ISA Interest HELP

samv

HI,

I have a Direct ISA with Abbey (now Santander) I changed it to a Direct ISA in Feb last year, all I got interst on my £11k was £43.77 :mad:

I am so annoyed, my mum phoned up and Santander and they said the rate was 0.23% and that you should change your ISA every year, well no one told me that!

Anyone else had the same situation? I want to go into my bank and have a moan at them but I dont know if it will do any good??

HELP please!

Sam

10_66

Unfortunately, it's common practice for companies to offer headline rates to attract savers, only for them to drop the rate severely after 12 months (if not before). It's usually the ISA dance every year to transfer one year's ISA elsewhere to get the best rates you can. Waste of time (especially is you've several of them built up over the years), but sadly, that's the way it is. You could always take out a fixed rate ISA for a number of years, which at least saves you having to transfer every year, but then you have restrictions (like no instant access, if needed).

samv

Hi,

Thank you for replying, thats the problem, we are going to buy a house this year so we need the money and were looking to get approx £400 in interest! So annoyed!

Sam

dunwat2005

I have a cash ISA with Santander. I opened it in 2006 with Abbey as a Postal ISA, however, a couple of years ago I was advised by the bank to change to a Direct ISA. I was happy with the rate which was always competitive with the market. I left around £38,000 in the account throughout 2009 -2010 but I have just discovered that the bank decided to reduce the rate on this product to 0.5% at the start of this last year for customers who had had the account over 2 years; consequently when I was expecting to receive over £800 I have ended up with under £150. The bank did not inform me of this or of course I would have changed to a different provider. When I spoke to them they told me that I had 'Issue 1' of the Direct ISA but it had now been updated to 'Issue 6'; this information is not apparent in the marketing of Santander and when I told them about it they have offered to upgrade me to the normal Direct ISA. Of course this does not help me with the money I have lost for this tax year.
This seems like a scam to deprive people of their interest. It is not fair that they can reduce the interest rate on this product without informing me - they claim a letter was sent out but I never received it.
I am also wondering what I can do about this? Is there any way I can contest this or have I been screwed?
...Duncan

Newbie2saving

I learnt the same thing last year, realised that my hsbc ISA was around 0.25%, headlined a lot higher. Learnt the hard way, but now know to keep on top of bonuses, mark them in the calendar when they are due to expire and shop around for the best rates, I used to keep everything within hsbc which is what they want! Nothing you can do about chasing it, they will have told you in the T&C's either it was a variable rate or a bonus which expired (maybe very small print!).

samv

Its true dunwat2005, its so unfair, the lady in Santander said did no one tell you, well I was going to say yeah someone told me I would be getting a crap rate but I thought I would leave it so I can have a moan at you!

I will be using the money in the next 6 months, can anyone give me advice? Is it best t put the money somewhere else just so I can get a bit of monthly interest up until I need it!

Sam x

Antispam

So how can you avoid this OP only got the ISA 13 months ago

I just opened a Satander 3.5% ISA its says it will be 3% above BOE base rate surely it will always be that until 12 months

savemoney

How can you use 11k on a ISA I thought limit was much lower than that

Simon11

You are able to invest £3,600 every year.

So to get 11k, its taken him a few years and by putting in 3.6k every year and interested for the account increases it as well.

Mickygg

Dunwat - why have you copied and pasted exactly the same questions as a post you started elsewhere???

People have tried to advise you here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2370953

samv

Yeah its taken me and my partner and 3 - 4 years to get to this amount. And its been a struggle and will be for the next couple of years as we want to move house this year, our wedding next year and possibly think about kids soon after!

Sam x