Santander's "Test Your Loyalty" ISA

Baldur

aheetun wrote: »

True that is...only I dont have many tax years allowance as I'm pretty young! lol.
The lady int Santander branch told me to close and get a cheque out to put in the new IISA that way.

That's OK for this year, as your withdrawn funds would have been less than your 2011/12 ISA allowance of £5,340 (around £5,263.20 on £5100 @ 3.5%) but next April, assuming that you have subscribed the full allowance, you should have around £5,526.90 looking for a home.

The same withdrawal & redeposit ploy may be OK for next year if the ISA allowance increases for the 2012/13 tax year, but may not.

The_Enforcer

Vortigern wrote: »

1. 20 days loss of interest
2. Rate may not be available in 20 days time
3. Waste of time visiting branch twice

If you were to arrange an appointment now, morally they ought to honour the rate that applies at the time you made the appointment, as the delay is their fault.

badger09

Baldur wrote: »

It's OK for current tax year's allowance but not if you have built up many tax years' Cash ISA funds.

If you had opened and fully funded a Cash ISA every tax year since they were introduced, you'd have £44,640 + accrued interest (if under 50 on 5/4/2009) or £46,140 + accrued interest (if 50 or over on that date) earning tax free interest - pretty substantial interest, compared with a relatively minute £186.90 interest on £5,340 with Santander's Loyalty ISA.

I have slightly over £66000, including accrued interest and current year subscription in cash ISAs. But then I am 61 and old enough to remember TESSAs & TOISAs :cool:

It is a pain to have to move money around once rates drop, but well worth a bit of effort on such a sum

Baldur

badger09 wrote: »

I have slightly over £66000, including accrued interest and current year subscription in cash ISAs. But then I am 61 and old enough to remember TESSAs & TOISAs :cool:

It is a pain to have to move money around once rates drop, but well worth a bit of effort on such a sum.

The figures that I gave were merely the total allowances from 1999 to date (not including TESSA/TOISA allowances which have subsequently become Cash ISAs or any accrued interest).

On checking, prompted by your post, I find that my Cash ISA funds currently amount to a total in excess of £70,000.

essexmate

Knowing that the deadline to apply for the Loyalty Flexible ISA was today, I walked into the branch and they opened one for me there and then. It was all done in about 20 minutes. I only had to show my current account debit card and it was all sorted. I was given my account number with £0.00 balance and it was left up to me to transfer money into when I got home. I was quite impressed. The girl even checked my existing accounts and suggested that I upgrade my current account to the zero account to give me 5% interest for 12 months. It was well worth the visit.

MoneySavingSpender

IDEAL EXAMPLE OF SANTANDERS appalling customer services.

Gordon_the_Moron

Just a word of warning to anyone considering the 4% or 5% regular saver ISAs from Nottingham and Manchester BS.

The Manchester one loses the bonus if you make more than one withdrawal in a year or close the account (you can't transfer to another ISA without closing as you can't break up your current year's allowance and it doesn't accept transfers in)

The Nottingham account you lose 180 days interest if you close early (meaning it would pay substantially less than the best instant access ISA were you to do so !)

BOTH ACCOUNTS ARE VARIABLE RATES AND COULD BE DROPPED ANY TIME. YOU THEN HAVE NO ESCAPE HATCH !

Vortigern

The_Enforcer wrote: »

If you were to arrange an appointment now, morally they ought to honour the rate that applies at the time you made the appointment, as the delay is their fault.

Banks have morals??? :rotfl:

They warned me that the rate might change before my appointment so there's no point in making any sort of claim.

I cancelled my appointment at Santander and put this year's ISA money in the Halifax, along with last year's. A little less interest but a lot less hassle.