Which online bank?

Bitstring , from the wonderful person D.A.L. said

If the OP does that he'll still need a current a/c. SMILE (Co-Op bank) works for me. They do have a linked savings a/c, but ING (or Cahoot?) pay better.

ING Direct for 17K and then slam 3K in to a mini-cash ISA. M&S are worth a look at 5%, but I don't know if they are best. I'm only with M&S ISA because they're guaranteeing 0.5% above base rate until March 2005 (this ISA is closed to new savers).

Alliance & Leicester are offering 5.1% and you can also have a current account with them

Am in a similar position to the OP. I've been thinking about these short term bonds I see off erred by several banks/B.Socs etc. The money is tied up for the duration of the bond but they offer good rates of interest. Actually being quite naive about the details of these things I'd appreciate some comments as to the wisdom or otherwise of doing this. Like the OP I need some time to sort out exactly what to do and sticking the money in a bond for a few months - even 6 or

A thing I find surprising about these bonds is that (of all the ones I could find), the interest rates were within about 1% of each other and most seemed to offer pretty much the same thing - yet each vendors claimed to be offerring THE best deal. Another thing I don't get is that some offer a bond where the interest is calculated daily/monthly/at term as if that a really important feature (maybe its is). But if the money can't be accessed before end of term and the APR is (say) the same - what difference does it make? Sorry for the dumass questions!

Thanks to all who replied. I'm still dithering but Smile seems to me to be the most attractive at the moment. ING Direct is very interesting though! Is ING just as safe a place to put your money as any of the other online banks?

cheers

peter

Bitstring , from the wonderful person peter said

As long as you don't exceed £35k per depositor. However what they are offering is not a current a/c, so if you need something with a chequebook and the ability to pay bills, get a Smile a/c too.

You may wish to note that ING have not reflected the full 0.25% rate increases recently and since Cahoot has they now provide a better rate.

Cahoot may also be simpler to log into than ING. I have a friend with no computer (she used mine) and twice found that they had amended the log in procedure from what we had both seen before and she had no note of what to do. As a result she had to phone to get authorisation. For that reason alone she moved to another bank.