking about Cash ISAs, due to the tax exemption- all of those are Instant (give or take electronic transfer).

For the Bonds at the top of the page you linked to- yes, you really have to tie up the money for that whole period.

I think I was being slow and only looking at the top section. I'll look at the rest now!