Halifax Regular saver and ISA?

mini_lidi

I went in Halifax today and opened a regular saving account, where i set a standing order of £150 each month, also because i had £1000 just standing in my account they advised me to open an ISA with them?
Have i been done? Are there Better deals?

Also as in only 17 they said i can claim back any tax i may occur within my saving account. But i do pay tax on my monthly wage packet?
So if i do claim it back can i get done by Inland Renevue?

Lokolo

If you pay tax through yout job then you pay tax on savings. So you will unable to claim this back this tax year however you maybe able to claim it back in previous years.

You will want to use your ISA because it has tax free interest, whereas the moment, the regular savings is outside of your ISA so you will have to pay 20% tax on the interest.

I assume you work and earn more than £6035 a year?

rb10

mini_lidi wrote: »

I went in Halifax today and opened a regular saving account, where i set a standing order of £150 each month, also because i had £1000 just standing in my account they advised me to open an ISA with them?
Have i been done? Are there Better deals?

There are better ISAs out there, but as long as it's an ISA Saver Direct (i.e. telephone and internet access only) and not just an ISA Saver (which comes with a passbook) then it's not too bad.

Also as in only 17 they said i can claim back any tax i may occur within my saving account. But i do pay tax on my monthly wage packet?
So if i do claim it back can i get done by Inland Renevue?

If you earn over the minimum allowance (just over £6000 per year), then you cannot claim back tax on interest. This is why an ISA is special - you do not need to pay tax on that. Try to put as much as you can into your ISA each tax year (up to the £3600 limit), as all this interest is tax-free.

mini_lidi

It is a saver direct, so its ok?

Lokolo

1.5% interest... pretty pathetic to be honest. You could better elsewhere.....

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/isa-saver-direct.asp

mini_lidi

Crap!! guessin too late to change?

Lokolo

If you have deposited the £1000 I wouldn't worry about it tooooo much yet.

Do you think you will be able to put another £2,600 in it by April 5th?

mini_lidi

Well the mistake i made last year was put all my spare money in my savings not my ISA (i was only 16) so this year im putting all my spare money in there, so Hopefully will
Whats the benefits of having the £3600 compared to only £1000

Lokolo

You use all your allowance, the government gives you £3,600 worth of ISAs a year so you may as well make the most of them.

If you think you might be able to fill it up to £3,600 by April then what I recommend you do is wait until April 6th - keep filling it up, then once thats done (filled up) you can transfer all that money into a higher paying ISA.

The only thing is, youve just opened that ISA and you have £2,600 allowance left, if you end up transferring it and it takes 2 months (sometimes transfers take that long, douchebags eh) then you lose that other £2,600 you could have put in it.

mini_lidi

Sorry this stuff does confuse me
So what fill it up but April, then transfer it?
How? and when?

Lokolo

Each tax year so, April 6th-April 5th, you get £3,600 allowance to put in ISA.

So currently, from now until April 5th 2009 you can put £3,600 into Cash ISAs. Then on April 6th 2009-April 5th 2010 you get another £3,600 to put in ISA.

Now what you want to do is make the most of this years ISA, you currently have put £1,000 in. You want to put the other £2,600 in before this years allowance is gone and you get a new fresh one. So you want to shove money in any way you can to get it upto that £3,600 limit for this tax year. Once you have filled it up you can transfer it.

Transferring is a resonbly complicated process, basically filling in damn boring forms, but can take a while to happen so you want to fill it up before you transfer it, otherwise the delay could mean that your money isn't transferred before April 5th. When you have filled up your ISA (to the £3,600) then come back, start a new thread and just ask how to do it and where to go.