Where would you put 7k savings?

[namehasbeenchanged1]

I have a personal, emergency fund of 7k. Completely separate to mortgage and other accessible emergency savings for vet bills and the like, just for an unlikely, worst-case scenario such as splitting up and needing funds to find a new place etc. I'd like it to be accessible if need be in dire straits (even if there's a penalty to access it) but don't forsee that I will ever need to use it, so I'd like it to be gaining some decent interest for the next X amount of years so I can have a nice payoff in two to three decades. It's currently in a basic building society ISA, but are there any other places I could put it, such as a stocks and shares ISA? (never done anything with any 'risk' before). Thanks!

I use an app called "moneybox" and have a stocks and shares isa on there among other accounts. My stocks and shares isa currently has a growth rate of 16.42 %.

If it's an emergency fund I'd put it in premium bonds. No risk and I've found the returns are pretty good. No guarantee of a prize but I've consistently made a couple of hundred quid a year with savings of £14k.

If you don't foresee you'll ever need to use it, and growth is a motivator a stocks and shares ISA could be the place for it.

After all, if you find yourself in a situation where you'd need to escape unexpectedly, you might be less bothered that the value has dropped. It's important to remember that these go up and down, and if you withdraw money at the wrong time, you've lost some of the value.

I see a lot of posters saying how much they've made in stocks and shares recently, but the reality is that anyone who bought in 2018/9 would have lost 30/40% of the value if they'd had to withdraw money last April/May.

Premium bonds

I would put half into a S&S ISA, because obviously Investments go down as well as up, and if you had an emergency when the market was low at least you'd have the other half untouched in the cash ISA.
Your building society probably offers one, but check the charges as some are higher than others. You could also use someone like Vanguard, H&L, etc but again look at the best buy tables etc to see what the charges are.
I know vanguard allow you to have different levels of risk for different'pots' so presumably other providers do too.
Make sure (imperative!) you choose a product that allows transfers in, rather than opening a new ISA, to protect your ISA allowance for this year. (Because you've already had the cash ISA counted against your allowance in a previous year).

Sorry to hop on to your post OP.

@Cruiser123 Please could you explain the charges for the stocks and shares ISA with Moneybox. I have opened a basic savings account with them and I love how easy the app is to use.

Thank you all for the advice, much appreciated. I suspect stocks and shares is the way to go, just a bit dubious as have never invested with 'risk' before so there's lots of research ahead.

You should decide what is emergency savings

You could invest the rest in a whole world index fund like Vanguard All Cap Global as I do

But I would not invest emergency savings in a S&S ISA

Money needs a purpose. If the purpose is emergency fund then it is like insurance, it costs you money. Keeping it in your current account or in Premium Bonds will cost you... it gets eroded by inflation.

Stocks & Shares ISA is for investing for 5 years or more. You want to avoid pulling money out in a down market.

An introduction to investing: two podcast episodes from a UK financial planner:
meaningfulmoney.tv/UG4
meaningfulmoney.tv/UG5