What To Do?

Susan59

My husband and I are both semi retired and have a small amount in a savings account. We also have two S & S ISA's with Scottish Widows (since 2006). We want to give our daughter some money (approx £7000) towards her wedding but neither of us have ever been financial whizzes and up to now have relied on the financial advisor at our bank. Having somewhat lost confidence in our bank we would welcome any advice:

1)Should we cash in one of our ISA's or take the funds from our nest egg?

and in any case

2)Should we be in fact switching to cash ISA's?

Many thanks

Farway

You cannot switch S & S ISA to cash ISA, you can switch cash ISA to S & S one

But your savings may be better off in cash ISA, at least no tax worries there, you would have to be prepared to check the interest rates at least annually, as they tend to change at short notice, these boards help keep you up to speed on offers, or catches

Is your S & S ISA showing a profit or not? If showing profit perhasp you could sell to pay daughter, if showing loss then no point in making a loss at this stage of a recession. As only started 2006 I suspect it is in the red now

If you care to name the funds some one may know for sure how they have fared since 2006

Financial advisors in banks are really just salesmen selling one companies products, so your loss of confidence is not misplaced

PS welcome to the Forums

Susan59

Thank you so very much for your advice and your kind welcome. Will definitely invest in a cash ISA with some of our savings.

The S & S ISA's are not in profit - actually in the red, although not by a huge amount, so your comment about no point in making a loss is valid.

Thank you - it's nice to know there's a place to come where advice is unbiased!!:T

Primrose

I'd never rely on a bank for financial advice. They can only offer their own savings products which are invariably much less competitive than other financial offers available on the open market. If your S & S ISAs are currently in loss there is no point in liquidating them. The market is currently moving upwards, although for how long is anybody's guess so best to hang on it there for the ride and hope for longer term improvements.
You would probably be better off cashing in some of your savings to give to your daughter, and in future if you can't afford to lose money, stick to Cash ISAs only, rather than investing in the stock market. As you say you're semi retired, I assume you'll qualify for the larger Cash ISA allowance from October so if you and your husband are taxpayers it makes sense to maximise your cash ISA allowances every year, shopping around for the best offers available and making sure that you review the rates on a regular basis.