Help – best possible return for six months of saving?

Mr._H_2

Joshua_T wrote: »

Mr. H, that was ruddy fast! Many thanks, of course I can't deposit twice for the ISA oops and my normal account is NatWest. That 3.2% on the ISA if I have the rewards account would be very good on the transferred balance so that does seem worth it as well as the £30 I can gain.

Only Nationwide is better than my ING, 3.05% instead of 3% so I can just fill it with my new monthly amounts and I think I'm sorted.

What about the overdraft? I don't understand why you are paying for this? You may have missed this query in my earlier post as I added it later.

Joshua_T

Mr._H wrote: »

Last thing: I'm confused about why you're planning on saving £700 a month, have excess funds in your ING account, have money in ISAs that you're planning in spending all of in 6 months time, but you're still using your overdraft and presumably paying for this? How much does your overdraft cost? Moving enough money from your savings accounts to guarantee you don't go into your overdfraft at any point in the month will almost certainly maximise your return during this 6 month period.

Yep, just caughty your edit, thanks! This is the other main thing I know I need to address - probably illogical but I've previously operated by having the money separate in savings, I know I can access that if the boiler goes kaput or whatever, whereas the bank can cancel, change the amount of or request my overdraft to be fully repaid at any time and if the money is elsewhere at least I control having some cash available. Cost is probably £5-10 per month interest. I may have to look at using my ING account to try and get into black during this period as you say, and stop costing myself money.

Joshua_T

Just opened a letter from Barclays and received a bit of a blow: it seems that they couldn't accept the £2000 deposit I made in cash at their branch last week to take my £4000 old ISA to £6000 in tax year 2010/11 (got a mini statement showing it too), as I did not make a deposit during 2009/10. As there was a break of over one tax year since my last deposit I am "required to provide a new ISA declaration before further deposits can be accepted" which I didn't do, or know about to be honest.

The letter goes on to say as there's no time to submit the declaration by post in tax year 2010/11 (letter is dated 5 April) they have to return my deposit, and there is a cheque for £2000.10 including 12 pence interest less tax. They offer to open a new ISA or deposit to this existing one and complete the enclosed declaration.

This is pretty annoying, as you can see from this thread I thought I would have £6000 to transfer to Halifax but it will now only be £4000. The teller didn't ask me about deposits made or a declaration, maybe I should have known but haven't come across that before. Is there anything I can do except just suck it up and find the best home for this cheque?

Mr._H_2

In my opinion, this is clearly Barclays' fault. The teller should have known about this issue (or their computer screen should have alerted them to it) and told you.

Depending on how old and healthy you are, this could potentially have cost you a considerable amount over your lifetime had you intended to save the money indefinitely. You will never again get the chance to get that specific £2000 inside an ISA wrapper and will therefore have to pay tax on any interest it earns for the rest of your life. That can add up! If you can be bothered, write a letter to them pointing all of this out and ask for £50 (?) compensation; a drop in the ocean compared to how much you potentially lost out on.

If it makes you feel any better, given your intended six month saving period, this mistake will actually cost you about £8.

Joshua_T

Morning Mr. H and thanks again, I shall indeed write to Barclays as you suggest and will see what happens.