NS&I vs Halifax

RayWolfe

Yes, provided you do not exceed 3K in total for both old and new proveder for the current tax year.
Ray

dugmud

Hi, first post. I'm looking to dump money into savings, but do I need a mini cash ISA the best paying £500 after three years (works out at £333 after two years), or do I go for the Lloyds TSB saver at 8% giving a return of £440 after 2 years? These figures I've taken from Martin's web site and assume low rate tax payer and maximum amount per month of investment. Am I missing something here or are ISA's still the first port of call?

zag2me

It will always be better putting it in an ISA, as its a "use it or loose it" tax break.

gill_81uk

I have a query about the NSANDI direct isa. You have to open it with a minimum of £1000, which isnt a problem, but if i need to take a chunk of that money out leaving it with say just £750 or £500 will i still get the interest rate of 5.3% or do i have to always have a minimum of £1000 in there? This is the first ISA that I will have opened, atm I use egg savings with a rate of 4.75%

zag2me

You really shouldn't ever take money out of your isa, since once its out, you can never put that allowance back in.

Not sure what would happen, but you should still get the 5.3% rate.

ReportInvestor

The NSI terms and conditions don't say that you can't withdraw money out below £1K, so there shouldn't be a problem.

It's not quite true to say that you shouldn't withdraw money from an ISA.

If it's your only savngs and you aren't saving £3K pa then it's a perfectly sensible thing to do to make your money work as hard as possible, tax free, even for a short while.