To not know how to get interest on savings

[PeteKnew]

I've saved up £25,000.
It's been sitting in my current account past 6 years.
Can I get any interest on it?
If so, what sort of account should I put it in? And how much interest can I expect to get? Do you have to wait 12 months before you get any interest?
I know nothing. Never had savings before.
Currently with Barclays.
Thank you to anyone who can advise.

You could use copilot or money saving expert to find the best interest rates. It’s too much to type out all the various options.

I have an ISA with Barclays and get paid the interest monthly. Think you can only put a maximum of £20k a year into an ISA though so I’d check if it’s the best solution for you

As mentioned use money saving expert and shop around. Depending on how long you want to leave it for and access will give you different rates. A lot of current account banks such as Chase offer good savings rates.

Why haven't you put it in an ISA?

Don’t leave that sort of money in an interest free current account!!

Ask your bank for interest earning accounts and open one - you’ll get paid interest monthly

Yes put it in an isa or failing that open a Monzo or Zopa bank account...you will get over 4% interest on it.
Pm me if you would like a referral link for Monzo...we will both get free cash.

Put £20,000 into an ISA so that you don’t pay tax on the interest (as @RandomMess says, use MSE for best options) and put the other £5,000 into a savings account with a good interest rate. Then next April, transfer the £5,000 (plus interest) into an ISA when the new tax year starts.

Above only applies if you are in the UK though.

Moneysavingexpert is a great place to start for reading up about savings accounts and other things like that.

Well done on your savings though, and done without earning interest too.

Ok you have a series of choices. One do you need to get it urgently or can you sit on it for a while?

If you might need it urgently you have two choices
A cash ISA which will be via banks or building societies or other financial institutions...the benefits are it's completely tax free so you could save millions over time in one and never pay cash.
Or
A instant saver account available from banks building societies etc...plus national savings (the government) often have good rates

If you can sit on it for a while you have more choice
Cash ISA again
Or
A limited access savings account often called 90 day account or similar. Or a bond where you lock down the money for a set period... again banks etc provide these

To get the best rates at the moment head to money saving expert...Martin Lewis site which will have a lot more info

Brilliant. Thanks so much everyone!
I feel so stupid leaving it to sit for 6 years in my current account. I don't know why I've done it, other than the fact I've never had money before so I just don't know how to manage it.
Feel angry now to think I could have earned extra money over past 6 years. What a fool/idiot I am.
Right, off to MSE now!
Thank you.

If you weren’t concerned about guaranteed interest you could buy Premium Bonds which go into a draw every month to win prizes of £25 to £1,000,000. There’s no guarantees but if you do win it’s tax free and you can withdraw your original stake in a few days if you need the cash.

Hello

I recommend doing this

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1. Copy this code: JLTEYX

1. If you haven’t done so yet, download the Chase UK app and open an account

1. Activate the code in the Chase app

1. Pay in a total of £1,000 or more to your Chase account within your first 30 days

For more info, please visit the Chase website:

https://chase.co.uk/raf

Plus
This account pays 4% interest on all money in the account

Plus
This account gives you cash back on your purchases example super markets, petrol stations

Plus
Save the change which goes into a 5% save pot

Plus
You can refer some mote people

OMG OP get that moved ASAP into something that will make you money. If you had put that 25k into an average ISA six years ago it would be worth nearly 30k today. My uni child has her interest free overdraft in a high interest account it makes them £75 a year. Thats a few uni nights out for free.

Remember you have to pay tax on savings interest too dependant on how much it makes . Think you are taxed on anything over £500 if higher rate tax payer and £1500 if lower rate .
ISA and premium bonds are tax free .

Ah don't feel stupid, there's so many worse financial decisions you could have made. Feel happy that you're getting it set up now and will be making interest from tomorrow!
Fwiw I looked at this recently and also found that Chase had the best interest rate for what I wanted. I already have a max ISA so couldn't use that but it is better if you would otherwise be paying tax on interest. My ISA is from Trading 212.

You have about £8,000 less than you could have if you bad put it in a 6pc earning ISA six heads ago.

This is how it would have worked out
1£25,000.00.
2£26,500.00.

3£28,090.00
4£29,775.40
5£31,561.92
6£33,455.64

Let's keep it simple.

Phone Barclays or go to the branch and open a Stocks and Shares ISA
https://www.barclays.co.uk/smart-investor/accounts/investment-isa/

Put £15k in that.

Tell them you want to put another £5k in a cash ISA.

And then tell them you want to put the final £5k in an easy access savings account.
www.barclays.co.uk/savings/instant-access/

That means you will have most of your savings earn higher returns in investment, a smaller amount earning a lower rate of return in your cash ISA (which may have a seven day notice period to take money out of) and £5k in an account you can access immediately in an emergency.

Ring them tomorrow or go into the branch with some ID and they will sort it all out very rapidly.

Yes, you could research best providers and read all about it on money saving expert but given where you currently are on knowledge and confidence about money, I would suggest keeping it very simple and just going to Barclays tomorrow

I have £4k in Wealthify. Its made £230 since September! I have got it in for the long term (5 plus years) as it goes up and down

If you go for an account like this, it's worth getting a code of somebody. Then both people get fifty pounds. If you don't know anyone with an account and you decide to go with Wealthify let me know and I can send you the code.

Agree check Money Saving Expert for best rates. But beware - many offer good rates for 1-5 years then the rate drops to something piddling after that time, so be prepared to move your money at the end of such a time.

You’ll get better rates by “locking away” your money in an account where you can’t withdraw for 2-5 years (if you withdraw before that time you won’t get the big interest payout.)

Banks and building societies are where you need to look, and I’d suggest using a cash ISA as the vehicle or a stocks and shares ISA. Don’t be scared of stocks and shares. A platform like Vanguard allows you to invest in a way that tracks the FTSE. More info on Money Saving Expert.

Well done on your savings! A huge achievement.

In a cash ISA that would have earned you around 6k, rate was at 5% at one point. If you can tie it up consider fixed term fix rate. Just look at MSE for best current rates.

I have 4.5% with chase , but I’d check rates with MSE.

Monzo have pretty good savings rates. They pay interest monthly and it’s instant access. However it would be worth looking at accounts that tie the money up for a set period of time as they usually pay higher interest.

how many 6% isas were there 6 years ago?
You can't even find that now when the BoE base rate is 3.75, six years ago it was 0.1%!

Have a look on the NS&I website.

They have a Direct Saver ISA paying 3.8%, variable, tax free. It looks as if you can access the money any time but always worth checking.

They have a Direct Saver which is accessible paying 3.45% taxable.

They have various fixed term Bonds where your money is locked away for the term. The shortest (1 year) seems to pay slightly more. You could just buy another after a year. They are taxable. Be careful, unless you want to take the interest as income, to go for a Growth Bond, where the income is added to it, rather than paid out to you.

You can open these online and, experience with a relative has shown me that, if you need help they are very helpful on the phone.

You can probably get better rates elsewhere and a Stocks and Shares ISA would probably pay more, with some risk. I have one from a bank that has been rubbish, however.

You would be wise to shop around, but the NS&I figures are a useful baseline to compare with, being very secure, guaranteed by the government.

I would stick to tax-free (eg ISA and Premium Bonds) as otherwise, depending on your other income and assets, you could complicate your tax liability. Consider splitting between cash and stocks/shares ISAs. However the latter is only if you can leave it for 5 to 10 years. If you learn about it over the first year, you may know enough to spread it further to increase your returns. Play safe until then.

Check the interest rate carefully!

I have an account that pays 0.01% (post office) and a bank a/c at 0.25%. But I have a 1 year fixed paying 2%, and have another that can have 1,000 per month lodged but pays 3% on that (and resets to 0 after 12 months so I move the 11k to a different a/c and work on building up that 1k/month again).

Nationwide have a flexible ISA, paying 3.3%. Think you can take money out three times a year, pay in as often as you like. If you can lock it away for longer rates are up to 4.5%.