UK Investments

Has anyone delved into the whole area of savings/investments? Did you invest with your bank or did you go elsewhere? How did you decide where to go?

Your tips are welcome.

This site has lots of investment and savings best buys:

www.moneysavingexpert.com

As for general questions of which form of savings or investment is appropriate - the rules are the same the world over - it all depends on how much risk you want to take.

Thank you for the website. I think I was after information regarding how to easily access a financial planner.

In Canada, you just get on the phone, make a call, speak to a person, set up an appointment...

Last week I called a bank, waited for 6 minutes on hold, spoke to a call centre who wanted to book me an appointment at my house. My husband, sensible person that he is, did not want anyone to come to the house. So I requested a local number to book the appointment.

I called the number twice. Both times, there was no answer, just a BT Call minder. Uh yeah... pass. I called the original number again and waited 12 minutes to talk to someone.

Is it that difficult to talk to an actual person?

Fingers crossed though, I contacted two different places and I have an appointment Friday in Glasgow.

Normally you can just go into a bank without an appointment and see somebody. Of course these advisors only deal with the bank's own products so they are really salespeople rather than advisors.

If you want someone who deals with a range of different companies' financial products you'll need an "independent financial advisor" (IFA) - they should be listed in the phone book.

Thanks for the advice. I did check out the yellow pages and located a local "financial advisor", however this person was not accredited with whatever agency licences/ verifies ifa's.

No matter. I have an appointment with a bank on Friday and information is being sent from an investment firm in Edinburgh.

Post script

The call centre that booked the appointment neglected to notify the person at the bank. He was double booked so we had to come back an hour and a half later.

Incidentally, he said that waiting 12 minutes to talk to someone at the call centre is "good"... other people have waited longer. Imagine.