To ask how to make the most of this money?

[Pottymouth83]

Recently remortgaged to pay for home extension but the work won’t start till next year. So I’ve got £130k sitting in my bank - I have never had anything like this amount of money before!! Where can I put it to make the most interest till I need it?

Bear in mind it needs to be in an account with instant access so I can withdraw it as soon as the builders are ready to go?

Look on the money saving expert website. You will need to split it because at the moment if the bank goes bust it won’t all be protected.

Split it between providers because only the first £85k is covered by the financial services guarantee (or whatever it's called) if the bank/building society goes under (unlikely but not worth taking the risk).

Premium Bonds? £50k max per person.

Rates for instant access are a lot lower than for fixed term, so you're not going to get much.

We bought premium bonds in a similar situation. Quite fun, instant access and we won enough small prizes to be the equivalent of 2% interest which at the time was a lot!

Thank you - premium bonds sounds a great idea! Like some PPs say, I probably won’t get much interest for what could only be around 3 months, will I?

Marcus are paying 2.5% interest and you can withdraw at any time - you'd get about £800 over 3 months
Disclaimer - I don't have that much in my Marcus account so check if the interest rate would cover an amount that large

Thank you @GenialHarryGr0ut

Hello, I'm in a similar situation although our work has started! We had £85k in the instant access saver and made £28 ish on it this month. Not loads but netter than nothing! I hadn't thought about premium bonds (wish I had!) But as our work should hopefully be finishing in the next 6 weeks and we've got a lot to pay out between now and then it's probably not worth it!

£28?! Yes better than nothing!

If you put it in a savings account with N S and I it will all be covered as they're backed by the Govt.

It's definitely worth moving it to a high interest account. You won't spend it all at once so you should earn interest on part of it for longer.

£130k split between two instant access accounts paying 2% (eg Chase Bank and Nationwide) will get you over £200 a month

Chip are currently offering 2.55% on an instant access account which might be worth looking at.

Atom bank (app only) are paying 2.55%

Just remember you're paying interest in that money so make it work hard.

Just remember it takes a while to be in the draw for Premium Bonds. My son bought some this week and his first draw will be the January one. You can probably get a better rate elsewhere if it is only for a few months.

Also, can you builders buy some materials ahead? The price is going to go up.