The Savings Fountain Discussion Area

isasmurf

BUNNYSLAVINGMATTERS_:)= wrote:

Hi there.

Hi. Welcome to MSE

In response to the I.S.A. investment's. If I am on benefit's I still am a tax-payer right?

Everyone is a taxpayer. But all taxpayers get a Personal Allowance for which they don't pay income tax. People whose total income is within this allowance are what everyone refers to as non-taxpayers. The Basic personal allowance for those under 65 is £4,745, but will go up to £4,895 from 6th April. Some people's allowances are different.

Any UK resident over 16 years old is allowed to invest in an ISA, you don't have to be paying tax.

Also with regular savings how much % is taken by tax man?

All Savings accounts (except ISAs) automatically deduct 20% tax from the interest. If your income, including savings interest, is within the personal allowances mentioned above then you can register to have the interest paid without tax deducted. You will need to fill in an R85 and hand it to your bank. They are available from your bank or from the IR website

And with an instant I.S.A. if they pay annually, do they pay interest on the total amount that you have invested, or the amount that is in there at the time it pays out the interest?

Most banks calculate interest daily and holds it in a separate pot that you can't see. When it comes to pay interest it pays that pot into your account. So it pays interest on the amount invested each day.

P.S. Virgin newbie... Great site, been fantasising about a site like this for a long long, but not innocent time!

Hmmm, not another Martin groupie :rolleyes:

Silver_Lilly

My 13 week old daughters garandparents want to open a savings account for her paying in £10 per month.
We have looked into high interest accounts but you need to be over 18 to open one and the childrens accounts say they would have to be in an aldult name if she is under 7.
We want to have an account in her name so she gets the tax benefit.
We dont want cfc account as we are keeping that separate.
What would you reccomend ?the more i look at accounts the more confused i get!!

quinlanmd

If you are limiting your search to just savings accounts, the Derbyshire Regular Savings account @ 5.85% p.a. including bonus might be worth a look.

- Min. £10 per month.
- Allows accounts held as trustee (I'm assuming that as they mention this it is likely that an account can be opened by the grandparents as trustee for your daughter).
- Does require at least 11 of 12 regular monthly payments to get the bonus, though (you don't indicate how firm the £10 a month arrangement would be - this account would be unsuitable if it is an adhoc arrangement)
- 1 penalty-free withdrawal per year is allowed.

Don't worry about trying to get an account in your daughter's sole name - an account held in the grandparent's names as trustee for your daughter with a completed R85 form is sufficient to ensure the savings are tax-free.

irelandsall

We only moved the kids money to A&L in December and now we'll be moving it again!
I happened to mention to the girl at the A&L branch that I was appalled by the rate cut and she agreed with me! That's a first. You normally just get the party line.

Chris_Miller

Martin, I am looking for a not so risky investment to increase my portfolio. I have bought a cheap flat which I rent out, and have an L&G income bond which is performing well. I consider I still have too much money tied up in the building society though, but am afraid to risk too much money-Any suggestions please?

★jennaphoenix★

Hey!

Ooo I hate to add up on the mountain of questions! But any advise would be great.

Well I'm off to uni this month. I have read and appreciate greatly the advise given in the students finance page. Thank you very much for that, I will be going with Halifax for they're lovely student overdraft account for sure!

The one thing I want to sort out is a good savings account. I'd like to have all my loans and grants paid into a savings account and then to pay monthly into my student account with the overdraft.

My reason for posting is I would like to find a decent savings account. preferably one aimed at students (hey I need to try sponge what I can right? =P)
Are there such things as perhaps high interest student saving accounts?
I've also been told I should look into getting an ISA?

It's all too confusing! Ahh growing up in the world of money, loans, overdrafts, debt, ISAs, mortgage's etc!?! not very fun!

grumbler

Hi

★jennaphoenix&#9733 wrote:

... I would like to find a decent savings account. preferably one aimed at students ... Are there such things as perhaps high interest student saving accounts?

No. You are more likely to find such things as low interest overdrafts aimed at students . If you go for Halifax use their Web Saver (4.65% now) and Regular Saver (7%) - I guess you have read the article discussed here.
ISA is good only for taxpayers. Students don't pay tax if they don't have extra income (just submit R85 form(s) to the bank to avoid paying 20% tax on any interest). In this case it is worth having ISA only if you are going to keep some money in it for some time after you finish uni and become a taxpayer: 'ISAs - save tax' article.

★jennaphoenix★

thank you grumbler!!

hoorah for me the tax dodger

lipidicman

grumbler wrote:

In this case it is worth having ISA only if you are going to keep some money in it for some time after you finish uni and become a taxpayer

This is good advice, since if you are prudent you can have a nice sum tucked away when you graduate, especially as a science grad student where you can get living grants of £12k+ tax-free to live on.

Also a lot of students become tax payers whilst at uni if they work all holidays (5 months in some cases)

jennaphoenix wrote:

It's all too confusing! Ahh growing up in the world of money, loans, overdrafts, debt, ISAs, mortgage's etc!?! not very fun!

Yep, they really need to teach finance at school. The problem is that most teacher's probably dont know enough!

cjn_2

Firstly, great article. I haven't been through the whole of this thread so apologies if I'm repeating anyone, although if I could just pick up on one minor point:

While a Cash ISA may be higher up on the savings fountain than a regular saver, many regular savers offer higher rates of interest. Even after (standard rate) tax, Halifax RSA pays me 5.6%, favourable against 5.25% on my HSBC Cash ISA. Therefore, it would seem worth waiting until March to use my annual ISA allowance; putting the money into the RSA in the meantime.