paying the increased ISA allowance into a Halifax fixed rate ISA

david78

opinions4u wrote: »

Ultimately, it will cost most providers several hundred thousand pounds to upgrate their systems to allow the additional £1500 while restricting it to over 50s.

Not at all. They just need to change the T&Cs on the application forms so it includes wording similar to "I will not contribute more than £3,600 to a cash ISA this year (or £5,100 if I was born before 6th April 1960)". The responsibility for ensuring that rules are not broken is with the individual not the bank (just as it is now.)

The checking of the amounts actually paid is done by HMRC at the end of the tax year.

opinions4u

david78 wrote: »

Not at all. They just need to change the T&Cs on the application forms so it includes wording similar to "I will not contribute more than £3,600 to a cash ISA this year (or £5,100 if I was born before 6th April 1960)". The responsibility for ensuring that rules are not broken is with the individual not the bank (just as it is now.)

The checking of the amounts actually paid is done by HMRC at the end of the tax year.

The FSA or HMRC would invoke significant fines on any bank that didn't ensure their systems complied with ISA rules in an acceptable way.

Otherwise how would those providers actually know if they were complying with the rules? Simply building the "over 50" rule in will be a challenge to some providers.

Merely changing the wording of conditions and not building the IT system to verify it would not be considered accetpable and could lead to a provider's right to offer cash ISAs being withdrawn.

david78

But additional deposits to stocks and shares ISAs could not be checked by upgrading the systems. These systems already allow £7,200 to be paid in. If I pay £3,600 to a cash ISA now, and £3,600 to a stocks and shares ISA now, then later on I can pay another £3000 to a stocks and shares ISA without them needing to change the systems at all.

For cash ISAs there's a little bit of re-configuration of the software systems to do, but it should be no more than a few hours work.

opinions4u

david78 wrote: »

For cash ISAs there's a little bit of re-configuration of the software systems to do, but it should be no more than a few hours work.

You clearly don't know much about IT projects.

david78

I am a senior IT professional. Currently there are already checks on date of birth and on amounts invested. All they need to do is change the values for these quantities for this year.

opinions4u

david78 wrote: »

I am a senior IT professional. Currently there are already checks on date of birth and on amounts invested. All they need to do is change the values for these quantities for this year.

Across multiple systems and mainframes.

david78

Here is what I would do in the case of Halifax.

New product: "The Extra-ISA over-50s top up account". Open in parallel with an existing Cash ISA with Halifax. Terms: Must be over 50. Pay up to £1500 into the new top up account.

Halifax need to check you are old enough and the amount you pay in does not exceed £1500. They then include the amount contributed in the return they prepare against your NI number to HMRC at the end of the year.

That's all they need to do.

Trying_to_be_good

david78 wrote: »

Here is what I would do in the case of Halifax.

New product: "The Extra-ISA over-50s top up account". Open in parallel with an existing Cash ISA with Halifax. Terms: Must be over 50. Pay up to £1500 into the new top up account.

Halifax need to check you are old enough and the amount you pay in does not exceed £1500. They then include the amount contributed in the return they prepare against your NI number to HMRC at the end of the year.

That's all they need to do.

Pragmatic solution to an ill-thought out, knee-jerk, headline-grabbing budget 'measure'.

LesU

david78 wrote: »

I am a senior IT professional. Currently there are already checks on date of birth and on amounts invested. All they need to do is change the values for these quantities for this year.

And then check it on a daily basis in case any one has become 50 and now is eligible or has jumped the gun and is ineligible. Checks on date of birth are for a minimum age for acceptance, that is all.
As a 'senior IT professional', how much would you cost this out to the industry as whole, for a product with a 6 months life span?

Lokolo

For the coding. About 5 minutes. When say 5 minutes, a couple of hours for something that simple. A programmer can have around 100 lines of code to write to check date of birth to make age. Once that age has been calculated it can then change allowance on the daily basis.

However, to have it rolled out into all systems could be costly. Add it could add problems to other parts of the programs (it could add age problems and such). I suspect this is the bit that would be costly in terms of time. Making sure everything is ok to go ahead. For instance, if everyday, it checked everyones age, this amount of processing power (considering the number of customers...!!!) is incredible. It would then need validation to make sure the allowance isn't increased everyday. So if it caluclated everyones age on that day, if 50 and over, add £1500, then it would add £1500 everyday lol.

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I imagine the banks already have a company (Accenture or IBM) writing their systems for them, but if they haven't got an agreement the programmer would need to learn their current systems before implementing anything new, which could take time.