Where to invest my UK savings?

Any chance of a better yield than 5.65%?

[ronin]

Okay, so my monthly savings are currently being posted to an online ICICI HiSave account which gives an APR of 5.65%.

Not bad, as far as high-interest savings accounts go, but if I want to diversify, what else should I be looking at?

Zopa claims to have an average return of 6.5% after bad debt and Zopa fees (but before tax, obviously), so that's one new thing I've signed up for and will be learning how to manage over the next few months.

Otherwise, I have my 2006-07 ISA allowance to use up before April, so I'll get cracking on that.

Where else? Everyone talks "property, property, property" but from where I'm standing the yields don't look all that great after, expenditures, fees and time spent managing the thing is taken into account. (By contrast Zopa requires a lot less time to manage and HiSave requires no time at all).

What else gives an annual yield of 6% or higher, after fees and maintenance costs? Unit trusts or Exchange Traded Funds held over the long term? Anything else?

[inbound]

A new thing that I saw recently was 'Hotel Rooms for Sale', I think it's backed by the RBOS or HBOS and may be calloed something like 'Guest Invest'. The idea is you buy hotel rooms and take a share of the revenue.

I'm sceptical and don't know if it's a good idea, but it's another thing to look at. It's also handy if you use London hotels very often as you can use your own room up to 52 days a year.

They are not cheap though...

[Essex_boy]

Try Zopa, im getting close 7.60% with aview to pushing that up to near 8.5% by taking on higher risk borrowers.

[ronin]

Thanks inbound and Essex_boy.

I had a look at GuestInvest - they guarantee 6% yield for the first 12 months and then varying yield (unclear to what extent) after that. Case studies suggest a yield of 6.5-6.7%

This isn't bad, but you're right, GuestInvest is a hugely expensive investment, so not to be taken lightly. Also, you only tend to get the full benefit of the investment (the perk of a cheap, high-quality hotel room) if you live outside London but visit the capital quite often and need accommodation. I live in Zone 2, so this doesn't really apply.

Thanks for the encouragement regarding Zopa, Essex_boy. If they do things right I suspect they have a very bright future ahead of them.

Does anyone here invest in Exchange Traded Funds? Any success?