Where to put £10k for 3 years

[headaspinning]

My personal savings I tend to stick away in premium bonds. But I have a £10,000 lump sum I would like to put away as a university fund for my son (who is 15, so 3 years away from University). It doesn't need to be in his name, but if there is a benefit to that I would do so.

I'm obviously tempted to put it into premium bonds, but I'm not sure. £10k doesn't seem enough to speak to a financial advisor, but would obviously like a return on it to help him out at university.

Any advice would be appreciated

High interest fixed term savings account. Will give a better return than PBs.

You don't want to invest in anything volatile over that length of time.

Most fixed term savings and bonds are 1-2 years so probably one of these then move the money to something similar when the account matures. I would probably look on MSE at interest rates for various accounts also the forum on there is good to see what others recommend.

You can contribute £9k to a stocks & shares JISA for your son and purchase a inexpensive money market fund - this should return more than 5% per year.

Alternatively utilise your own ISA allowance for the same.

Thanks for MSE forum advice. Never used MSE so didn't think about that.

Also made me realise I don't want to just hand over the money to him at 18 - even though he is great at 15, I am very aware that things can change between now and 18 quite drastically, and this is money that will, I guess, mainly be used to make our lives easier when he is at university!

Husband is still keen on premium bonds though!

Fixed Rate Cash ISA. They have different durations, eg 1, 2 or 3 years. Because of interest rate uncertainty the 1 year rates are higher than the longer term rates (used to be the other way round).

You can easily get over 4% per year. Look at buildings societies such as Coventry, Leeds, Kent Reliance.

Interest is tax free and, if something unexpected crops up, you can withdraw the money early, subject to a penalty of loss of interest for a set period.