Best savings account?

HungryHippos said:
My mortgage is fixed at 1% for another 2.5 years I think, so my initial plan was to get mortgage balance down to £100K by then. It's currently at £168K so a lot to pay off in one go. I've been having an internal re-think.

I'll look at settling some of that when it expires, but it will also depend on other factors like what savings rates are like at the time, and also what any new mortgage looks like. I do value short term flexibility some, so I don't necessarily want to throw it all into the mortgage or into a SIPP.

Assuming savings/mortgage rates are somewhat similar, or within say 0.25% of each other, I'll prioritise keeping more in the savings. My daily living expenses aren't that high, and I have most of the things I want/need at the moment.

For now, I was going to look at something like this as a split, after all mandatory payments go out each month:
  • £200 into Nationwide 8% reg saver
  • £250 into S&S ISA via Vanguard (into the same VHVG fund).
  • £50 into SIPP via Vanguard (into the same VHVG fund).
  • £500 into Cash ISA ZOPA 5.08%
This is very doable currently, and means that £1K gets split into 4 things, £750 of which is easily accessible should I withdraw from ISA or sell some of the S&S funds. I would potentially have more to invest per month than just £1K here but it won't be loads more, and I do also want some spending money in case I need to pay for stuff or want to buy something :)

I have £12K left on the cash ISA allowance this year, so at £250 pcm into the S&S ISA that means that £3k is going there instead, so I need to be careful and limit the cash ISA so that I only use £9K of it and not the full £12K. I expect I'll use my full ISA allowance split like this.

Next financial year 2025-2026 I'll probably look at switching more focus into the S&S ISA instead of the cash ISA, with the hope being that the cash ISA will be earning enough passive income then to sort of cover some of the S&S ISA payments.

2026 - 2027 I guess will be a major switch up based on whatever the rates are on things, and I think at a minimum then I'd start regular overpayments on the mortgage even if I don't wind up paying larger sums into it.
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Not dissimilar to me
195k mortgage on 1.95pc till mid 2027
400 into 6.25pc reg (holiday fund)
200 a month for holidays on top
500-1000 into S&S isa
Premium bonds fund is about to be spent so no need to mention it

If end up emigrating in 2027..i need a lot of cash liquid too. So nothing will be fixed around that time.

Id consider dumping a load into my mortgage depending on rates at that point if no emigration.
Don't really want 5pc on that balance at 180-190k.
 
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413x said:
Id consider dumping a load into my mortgage depending on rates at that point if no emigration.
Don't really want 5pc on that balance at 180-190k.
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Yeah that was my thinking as well, but at the same time, if savings and mortgage rates are close, then in theory it's a wash anyway as £10K in savings at 4% interest gained vs £10K overpaid into mortgage not charging you 4% is the same outcome.

At least that's how I view it.

I'd love to max out premium bonds as well but I think that on average it will under-perform other things, and I'll struggle to exceed the £20K ISA allowance each year.

Ideal world I'd have maxed out premium bonds, and I'd re-invest the winnings into something else, along with cash and stocks and shares ISA paying good returns. The passive income dream :)

Reality is, my remaining mortgage still dwarves my savings so I'm still in a negative overall position. It's slowly shrinking each month but still feel like I'm about 7-10 years away from being in a position where I could be mortgage free without any savings!
 
I have 12 months left of Mortgage.
Currently putting in 17% into work pension (work match 3%)
£200 into Nationwide at 8%
£100 into Vanguard. Sometimes more.

I wish I could put more into savings but I have a few outgoings in the next 12 months. The good thing is at minimum I save 17% before tax.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I have 12 months left of Mortgage.
Currently putting in 17% into work pension (work match 3%)
£200 into Nationwide at 8%
£100 into Vanguard. Sometimes more.

I wish I could put more into savings but I have a few outgoings in the next 12 months. The good thing is at minimum I save 17% before tax.
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This is still a really good position.

I'd query the work pension one though if your workplace stop matching, you should put in as much as they match only.

If like mine the fees on the other end are high, you're better off doing what I said, your own SIPP with less fees.

Adding more to work pension is good with salary sacrifice only, as it can lower your income into the previous bracket, probably the best time to do it vs your own SIPP.

Probably even better than SIPP/pension overpayments is doing the same sort of thing I said but with S&S ISA if you're not already, gives you more ready access to the cash but allows you to invest in the same things.
 
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HungryHippos said:
Yeah that was my thinking as well, but at the same time, if savings and mortgage rates are close, then in theory it's a wash anyway as £10K in savings at 4% interest gained vs £10K overpaid into mortgage not charging you 4% is the same outcome.

At least that's how I view it.

I'd love to max out premium bonds as well but I think that on average it will under-perform other things, and I'll struggle to exceed the £20K ISA allowance each year.

Ideal world I'd have maxed out premium bonds, and I'd re-invest the winnings into something else, along with cash and stocks and shares ISA paying good returns. The passive income dream :)

Reality is, my remaining mortgage still dwarves my savings so I'm still in a negative overall position. It's slowly shrinking each month but still feel like I'm about 7-10 years away from being in a position where I could be mortgage free without any savings!
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My view on premium bonds?
Only do it if you max out your isa allowance.

I'm Only using it as a temporary stop as I build up 20k for a van.
Its not been great. In 6-7 draws I've only won 125. Which is a rate 1/2 what get from instant access savers. I didn't want to use my isa allowance for a stop gap.. So thought I'd just gamble with the interest basically.

After I exit I won't be going back in as I don't max out my isa every year. Seem to hit about 15k of the 20k the last 2 and a half years
 
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HungryHippos said:
Yeah that was my thinking as well, but at the same time, if savings and mortgage rates are close, then in theory it's a wash anyway as £10K in savings at 4% interest gained vs £10K overpaid into mortgage not charging you 4% is the same outcome.

At least that's how I view it.

I'd love to max out premium bonds as well but I think that on average it will under-perform other things, and I'll struggle to exceed the £20K ISA allowance each year.

Ideal world I'd have maxed out premium bonds, and I'd re-invest the winnings into something else, along with cash and stocks and shares ISA paying good returns. The passive income dream :)

Reality is, my remaining mortgage still dwarves my savings so I'm still in a negative overall position. It's slowly shrinking each month but still feel like I'm about 7-10 years away from being in a position where I could be mortgage free without any savings!
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Just have to be careful if balancing cash type investments against borrowings.
Its fine if they remain similar, but if your fixing your mortgage then you can find (as many did when rates plummeted) that your savings are now earning a lot less, and your mortgage remains the same.
If your talking chunky balances you cant just throw it all in via overpayment (unless ERC is very low)
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
If your talking chunky balances you cant just throw it all in via overpayment (unless ERC is very low)
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Yes usually it's a case of max yearly overpayments, but you can also arrange the re-mortgage to delay a little so you can sit on the SVR for a few days whilst you pay off chunks without any ERC.

It's all a balancing act I think, so I'd definitely not ignore overpaying it, I just think mindset might change a bit to balance overpaying with ensuring enough other things are invested into, to give you options.

413x said:
My view on premium bonds?
Only do it if you max out your isa allowance.
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Yes this is the dream, but also I feel the same, I wouldn't put money into this when I have better options available. If I inherited £50K though? I'd probably just throw it there in one go to max it out and see what happens.

Whilst the average return is less, it's tax-free and also has the potential for you to win a lot more if you're extremely lucky.
 
HungryHippos said:
This is still a really good position.

I'd query the work pension one though if your workplace stop matching, you should put in as much as they match only.

If like mine the fees on the other end are high, you're better off doing what I said, your own SIPP with less fees.

Adding more to work pension is good with salary sacrifice only, as it can lower your income into the previous bracket, probably the best time to do it vs your own SIPP.

Probably even better than SIPP/pension overpayments is doing the same sort of thing I said but with S&S ISA if you're not already, gives you more ready access to the cash but allows you to invest in the same things.
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I put it at 17% before I realise the fee they take, actually I had set it to 8% when I joined and upped it to 12%, only upped it to 17% last year, and also before opening the SIPP. My thinking was that it was 17% before tax, but obviously with SIPP I would still get that back.
 
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HungryHippos said:
Yes but rather than the £ figure mine shows it's 0.7% of the value each year, so it really adds up, especially when you can get SIPP funds with fees much closer to say 0.15% - 0.3% elsewhere.
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Some providers allow partial transfers out. My work provider (Aviva) allows this, so I transfer the balance of my workplace pension into my SIPP every 6 months. Need to be careful and confirm though - if they don't allow partial transfers out, they might close the account instead which would lead to a big headache.
 
EvilRob said:
Some providers allow partial transfers out. My work provider (Aviva) allows this, so I transfer the balance of my workplace pension into my SIPP every 6 months. Need to be careful and confirm though - if they don't allow partial transfers out, they might close the account instead which would lead to a big headache.
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I don't believe my active one allows partial transfer out, but I have 3, 2 are inactive. I probably can't touch the active one.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I put it at 17% before I realise the fee they take, actually I had set it to 8% when I joined and upped it to 12%, only upped it to 17% last year, and also before opening the SIPP. My thinking was that it was 17% before tax, but obviously with SIPP I would still get that back.
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Yeah I mean any investment is a good thing I just think that some of the fees are high, at least they were for me, and I could do better with my own controlled SIPP.

If employer matches higher than the minimum though it's basically always worth it to reach the same value, as it's 50% free money.
 
T212 confirmed details of their cash ISA:

Key features of the 212 Cash ISA
5.2% interest (variable), paid daily

Withdraw anytime

No account fees

Start with just £1, no minimums

£85,000 FSCS protection

A flexible ISA
You can seamlessly withdraw, move funds and deposit again, without any impact on your allowance. Additionally, with the launch of the 212 Cash ISA, our Stocks ISA will become flexible as well!
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They also upped the cashback on their card to 1.5% though that takes money from the uninvested cash in your general investment account, which is either fscs protected or earning 5.2% but not both. Also it can't be added to google/apple pay yet.
 
Disco_P said:
T212 confirmed details of their cash ISA:



They also upped the cashback on their card to 1.5% though that takes money from the uninvested cash in your general investment account, which is either fscs protected or earning 5.2% but not both. Also it can't be added to google/apple pay yet.
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What's the transfer process like? as I would like to switch over my 5k from santander easy access and was thinking to wait until the 20th May
 
nam said:
What's the transfer process like? as I would like to switch over my 5k from santander easy access and was thinking to wait until the 20th May
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You print of three forms fill them in scan them email/upload them back to trading212 they deal with the rest mine took 11-13 days but I started the process just before Xmas holidays.
 
nam said:
What's the transfer process like? as I would like to switch over my 5k from santander easy access and was thinking to wait until the 20th May
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If it's not in an ISA wrapped, can do an instant bank transfer via connecting a currently account through open banking or via a bank transfer using details given in the app.

Don't know about ISA to ISA transfers but know it's possible.
 
Disco_P said:
T212 confirmed details of their cash ISA:



They also upped the cashback on their card to 1.5% though that takes money from the uninvested cash in your general investment account, which is either fscs protected or earning 5.2% but not both. Also it can't be added to google/apple pay yet.
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So no limitations to how much can be put in? And no penalties for taking out money i.e. you don't need to lock it away? If so, will move from my santander to this.
 
Nexus18 said:
So no limitations to how much can be put in? And no penalties for taking out money i.e. you don't need to lock it away? If so, will move from my santander to this.
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If you're Santander is a ISA you can transfer full or partial amount, if it's just a saving account up to 20k as per ISA allowance.
 
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