Keep Birmingham Midshires ISA or go to Abbey?

JanineB

Hello folks, some help required.

I currently have £2175.32 deposited in an ISA with Birmingham Midshires that I opened in February of this year. The rate is 3.5%.

I've not put anything else into it so far as I've been concentrating on putting £250 away each month in my Barclays monthly saver that gets me 6% interest fixed for 1 year. (Can't afford more than that a month as I'm only getting £11000 a year after tax).

I'm aware that other banks (such as Abbey) are doing the fixed 6% fixed for a year monthlies as well and wonder if I'd be better off pulling the funds from the ISA I opened and drip feed it into one of these accounts instead?

What would happen to the interest from BM. Would I get any at all? And as I opened the account before the start of this tax year, how much interest willl I get if I pull it.

I'm not sure how to calculate this. So if anyone can help - much appreciated.

Many Thanks!!

Janine

cc004-2

Personally, I would leave your existing ISA money within its ISA wrapper, so it stays earning tax free interest in years to come.

Secondly, I would leave Abbey well alone, I had enough of them last year when I attempted to transfer my existing ISA to them. Never again.

C.

digivate

I second that. If you're getting 3.5% on your BM ISA I'd stick with it, plus I always found BM's online banking to be really good.

Once your current regular saver has come to the end of it's term move that money into an ISA and then start up another regular monthly saver.

As mentioned above, I'd avoid Abbey if I were you. Without doubt having an ISA with Abbey last year was the worst experience I've ever had of an online account and I found their customer service staff rude and unhelpful.

TheKid

I agree with the above. Stay away from Abbey.

I opened an Abbey Esaver in Apil 2008 headlining 6.5% fixed AER for 12 months and it has been a complete nightmare.

Abbey's call center and Clapham Junction staff were hopelessly clueless, each offering a different and incorrect answer to the most basic "What interest does my account pay?" question.

Abbey's procedures were also unbeleivably arcane and kniving, claiming that their "systems" could not let me know the interest accrued on my account until the end of the ONE YEAR interest accrual period, effectively hiding their gross misrepresentations on interest rate payable for a FULL YEAR! My attempts at confirming the interest accrued before the end of the one year period were all thwarted by an even handed mixture of incompetence and cheek.

For comparison, I also opened a cash ISA with Lloyds TSB at the same time. It also advertised a 6.5% fixed 12 month rate, but in contrast to Abbey, their "systems" had no trouble confirming the interest acrued prior to the end of the one year accrual period ,and their staff were knowledgeable, curteous and helpfull. On top of all that I did get my 6.5% gross AER as promised.

I could not beleive the world of difference!

Pendle_Gazza

I agree with the Abbey sentiments.

In the last three months alone, they cocked up my ISA by recalling a transfer out to NatWest (cue several phone calls and letters to both sides to be able to transfer across again), and later blocked a separate transfer out three times, despite me ringing them and advising them of what I was doing. After another lost two weeks, I ended up having to write a cheque for that one.

Back to Lloyds for me soon.

PBA

TheKid wrote: »

I opened an Abbey Esaver in Apil 2008 headlining 6.5% fixed AER for 12 months and it has been a complete nightmare.

This has never been a product offered by Abbey, so undoubtedly it would be a nightmare.

Aside, I wouldn't advise transferring an ISA to a non-ISA account, better to leave it as is to benefit from tax free interest, both now and in the future.

TheKid

PBA wrote: »

This has never been a product offered by Abbey, so undoubtedly it would be a nightmare.

Aside, I wouldn't advise transferring an ISA to a non-ISA account, better to leave it as is to benefit from tax free interest, both now and in the future.

Interesting that you don't think that product was ever offered by Abbey, their staff certainly communicated to me that it did when I was looking around for a place to put my savings.

However it is true that Abbey staff did seem clueless at the best of times and their application process and documentation was disorganised and ambiguous. So I'll grant that it is possible that they unwitingly misrepresented what was on offer and that their seemingly predatory behaviour could be explained away by sheer incompetence. Either way, they cannot be trusted

Pendle_Gazza

You are correct, TheKid, Abbey did offer a 6.5% rate for 12 months, on their Esaver Direct account.

Joe65_2

TheKid wrote: »

I agree with the above. Stay away from Abbey.

I opened an Abbey Esaver in Apil 2008 headlining 6.5% fixed AER for 12 months and it has been a complete nightmare.

Abbey's call center and Clapham Junction staff were hopelessly clueless, each offering a different and incorrect answer to the most basic "What interest does my account pay?" question.

..................!

Why would you say that ?

There are loads of reviews showing how good Abbey are, here
http://www.banking-guide.org.uk/bank-abbey.html

& they seem quite consistent.

scott_lithgows

Joe65 wrote: »

Why would you say that ?

There are loads of reviews showing how good Abbey are, here
http://www.banking-guide.org.uk/bank-abbey.html

& they seem quite consistent.

How did you say that with a straight face ? :rotfl:

simon_templar_2

NATHAN BOSTOCK does not work for Abbey anymore.