Halifax ISA 3.00% AER now available.

Rautavaara

Seems like an excellent deal.

Just a couple of questions:

* How many can be opened at the same time?

* Can all the accounts be closed at the same time i.e. within 4 months of opening?

Is it as simple as money in ... high interest, money out when you need it, ISA closed when you want? Seems like a great rate for such a flexible deal.

planemad

Rautavaara wrote: »

Seems like an excellent deal.

Just a couple of questions:

* How many can be opened at the same time?

* Can all the accounts be closed at the same time i.e. within 4 months of opening?

Is it as simple as money in ... high interest, money out when you need it, ISA closed when you want? Seems like a great rate for such a flexible deal.

One account per person over 16 years old.

Max inwards payments per year £5100 (But does change yearly)

If you are looking at such short term (4 months) then this product may not really be worth it to you.

anselld

Is there any way a 16 year old can get the extra 0.2%.

They would seem to qualify for the ISA but not be able to open any of the accounts required for the additional reward, is that right?

planemad

anselld wrote: »

Is there any way a 16 year old can get the extra 0.2%.

They would seem to qualify for the ISA but not be able to open any of the accounts required for the additional reward, is that right?

Minimum age on the Current Account is 18. you could go for a Santander ISA at 3.15. but I would not go to Santander.

VT82

Woo hoo. Very chuffed to be getting 3.2% on my ISA after a ten minute phone call. And I can transfer my current year's Santander paying 3.2% to it without having to worry about squeezing the last few days out of the bonus.

Still going to put the next year's lot into Santander paying 3.15% though, as I suspect the base rate guarantee will be worth more than Halifax's (for now) 0.05% higher rate. Don't worry, I have my fingers crossed too so it'll be fine

tom-i

I've just opened this ISA (my first ISA this tax year) - if I were to fill it with £5100 immediately how would the interest work on the account?

Then from the 6th April I will begin to fill it with the further £5345 allowed. Will I then receive 3% tax-free interest on all £10,445? I'm slightly confused.. :huh:

blueberrypie

JulieM wrote: »

Thankyou. I'm not sure whether I'm being dim or whether I'm expecting too much from Halifax! What I would really like to see on my online account is something to show me the interest rate that I'm actually getting at any time, not a link to the rates for the account.

Presumably you're still on the old-style banking interface then? The new one does provide that info, as I said. As rb10 said, it won't show you the extra Reward bit, but as long as it shows you the 3.0%, you'll know you're on the right rate - the extra 0.2% is a "bonus" so wouldn't be displayed on the account (they can't know that you'll keep your current account open and funded, etc). I wonder if they'll show the extra separately when interest is paid? - I would think probably not, but it would be quite useful if they did.

blueberrypie

anselld wrote: »

Is there any way a 16 year old can get the extra 0.2%.

They would seem to qualify for the ISA but not be able to open any of the accounts required for the additional reward, is that right?

That's correct - much to my 16-year-old's chagrin. He intends to open a Reward current account the day he turns 18 - he's just hoping they don't change it before then :-D

Still, even at 3%, it's the best instant-access rate available at the minute (apart from Santander, which I'm not counting because they really are *not* worth it!)

blueberrypie

tom-i wrote: »

I've just opened this ISA (my first ISA this tax year) - if I were to fill it with £5100 immediately how would the interest work on the account?

Then from the 6th April I will begin to fill it with the further £5345 allowed. Will I then receive 3% tax-free interest on all £10,445? I'm slightly confused.. :huh:

The interest rate is an annual one, but is calculated daily - so if you had £5100 in there for 30 of the 365 days of the year, you'd get 30/365 of the interest rate. If you funded it today, you'd get 36 days worth of interest on whatever amount you had in it, which amounts to about £15 (at 3%) - this would be added on April 5th or 6th, I believe.

Once April 6th rolls around, if you were to put another £5345 in there, you'd be earning interest on the total amount (£5345 + £5100 + £15).

glider3560

JulieM wrote: »

Thankyou. I'm not sure whether I'm being dim or whether I'm expecting too much from Halifax! What I would really like to see on my online account is something to show me the interest rate that I'm actually getting at any time, not a link to the rates for the account. I had problems with them last year when I asked to redesignate my isa from 2.6% to 2.8% and though I was told this had gone through, the change over wasn't actioned and my rate dropped to something like 0.5% without my realising. I thought I was getting 2.8% and I wasn't. I was lucky that they admitted their error and it was sorted out and I got the backdated interest but a bit of on line information could have avoided this.

On the old online banking, when you click onto the Transactions page, a blue bar at the top says what type of account you have. "ISA Saver Direct 3" is 2.8%, "ISA Saver Direct 4" is 3.0%.