Advise to decide what to do with my Halifax ISA - Nationwide? Virgin?

trinidadone

Hello All,

I have a ISA with the Haliax at the moment, and the 12 months bonus ends in a few weeks, which means the rate with fall from 3% to 0.5%.

I am looking at what to do next.

Halifax current ISA account is 2.6%.

I have looked on the top ISA payers;

3.1% Nationwide ISA and 2.85% Virgin ISA but have some questions.

Nationwide:
I am not a customer with NW, however, I understand I need to open another account paying a min of 100 quid. worth opening? can I just put 100 quid in one of there accounts and take it out after opening, or do I need to leave it in there? has online banking?

Virgin:
No hoops with this one, but pays less, does there isa have online facilities? easy to open?

any comments/advise/sugestions welcome

rb10

trinidadone wrote: »

Nationwide:
I am not a customer with NW, however, I understand I need to open another account paying a min of 100 quid. worth opening? can I just put 100 quid in one of there accounts and take it out after opening, or do I need to leave it in there? has online banking?

Once the card account has been opened, you can take it down to a balance of £1, and just leave it there.;

Nationwide have very good online banking.

I am in the same position as you, with a Halifax ISA Direct 4, rate due to drop at the end of this month.

I plan to leave a decision until later - both Halifax and others are likely to bring out better ISAs in the coming weeks. When it matures, I'll transfer it initially to Halifax's 2.6% account (or whatever rate they have then) before deciding where it should remain.

Halifax have in previous years raised the rate on their ISA Direct Reward on the final Monday in February.

trinidadone

rb10 wrote: »

Once the card account has been opened, you can take it down to a balance of £1, and just leave it there.;

Nationwide have very good online banking.

I am in the same position as you, with a Halifax ISA Direct 4, rate due to drop at the end of this month.

I plan to leave a decision until later - both Halifax and others are likely to bring out better ISAs in the coming weeks. When it matures, I'll transfer it initially to Halifax's 2.6% account (or whatever rate they have then) before deciding where it should remain.

Halifax have in previous years raised the rate on their ISA Direct Reward on the final Monday in February.

interesting to know, my ISA Direct 4 ends on 7th March just in time for the last monday. I did telephone the ISA helpline, and they told me we would need to complete a transfer form online for the 2.6%, I hope we see a min of 3% by the end of the month

talexuser

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/interest-rates/personal-rates/previous/#ISADR

Here on 1 and 2 it says rate falls after 12 months but on 3 and 4 there is no mention of this, just the stipulation if the account falls below £1 the rate will fall to Saver Direct 1%. I read this as the variable 3% should last until they change it provided you transferred after 22 Sep 2010? Is that right?

ungrezun

I am in the same position an I was told by Halifax that the rate will drop the end of feb so I am reading with interest....

Mandelbrot

talexuser wrote: »

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/interest-rates/personal-rates/previous/#ISADR

Here on 1 and 2 it says rate falls after 12 months but on 3 and 4 there is no mention of this, just the stipulation if the account falls below £1 the rate will fall to Saver Direct 1%. I read this as the variable 3% should last until they change it provided you transferred after 22 Sep 2010? Is that right?

Unfortunately, No.
Clearly, it was a slip (marketing ploy?) not to include the appropriate wording on the webpage you posted re Issues 3 and 4, but there were more detailed pages available at the time that mentioned it.
I can't find them right now with a search (Halifax's website seems in need of a bit of an overhaul - many of the accounts that are now 'closed' - but still held by millions - are badly represented in terms of useful info).
I suspect it will be in the T&C booklet for ISAs. Do you have that to hand?

ETA: Good Grief! :mad:
http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/pdf/cash-isa-account-conditions.pdf
They seem to have mucked that up as well!
This isn't the one I was referring to, which gave info about all the various accounts still valid (i.e. being held) at that time, even if they were closed to new entrants.
This version just seems to concentrate on their 'new' accounts.

ETA2:
Well, at least there is this (and it's not half-bad )
http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/savings/pdf/back-book-savings-account-conditions.pdf
See page 15 for the Halifax Direct Reward ISA.

ETA3: Which leads us back to :
http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/pdf/back-book-savings-account-conditions.pdf
See page 29
(I'm still not quite sure about the DR becoming a Saver Direct after 12 months, since the Saver Direct is also now closed, but hey! how long will any funds stay there anyway ...)

talexuser

Thanks. Just goes to show - now we need legislation to make sure they show all the important T&Cs on closed accounts, not hide them away (or just make mistakes) which can lead you to lose money by not having the relevant info to hand on the website. After all a website is cheap, they don't have to send out reams of paper - just have someone who can type and actually knows about the myriads of complicated products they continually launch!