100k for three months

[Cliveybaby]

Hi All,
My partner and I are buying a property together, which for complicated reasons, should complete in August.
We each currently own a small property, and we are both re-mortgaging to finance the new house (and putting in savings).
So... my re-mortgage has already come through, (we live in my partner's house, so that one has to happen when we buy the new house).
I currently have roughly 100k waiting in my account (combined re-mortgage plus savings), which I need for the new purchase.
My question is, is there anything I can do with this money in the meantime? Seems silly to have it sitting in my savings account earning a tiny interest?
Or is it not enough time to do anything? I also can't risk losing more than about 5k.

I'm in a similar position to you - not quite the same amount but nearly, should complete purchase in late July but my remortgage has come through but we've not exchanged yet.

My solicitor advised against tying it up as she needs to have a clear audit trail of the money coming from the re-mortgage for money laundering purposes.

So I have drawn a blank with finding a use for it in the short term as I can't afford to risk any of it. I still do a double take every time I log in to online banking though!

Ah hadn't thought about the audit thing...
I'm a bit limited too in that I'd need it to be accessible if I need it.
It's so weird seeing it there though!

Interest rates are so low, you are not going to get a good return doing anything without taking risk.

Saving account is probably the best option. Its probably not worth the hassle and fees of doing anything else. For example, short dated bond funds.

Premium bonds? You're guaranteed your money back, will probably get a small win each month and you might hit a big win. There's a 50K limit so you'd need to split between yours and your DP's name.

Beware of the £85K compensation limit if you keep all the cash in one savings account.

I'd go for Premium Bonds, too - but only if you COMPLETELY trust your OH!

The problem with premium bonds is that if you buy them now, the numbers will not go into the draw until either 1 June or 1 July so will reduce your effective interest rate. I also don't know how quickly you get your money back - need to take that into account.

But there is always the chance that you will win a bigger prize, therefore increasing the effective amount of interest received.

I would just use Moneysupermarket to find the highest risk instant access account that allows £100k to be deposited. And if you are particularly risk averse maybe put £20k in another account to stay below the limit protected by the government.

If you don't have one already, it might be worth making the Santander 123 account your main current account as you get 1.5% on up to £20k, which is in the ballpark of the best instant access interest (I couldn't actually find better last time I looked, but apparently you can get around 2% but I couldn't find it).

WIth the 123 account you also get cashback on bills which should beat most or all of the £5 monthly fee (we get between £4 and £4.50 and our bills are lower than average (band A council tax, no pay TV, less than £20 pm on mobile phones - people with more average bills are likely to get more like £10-15 a month).

Ooh hadn't thought of premium bonds... thanks!
I already have some (only £300) so that might be fun...

Ask your bank what interest rate they can get you on a 'money market' account for the money you have available and the specific time you can leave it tied up. It may not pay lots more than a savings account, but usually you'll get a slightly bigger rate, and your money will be 100% safe and available when you need it.