Best account for 20K vis a vis interest and access

[Jux]

I'm about to receive a bit over 20K from my mum's estate. I want to put the money into an account which gives higher interest than yer average current a/c., but which will allow me to access the dosh from time to time without having to give too much notice.

Can anyone advise me?

Thank you.

Atm, there do not seem to be any accounts offering a return that keeps your savings intact allowing for inflation
Web savers used to be the accounts with the best interest offerings (ie those operated online only, obv fine for a mner!) but rates aren't great anywhere I've looked.

Rates are so poor everywhere at the moment. Have you thought about Premium Bonds. You might not win anything but if you do it's tax free and your capital is safe.

Thanks. The best I could find was ING at 2.75 (well there was a little building society which did 2.78, but it's nowhere near us, not worth it really for the sake of .03).

I hadn't thought of Premium Bonds. Would I be able to get some money out of them quickly in order to, say, sort out the bathroom (prob about 1K)? I'd need to do that sort of thing.

It says within 8 workings days and you can take out as much or as little as you want. says here

That's interesting trumpton, thank you. I'll discuss it with dh. We've got a few weeks or so before it comes, so there's time to go through all the options.

Have you looked at these ?

If you don't need the money for a while you can get much better than 2.75%

vbusymum1, I see how busy you are - could I have the link when you've time?

Oops, yes, too busy to remember to add link

Its with Northern Rock but I can't get into their website at the moment, will check in a while.

OK, here it is www.northernrock.co.uk/savings/savings-range/

Put some in an ISA, that way it's protected from the tax man. Think the max is either £3k or £7k, depending on which ISA you choose (mini or maxi). Best not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Premium bonds might be best, bank interest rate is terrible, at least with bonds you have a chance of winning, I win most month thou usually only £50 but better than bank rates.
You can cash them in very easily and it only took a few days when I did it.

ISA limit is now 10k, but you'd be wasting your allowance as I understand you want to use the money soon (from your thread re DH and finance).

CaptainNance, I do want to use some of it, but haven't made costings yet. Probably about 5K altogether, maybe a bit more. ISA may be good for some.

vbusymum1, I'll look at that link in a bit, but dd's just missed her train home from school so I have to go. Thanks for that.

Premium bonds are interesting too.

Think I might need to contact my mate's financial adviser or something