ISAs

It looks as though the over-65 bonds are similar to the Nat. Savings Certs, vegasmags but I know what you mean. It is like the chocolate bars that go out of production for a while, then return smaller and dearer.

*annsixty" I have looked again at the M&S bank web page again, and I think I understand it.

bank.marksandspencer.com/banking/current-accounts/existing-customers/#monthly-saver

To get the savings account, you must first have a currrent account. There is one which does not have charges, and another which has a monthly charge of £10 and various perks and vouchers etc. You would need to work out whether all the perks are worth £10 a month to you (among other things there seem to be £10 worth of tea/coffee/cake vouchers for their cafe). There is at the moment a £100 gift card on offer if you transfer an existing A/C into an M&S one, which sounds useful - that is ten months charges - or £100 bonus if you get the free account.

You can pay from £25 to £250(max) monthly into the savings account. The 6% gross interest is on the amount in the account each month, so it increases each month. On the maximum that you can save (£3000 in the year) you would get a total of £96.63 interest. At the end of the year the money is transferred to the current account and you can start again.

I think what I shall do is get a free current account, and set up a direct debit of the amount I want to save to go from my existing current account into that, then from there into the savings account.

Elegran not sure as the link showed monthly figures, but they have used each year's RPI rather than CPI, so this has fluctuated annually, but still have proved a very good investment. It just makes me cross when new products are announced with a fanfare when they are nowhere near as good as the discontinued ones.

vegasmags so you have been getting these rates, plus a bonus on maturity? Not bad - but no use to the rest of us now they are discontinued!

I was advised that the best thing to do with the 65+ bonds (assuming you have £40k!) is to have two joint bonds, one 3 year and the other 1 year. I am a bit unclear as to what happens at the end.

I have found a 4 year ISA that pays 2.25% - but again I am not sure what happens at the end of the 4 years.

I am a real virgin when it comes to all this financial stuff. We have never had enough to do anything with before!

Elegran - they are indexed linked to the RPI, with a 0.5 percent bonus on maturity. The interest is tax free.

I thought about joining my local credit union for short term savings, as I have banked happily with Smile for years and I don't want to open another current account. Apparently my local one has a Christmas savings account for up to £1000, with no withdrawals allowed until November.

What interest are your National Savings Cdertificates getting, Vegasmags ?

Nelliemoser Yes Each one of you can have up to £10 in a one-year over-65 bond and £10 in a three-year bond (not two years) so between you you could have up to 40K put away (that is assuming you have £40K lying around to put away!).

They mature in one or three years, but you can get some out earlier if you forfeit 90 days interest on what you take out - that is, I think you can cash in just some early and not all, but it is all on the website.

Most banks and even Supermarkets have those vegasmags but the interest is very poor. However they are ok for short term saving for keeping money safe and for instant withdrawals. I posted recently about mine with Lloyds which is paying 0.2%.

Santander's 123 account pays 3% gross interest on balances between £3000-20000. It also gives cashback on some utilities and comms bills which are paid by direct debit. You do have to have a certain amount paid into the account each month in order to open an account. If you are a non tax payer then you get the full 3% interest or if you have a joint account and only one of you is not a taxpayer that person gets the full 3% interest. It also means that you always have access to your money without penalty. Also if you have this account you get a preferential ISA interest rate. I have have this account for several years and have been happy with the interest rates and the service from the bank.

I think I'm fortunate in that most of my savings are still in National Savings certificates, which have now been withdrawn. It was just luck that on maturity I decided to reinvest them for a further 5 years, so I'll be OK with those for another 2 or 3 years. All this hoohah about pensioner bonds really ticks me off - national savings certificates were a much better deal as they were tax free - so a good product is withdrawn and replaced with an inferior one.

Has anyone any ideas on where to put money for short term saving? I'd like to save up for both holidays and Christmas and I need to keep this dosh completely separate from the rest. I would like an account where I can just pay in odd bits of cash like leftover housekeeping. Oh, bring back the old Post Office savings account with the little blue pass book.

I have thrown the leaflet that came to me from M&S away so can't check but think it is a plan to save on a monthly basis up to £250 a month and to a total of £2000. Please let us know what you are told.

I have just done my 65 plus bond! I needed to round up the money from another maturing fixed term Isa and my contigencies fund into my bank account.

It was frighteningly easy to do on line, a few clicks of a mouse and a debit card.

Elegran can you really add up to 10K in both a one and two year bond? I have stuff in fixed term ISAs about to mature and they need a good home but this bond offer might be over before they mature.

My problem is they they then come out of the ISA cover. I suppose if it's just for a year one could stick it back in an ISA when it matures.

Trying to calculate the benefit of the tax relief on an Isa vis the higher interest rate is almost beyond my maths skills.
There is probably an online App somewhere.

I believe that if you get a Marks and Sparks current account (free and they don't mention having to pay in a minimum amount each month) you can get their savings account too, which gives you 6% gross interest (5.?? something net) up to a maximum of £20,000 It is tied up for a year, and the interest is paid at the end of the year.

Tomorrow I plan to phone them to ask them to confirm whether there is a minimum payin to the current account, and whether you can pay in £20K to the savings in one go and then ignore it, or whether you save a set amount each month.

Yup - we have the forms for those 65+ bonds and I was talking to them today - they say that they have lots still available. So we will apply for our max tomorrow. Thank you for suggesting it.

I am trying to sort our savings out as Dad left me a bit of money and it has been languishing in a building society for the last year with some in Premium Bonds.

But I want to keep it as simple as possible, especially as if I was unwell my OH with PD will not be able to sort it all out.

Are you old enough for a Granny Bond (which they are now calling a 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bond) Mishap? And if you are, have you taken out any?

You can put up to £10,000 each into each of the versions, and get 2.80% gross/AER (2.24% net) if it is to be there for one year, or 4.00% gross/AER (3.2% net) if it is to be there for three years. That is more than your ISA will get.

The rates are fixed and will not change.

I have just taken out some of each. It was not difficult to do.
www.nsandi.com/65-guaranteed-growth-bonds

The one I am looking at is recommended as the best by Money Saving Expert.

I am sure you can get a better rate than that Mishap but you will have to do some shopping around.Rates are so low now but this is a lesson on not going with current providers, that is how they get us with our inertia.
Dh has one with RBS and the variable rate is going down drastically inMarch so I am looking for something we can transfer into. You need a fixed rate for not too long in case they go up (unlikely at the moment though) They have savers every which way just now.