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This is a fairly good and also current list of savings accounts with top interest rates: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/ There's also a list of cash ISAs here if you think you'll go over the thresholds for being taxed on interest earned: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/
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Aug 6, 2023 17:15
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Those are both great resources. Thanks!
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Aug 7, 2023 14:30
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MSE is pretty much the first stop for anything that's not complicated enough to require a financial advisor
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Aug 8, 2023 09:59
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Question about tax: I'm just filling in my 2022/23 self-assessment form and on the 'savings interest' bit. I'm just wondering what to do about this situation and if there are any tax experts on here! (The sum of money involved is so small it really doesn't warrant an accountant's involvement which would eat up the entire amount I'm looking after in a 15 mins consultation). I look after some money for someone with mobility issues who needs access to cash and our banks have all buggered off out of town - nearest branch being miles away and involving literally an entire day of bus travel to get there and back. The bank with whom she does her regular banking (Barclays) has not seen fit to create a contract with the Post Office allowing cash dealings with them unless there is a debit card. As her account requires two signatures, Barclays won't let her have a debit card. So I opened a separate savings account in my own name in a local building society which has assured me it will stay in town for at least the next couple of years. This means if she gets cash or needs cash eg to pay a trade person I can simply nip up the road and get it. From time to time she gives me a cheque to pay in (which has both sigs on it). Online transactions suffer the same problem of dual authorisation as the debit card - the second signatory simply will have nothing to do with it (very elderly and won't agree to it at all). Anyway, the account earned a bit of interest this year (not big money at all, but I'm trying to get to the principal of the thing in case it ever does become bigger money!). But it is in my name. So I guess I should include the interest on MY tax form even though it isn't my money (and in the event of my untimely demise, arrangements are made for the money to go straight back to her) and if it did ever come to a lot, then I would have to pay tax on it. I just am not sure how to deal with it in tax terms! Because say it is £100 (which it isn't) then the tax might be £20 which I would have to pay but come the day I shuffle off this mortal coil, £100 would go back to her despite me paying the £20 tax (or whatever it is) so she should only get £80. I can't be the only person looking after someone else's money in this way!
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Aug 11, 2023 03:18
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How much interest do you get from other places? If you're on the lower rate of income tax you have a 1k allowance IIRC that you don't pay income tax on. How you handle it on a tax return I have no idea though.
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Aug 11, 2023 07:54
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Clarence posted:How much interest do you get from other places? If you're on the lower rate of income tax you have a 1k allowance IIRC that you don't pay income tax on. It's not a big deal right now as you say due to the £1k allowance. More the principal of the thing. It'll probably only ever be an interesting thought experiment especially as I'm cutting my work hours from January. But I'd like to get it straight on behalf of the person whose money it is. Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 09:47
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I am currently in discussions with a financial advisor, but want to ask the greater goon mind if there is anything I’ve missed. Due to a lucky work situation I have recently come into ~£65k post tax, I have kids who will be heading off to uni in about 7 years time, so want to save for them. I live in the Socialist Republic of Scotland, so don’t need to consider Uni fees. My current thoughts are max out ISA’s for my wife and I, and put them in shares. Then the remaining £15k pay off a bit of my mortgage, which is currently costing me £1.6k a month. So could reduce that by about £100 a month. Wanging it in my pension is an option, but that’s in a healthy position. 200k, at age 37 with 10k a year average salary from a separate pension. Yes, putting it all in pension would be amazing, but I need to be a boring responsible adult and consider my children. Is there anything else I should consider.
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Aug 11, 2023 19:05
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There's the JISA - you can put £9k a year into it in your child's name. However that is legally theirs and they fully control it when they turn 18, which you might not want want. I'd say there's not that much point if you aren't typically using you & your wife's entire ISA allowance each year.
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Aug 11, 2023 19:25
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peanut- posted:There's the JISA - you can put £9k a year into it in your child's name. We had considered that, but I’d rather be responsible for the money than them. God only knows what I’d have done if someone gave me £15k when I just turned 18.
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Aug 11, 2023 19:36
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Put the money in a pension for your kids, by the time they're old they can retire happy
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Aug 11, 2023 22:14
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Relative finance noob here: I keep hearing about how basically I need to have compound interest, and without it I'll be hosed for retirement. But I don't fully grasp what investing receives it and which doesn't. Currently I put £1000/month into a Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity Fund, and about £500 into a Nutmeg 10/10 risky account. Am I receiving compound interest if I leave these investments alone for 20 years? Or will I "only" be receiving interest on what I explicitly pay in? Thank you!
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Aug 13, 2023 21:59
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Mourning Due posted:Relative finance noob here: compound interest is kind of misleading. you're probably not investing in loan products that return explicit interest what's important is that your gains are reinvested into your portfolio. in general if you never receive cash payouts from your investments or you always reinvest those cash payouts then you're basically "compounding": your present gains are added to your portfolio and future gains will be based off the total value, not just your capital invested.
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Aug 14, 2023 03:29
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 Assuming you chose the first option, then your divendends are automatically reinvested, and you're 'compounding'
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Aug 14, 2023 08:27
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:It's not a big deal right now as you say due to the £1k allowance. More the principal of the thing. It'll probably only ever be an interesting thought experiment especially as I'm cutting my work hours from January. But I'd like to get it straight on behalf of the person whose money it is. Technically, it's in your name so it's your problem. What you need to do is to have the account in this person's sole name and you to have access to it via carer, trusted entity, whatever they call it. It's a load of legal faffing around to dodge that fact when you should just have it set up as above. If you don't want to deal with that, take it out of savings and hold it as cash. peanut- posted:There's the JISA - you can put £9k a year into it in your child's name. To add to this, the bank will literally contact your 18 year old kid and explicitly tell them that they have ~free money~ to spend as they like. You won't be able to stop all that money being blasted up the wall. Everyone is an rear end in a top hat at 18, probably not worth the risk. What to do with it depends on your appetite. ROI on university was poor 10 years ago, it's worse and deteriorating especially when taking into account the opportunity cost. Taking the whole 65k and slapping it into the mortgage is what I would do. - It's an immediate ROI - It goes into an asset which junior will inherit with some level of guaranteed practical and monetary value - It frees up basic rate £ for further investment - It makes it so if you as a breadwinner get hit hard in the next 10 years by something the impact to your family including junior is less as the obligations to pick up are less From experience - parent's mortgages are a foul thing to inherit. That's me though. You do you.
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Aug 18, 2023 08:44
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I'm a Canadian who moved to the UK in 2018. After having short-term contract jobs over the years, my wife and I are finally in a position where we can settle down in one place for the long haul and we'd like to buy a house. Because we've always rented and lived frugally, we have a decent amount of savings in a Canadian account we'd like to transfer over to use as a down payment. This is all money we've saved before we moved to the UK. My question is, will I be taxed on this money if I transfer it into the UK as a lump sum? I've done some googling on this, and it sounds like because this money was earned before we moved to the UK it doesn't count as a remittance and thus shouldn't be taxed, but I want to be 100% sure before going ahead.
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Aug 22, 2023 09:43
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I am 95% sure won’t be taxed on it because you earned it before moving and have already paid tax on it in another jurisdiction, to tax you again would be double taxation which most if not all western countries don’t do. Just make sure you have all your documentation, like bank statements, ready in the odd event that HMRC want to audit it. If in doubt, just ring HMRC up and ask, they will tell you.
qhat fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Aug 22, 2023 |
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Aug 22, 2023 16:15
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That's where I'm at as well, but I don't want that 5% chance to come back to haunt me in the future. I didn't realize that HMRC would offer advice on this kind of thing--I'm used to the line from tax services being "it's not our job to advise you; pay a lawyer/accountant for that"--so I'll contact them. Thanks!
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Aug 23, 2023 09:43
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MeinPanzer posted:That's where I'm at as well, but I don't want that 5% chance to come back to haunt me in the future. I didn't realize that HMRC would offer advice on this kind of thing--I'm used to the line from tax services being "it's not our job to advise you; pay a lawyer/accountant for that"--so I'll contact them. Thanks! HMRC are really good for anything that isn't advice. If you're not asking them for advice, just to clarify the rules they'll be great.
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Aug 23, 2023 10:10
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Yeah HMRC are good at these kind of things. Just be ready to be on hold. 90 minutes the other day, but sorted my issue out (not recorded my voluntary NI contribution) in 3 minutes when I got through.
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Aug 23, 2023 10:31
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One thing about HMRC is that the quality of operators varies a lot and the weaker ones will absolutely tell you incorrect stuff. If you get the impression that the person you're talking to is uncertain about their answer, the best approach is to call twice and make sure you get the same advice twice. Though your question is straightforward enough that I doubt you'll have any issue. Just be prepared to spend a long time on hold.
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Aug 23, 2023 10:41
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HMRC try tweeting them (phrase your tweet so you're not giving personal info out*) and they are pretty quick to answer. Might be incorrect info but you can print it and keep it in your files incase of need in future (as in avoiding fines if you did your best to find out!) * because Twitter is public. They will probably DM you after that. But they don't have access to your records.
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Aug 23, 2023 12:50
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:HMRC try tweeting them (phrase your tweet so you're not giving personal info out*) and they are pretty quick to answer. Might be incorrect info but you can print it and keep it in your files incase of need in future (as in avoiding fines if you did your best to find out!) I'd probably archive the tweet with archive.org too, since it's pretty easy to claim a printed out tweet is fake
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Aug 23, 2023 17:24
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I remember a few years ago the payout rate on Premium Bonds was reduced — did it ever go back up? Basically, am I right to think it’s a much worse deal than a regular savings account now interest rates are higher?
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Aug 26, 2023 11:00
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It's 4.65% at the moment, which is OK but not amazing. The reason I have some is because they're tax free, unlike normal savings account interest.
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Aug 26, 2023 12:21
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TACD posted:I remember a few years ago the payout rate on Premium Bonds was reduced — did it ever go back up? Basically, am I right to think it’s a much worse deal than a regular savings account now interest rates are higher? Purely anecdotal, obviously, but when I had £50k in there (a mortgage for an extension given to us before the builders were ready), it was great and we won prizes more or less every month. Once we were down to sub £10k we stopped winning anything at all. This was before interest rates went crazy as well, so it was a great option at the time.
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Aug 27, 2023 06:14
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TACD posted:I remember a few years ago the payout rate on Premium Bonds was reduced — did it ever go back up? Basically, am I right to think it’s a much worse deal than a regular savings account now interest rates are higher? MSE is good for this as usual. Check the "Chance of beating a 4.55% savings account over a year if you pay tax" table for an approximation - note this is on the old rates for both tho (you can get 5% easy access + the prize is now 4.65%): https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/
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Aug 27, 2023 09:09
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^^ now I actually read the footnote on the table ("...assumes the interest isn't covered by your personal savings allowance..."), it doesn't take into account that £1000/£500 of interest is tax free if you're in 20%/40% tax bracket. So really it's a guide to where to put extra savings if you've already got enough cash in savings accounts to hit the relevant threshold (I think)
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Aug 27, 2023 11:41
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hermyownee posted:^^ now I actually read the footnote on the table ("...assumes the interest isn't covered by your personal savings allowance..."), it doesn't take into account that £1000/£500 of interest is tax free if you're in 20%/40% tax bracket. So really it's a guide to where to put extra savings if you've already got enough cash in savings accounts to hit the relevant threshold (I think) yeah premium bonds seem mainly to be for either the grandparents leaving money to their grandkids or those with so many savings they’re struggling to be “tax efficient” i have some though because ive hit the magic number where i can win regularly and possibly win one of the bigger prizes (15 grand i think?)
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Aug 27, 2023 12:56
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Premium Bonds are ideal for "I have a lot of money that I'm going to need in a year or so" as you can clear them out in 3-4 days and are tax free. Savings accounts are great, but you need to stay on top of the bank (T&Cs changes, rate changes, delays taking money out, KYC questions, etc) and make sure you're not caught in the tax trap. You'll want to knock off a half percent as the official 4.65% is more like 4% as the millionaire pots skew the average return up - ie. millionaire bond holders will get silly-number% ROI whereas every one who doesn't get a million in prize money sees about 3.5% - 4.0% ROI. Some nerds mathed it out somewhere. I'm keeping mine topped up for mortgage pay off at the end of fix + emergency fund afterwards. Cheeze Kuyeh fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Aug 27, 2023 |
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Aug 27, 2023 20:51
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The Perfect Element posted:Purely anecdotal, obviously, but when I had £50k in there (a mortgage for an extension given to us before the builders were ready), it was great and we won prizes more or less every month. Once we were down to sub £10k we stopped winning anything at all. hermyownee posted:MSE is good for this as usual. Check the "Chance of beating a 4.55% savings account over a year if you pay tax" table for an approximation - note this is on the old rates for both tho (you can get 5% easy access + the prize is now 4.65%): https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/ I don't have anywhere near the £22k you'd apparently need to hit the tax-free interest limit so I guess I'll start shifting money out of Premium Bonds and into an ISA or general savings. Cheers!
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Aug 30, 2023 08:24
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On premium bonds, I won £500 in the first month, then 25-75 most months after that. This was back in 2018 so before the ups and downs. It beat the then 1% max you could get at the time in savings. Me and my wife have a bit of decision making to do. We currently have a house that we're leaving to move back to London. The mortgage has 220k remaining at 2.69%. Our plan until recently was to port the mortgage and buy a more expensive place in the city. We have two parties who want our house but they've yet to sell theirs, so who knows when. We need to go soonish because I have work starting I need to be on-site for from October. The rates are pretty punishing and we'd be taking on a much larger loan. We can rent our friend's flat for not very much (his sale just fell through, and it's been on the market for nearly two years, so this feels relatively stable.) Our house is pretty nice and in the countryside so we'll probably put it on Airbnb to cover the mortgage and perhaps a bit more. My current thinking is that getting stuck with a huge loan at the moment is suboptimal with the rates, and if our employment situation changes we could get shafted. We could take the 290k or so equity from a house sale and put it in several 5% + savings accounts and wait a bit. I know getting out of the market then getting back in means you lose a bit, but if we pocket the interest and add it to the deposit we could hedge against that. Forgetting the emotional and human side, is this sound, or should we just suck it up and get a large top 6% mortgage?
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Sep 2, 2023 14:23
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if you can rent for not much then do that yeah
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Sep 3, 2023 19:29
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So I've got a wee bit of money in a Big Exchange ISA and it isn't performing very well*, plus they apparently have quite high fees. I'm looking around for another ethical investment platform (oxymoron?) to move to. These savings are longterm and not huge. I've seen Vanguard mentioned before as an alternative. * Currently down about 1% after 3yrs. Chas McGill fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Sep 6, 2023 |
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Sep 6, 2023 16:03
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Chas McGill posted:So I've got a wee bit of money in a Big Exchange ISA and it isn't performing very well*, plus they apparently have quite high fees. I'm looking around for another ethical investment platform (oxymoron?) to move to. These savings are longterm and not huge. I've seen Vanguard mentioned before as an alternative. i’ve just shoved my money into the vanguard stocks and shares ISA , most of it in the north american ETF (VNRT) and forgot about it the fee is a piddling 0.2% or something you can use the retirement funds, but generally all they do is the same thing, except start to move into bonds and cash as set time intervals for a huge mark up (2%), which you can do yourself tbh
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Sep 11, 2023 20:18
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Decided to finally post in here, I'm not sure I can do anything right now but should at least share my situation. Basically I got an inheritance, but lost my job a year back and still not got a new one. I still have £30000 or so in my bank account, I thought I needed it to hand to live off of whilst I waited for the games industry to be less of a oval office (this will not happen) I'm in a shared ownership flat, so I have mortgage plus rent on the share I don't own. I live alone so normal expenses connected with that. In this situation should I even look at any options or do I need to be covering my monthly expenses with earnings first?
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Sep 12, 2023 00:42
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Cover your monthly expenses. The price of going into debt is going to massively outstrip any interest you would get investing that money. Just don't let the money make you lazy about your job hunting. Its nice to have that parachute but it will go fast if you rely on it too much, I speak from experience.
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Sep 12, 2023 07:50
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That plus the job market in tech has improved since Q1. Entering the job market in January probably would have forced you into using 6 months of savings. If you can get something good now, get it.
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Sep 12, 2023 14:02
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:So I guess I should include the interest on MY tax form even though it isn't my money (and in the event of my untimely demise, arrangements are made for the money to go straight back to her) and if it did ever come to a lot, then I would have to pay tax on it. I know this is from a month back, but I'm pretty sure you're liable for the interest. The money is yours and the account is in your name; you just happen to owe it all in debt to the person you're holding it for. The banks all report interest earned to HMRC at the end of the tax year anyway, so HMRC will get its due eventually. (I don't think the taxman likes the 'the money was just resting in my account' excuse.) BizarroAzrael posted:Decided to finally post in here, I'm not sure I can do anything right now but should at least share my situation. Put the 30k (or a large chunk of it) into an instant-access savings account (at the moment you can get around 4.8-5.0% at the top end in them). Withdraw from it to cover your monthly expenses whilst you're looking for work (taking on any debt will be more expensive than the interest you recieve). oxford_town fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 14:04
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oxford_town posted:I know this is from a month back, but I'm pretty sure you're liable for the interest. The money is yours and the account is in your name; you just happen to owe it all in debt to the person you're holding it for. The banks all report interest earned to HMRC at the end of the tax year anyway, so HMRC will get its due eventually. Thanks.
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Sep 19, 2023 15:50
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After an app reccomendation I've been using money dashboard for years to keep track of how much money I've got each month, but it's closing down at the end of the month  You set what pay cycle you had, it pulled transactions from your bank and you could tell it which were regular amounts that came out each month Then it'd tell you how much you had left over before your next pay day Dead simple, but I can't seem to find anything to replace it. Everything else seems to be more about telling you how much you are spending on various categories and budgets for them Because I'm on a 4 weekly pay cycle my pay day moves through the month so it's mildly more complicated than just a basic spreadsheet would do
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Oct 4, 2023 09:40
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