the money for an extension, where d'you put it?

[uppitywho]

our money is about to be paid into our bills account. did you transfer to a savings account? was the hassle worth it? The best instant access gives about 1.14% . Probably should have thought about this a bit earlier

Its depends how long it takes and how much you have - we set up 3 Santander 123 accounts - you could have 1 each plus a joint one which paid 3% on balances up to £20k per account (for a £5 fee) which was definitely worth it. Think about whether you'll need access to it, also about the upper limit for standard bank protection.

It's not 3% anymore, it's 1.5 I think but according to Martin Lewis still one of the savings rates for more than £15k. It's where we have our kitchen funds although it's also dh current account.

I knew they'd reduced the interest rate! Quite a cut!

We've put in into our mortgage as an overpayment. It's an old mortgage we've kept on as it's a cushy deal and I can draw it back out whenever we need it with no penalty, saving on the interest worked out better than an instant access

I set up some savings accounts for this purpose. Generally hasn't been worth it as money is being spent fairly rapidly.

However, if the loan had come through when I originally thought (earlier) and builders had started when I originally thought (later), then it might have been worth it.

So, on the whole, wasn't worth it. Just make sure you don't have more than the limit for payout should the bank go belly up, currently £85,000

You could stick it in Premium Bonds.

Premium Bonds - we had full amount in for about 3 months and won loads! You may not win of course but every time we have had cash like this for short period we do it and win a far bigger amount than we would get in interest. Maybe one day we'll hit the big one. Obviously you might not make anything but you just might!

PBs are great but you need to have the bonds for one draw before your bonds are included by ERNIE. If you are likely to need the money within the next month, it's probably not worth going down this path.

we overpaid our mortgage with every penny we had and then drew it all back out as the work was done.
Effective interest rate of 4%