The Money Thread...

[Grumpy David]

Stock and shares ISA supremacy.

I bank with Halifax and Santander. I get £5 each month with Halifax and Santander pays me £50 each month (although the account costs £5 a month). £600 a year between the two ain't bad at all. My interest pays my monthly diesel cost.

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

[Lagamorph]

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

I've just had a google of them but I'm not hugely fond of the idea of it being stocks/shares based and my money being at risk like that.
I see they've got their own "Protection fund", but it also states it's no guarantee and if things went tits up in the financial markets again I'm fairly certain that the company would dip into the protection fund to protect themselves first before the investors.

With all of the EU/Brexit uncertainty and the potential effects that's going to have on the UK financial markets it doesn't really strike me as a wise thing to start dabbling in right now.

[Glowy69]

I'm looking to be putting in £400-500 a month really.
Might look at Santander, but don't they normally charge a fee for their accounts with the best interest rates?

Nationwide have a 5% regular saver that you can save 500 quid a month in

[Grumpy David]

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

I've just had a google of them but I'm not hugely fond of the idea of it being stocks/shares based and my money being at risk like that.
I see they've got their own "Protection fund", but it also states it's no guarantee and if things went tits up in the financial markets again I'm fairly certain that the company would dip into the protection fund to protect themselves first before the investors.

With all of the EU/Brexit uncertainty and the potential effects that's going to have on the UK financial markets it doesn't really strike me as a wise thing to start dabbling in right now.

Ratesetter is peer 2 peer finance. It's nothing to do with stocks and shares.

If you want better returns than cash ISAs you need to be willing to take the risk. I think Ratesetter and Zopa are way more safe than people would expect. Although you could open lots of current accounts that offer interest, bit of a faff but will beat cash ISAs.

[Lagamorph]

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

I've just had a google of them but I'm not hugely fond of the idea of it being stocks/shares based and my money being at risk like that.
I see they've got their own "Protection fund", but it also states it's no guarantee and if things went tits up in the financial markets again I'm fairly certain that the company would dip into the protection fund to protect themselves first before the investors.

With all of the EU/Brexit uncertainty and the potential effects that's going to have on the UK financial markets it doesn't really strike me as a wise thing to start dabbling in right now.

Ratesetter is peer 2 peer finance. It's nothing to do with stocks and shares.

If you want better returns than cash ISAs you need to be willing to take the risk. I think Ratesetter and Zopa are way more safe than people would expect. Although you could open lots of current accounts that offer interest, bit of a faff but will beat cash ISAs.

Ah right, never really looked into Peer 2 Peer finance before, though it seems relatively similar to stocks/shares with the whole investment angle.

I get that the greater the risk the greater the rewards, so something like Ratesetter has potentially better returns, but I don't think it's a risk I really want to take right at this moment.

I'm looking to be putting in £400-500 a month really.
Might look at Santander, but don't they normally charge a fee for their accounts with the best interest rates?

Nationwide have a 5% regular saver that you can save 500 quid a month in

Will have a look into that. Is there a cap on how much capital they pay interest on?

[bigcheez2k3]

Ratesetter doesn't actually have better returns than the current accounts that are, err, currently on offer unless you use the 5 year market which hovers around 6%. It is also not protected by FSCS. However if you were to take advantage of the new members offer, you could see up to 14% on £1k in a year.

That is what I am currently on, along with referring a friend for £50 so I should be in for around £185 from £1k which is amazing.

There are some p2p sites that will offer 12% interest which I may move into soon once I've done a bit more with current accounts.

[Green Gecko]

Just got my last credit report and I'm surprised and pleased to see that it's back to "fair" and on par with national average. I'm guessing this is because I am slowly paying back all of my debts.

The trouble is my credit card repayment arrangement is due for review, and to extent 0% interest and minimum payment (and opt to pay slightly more to pay it down faster) I have to record a default. How much will this generally impact on my credit rating if it still shows a repayment overall? Because the only other option is to pay £75 a month to actually cover the interest and repay, which will cost more and may take longer (as the interest won't be frozen while I can pay more wine I can afford it each month) and is likely to affect my ability to pay some bills.

I am expecting to apply for a business loan soon, so I'm concerned it will affect my eligibility. I could choose not to borrow, and maybe buying more (low interest) debt is bad, when I could probably raise money via the business, albeit extremely slowly and with probably more hard work. It's for equipment to increase my production abilities. Without which, I am currently turning away the occasional jobs worth hundreds of pounds. So that's a separate risk assessment.

Advise please

[Lotus]

Stock and shares ISA supremacy.

I bank with Halifax and Santander. I get £5 each month with Halifax and Santander pays me £50 each month (although the account costs £5 a month). £600 a year between the two ain't bad at all. My interest pays my monthly diesel cost.

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

Who's your stocks and shares ISA with? And what's your experience with Santander? Looking at their 123 Account, but heard bad things customer service wise (always been with HSBC, who have been fine in that respect).

[Grumpy David]

Stock and shares ISA supremacy.

I bank with Halifax and Santander. I get £5 each month with Halifax and Santander pays me £50 each month (although the account costs £5 a month). £600 a year between the two ain't bad at all. My interest pays my monthly diesel cost.

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

Who's your stocks and shares ISA with? And what's your experience with Santander? Looking at their 123 Account, but heard bad things customer service wise (always been with HSBC, who have been fine in that respect).

I opened my S&S ISA with Charles Stanley Direct. I invest my ISA money into Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% accumulation fund

It invests into the global stock markets and global bonds market based on their market size. The idea being maximum diversification minimises volatility. It's probably because of the diversification (and length of time I've had it) that my total value to cash in is still higher than my contributions despite stock market dips with Brexit.

Santander experience has been fine, I have never been into Santander branches as I opened it online and only needed to ring the call centre to tell them not to block my card when I'm in the USA. Very solid account and online banking is quite good too.

I hate HSBC online banking because of that annoying calculator gadget needed to log in.

[Glowy69]

Stock and shares ISA supremacy.

I bank with Halifax and Santander. I get £5 each month with Halifax and Santander pays me £50 each month (although the account costs £5 a month). £600 a year between the two ain't bad at all. My interest pays my monthly diesel cost.

Ratesetter monthly saver might be a good shout for you Laga.

Who's your stocks and shares ISA with? And what's your experience with Santander? Looking at their 123 Account, but heard bad things customer service wise (always been with HSBC, who have been fine in that respect).

Check the most up to date customer service reports for Santander.

It went up around the time I joined the bank

[Lotus]

Glowy works there?

;)

Nah will seriously look at it then, sounds good. Thanks chaps.

Looking into various stocks and shares ISAs and different investment routes, hence my question on that. Not sure what to do in the current climate though.

[Grumpy David]

Looking into various stocks and shares ISAs and different investment routes, hence my question on that. Not sure what to do in the current climate though.

Be brave when others are fearful. I'm buying the market whilst others panic sell.

Or just dip your toes in and put a small amount in via a direct debit each month. I put £150 a month in. You benefit from not chucking all your savings in just before a crash (although predicting the market is impossible), but you could also end up buying each month's newer contribution at a slightly higher price if a crash doesn't happen for years.

Basically, only put in what you can afford to not need for at least 3 years, but ideally 5 years to smooth out any major movements. They're not well suited if you plan to need to spend the money in the foreseeable future.

[Lotus]

Looking into various stocks and shares ISAs and different investment routes, hence my question on that. Not sure what to do in the current climate though.

Be brave when others are fearful. I'm buying the market whilst others panic sell.

Or just dip your toes in and put a small amount in via a direct debit each month. I put £150 a month in. You benefit from not chucking all your savings in just before a crash (although predicting the market is impossible), but you could also end up buying each month's newer contribution at a slightly higher price if a crash doesn't happen for years.

Basically, only put in what you can afford to not need for at least 3 years, but ideally 5 years to smooth out any major movements. They're not well suited if you plan to need to spend the money in the foreseeable future.

For sure, I mean to be honest I'd be going into it with the mindset of not touching/needing the money for about 10 years. Had been leaning towards a FTSE All Share Tracker with Blackrock, maybe put in a lump sum of £1000 and then keep topping it up each month with about £50-£100. Do you have multiple ISAs, or any other investments? Or just the Charles Stanley one?

[That's not a growth]

I just opened a H2B ISA with Virgin and transferred in a grand. strawberry floating terrifying moving that much money into an account I can't fully access until tomorrow. Hopefully nothing has strawberry floated up.

[Grumpy David]

For sure, I mean to be honest I'd be going into it with the mindset of not touching/needing the money for about 10 years. Had been leaning towards a FTSE All Share Tracker with Blackrock, maybe put in a lump sum of £1000 and then keep topping it up each month with about £50-£100. Do you have multiple ISAs, or any other investments? Or just the Charles Stanley one?

Why the FTSE all share? Why not globally diversify instead?

I have one ISA held with Charles Stanley Direct because they're one of the cheapest for costs. I only invest in Vanguard Lifestrategy because it's all in one product so no need to set up individual products to track different continents and market sectors.

This is a good starting point to read: http://monevator.com/vanguard-lifestrategy/

Monevator is a great website for improving knowledge on this sort of thing.

[CuriousOyster]

I just opened a H2B ISA with Virgin and transferred in a grand. strawberry floating terrifying moving that much money into an account I can't fully access until tomorrow. Hopefully nothing has strawberry floated up.

Recently done, and thought the exact same .

Was all good

[That's not a growth]

I just opened a H2B ISA with Virgin and transferred in a grand. strawberry floating terrifying moving that much money into an account I can't fully access until tomorrow. Hopefully nothing has strawberry floated up.

Recently done, and thought the exact same .

Was all good

Thanks. You'd Think it would be set up a little better for piece of mind. Oh well.

[That's not a growth]

Whoo, money is in there fine. Where can I find out what date they want the money each month by? Ideally I'll set it on payday, but I want to make sure I'm doing it right. You'd think they'd have more info available for you really.

[jiggles]

Expensive lesson learned today: working in Ireland and living in the UK means you have to file a separate self-assessment form every year with HMRC. Looks like my entire savings is about to be wiped out in penalties.

[That's not a growth]

Holy gooseberry fool that's rough. No way around it?