Abbey launch new 5.75% mini cash ISA

wifeforlife

Hi I dont really know too much about ISA's except that they run with the tax year. So basically without sounding really stupid, if I opened it now what would happen 31-03-07?

I also had good experiences with abbey so was drawn to the thread

Cath

Kazza242

cathy2702 wrote: »

Hi I dont really know too much about ISA's except that they run with the tax year. So basically without sounding really stupid, if I opened it now what would happen 31-03-07?

Hi cathy, I'm not sure I understand the question, but I'll try to answer it. This tax year runs until April 5th 2007 and the new tax year starts from the following day (April 6th 2007).

If you opened the Abbey ISA now you would be making use of your £3,000 cash isa allowance for 2006 - 07. If you don't use it you lose it forever. If you haven't deposited any money into a cash isa this tax year, then you've got until April 5th to do so. This means that you could deposit up to £3,000 now and another £3,000 from April 6th into a mini cash isa totalling up to £6,000.

Please follow the link for more information on how ISA's work:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1077487692,12362,

Kilty_2

Anyone actually opening a new ISA rather than transferring can't go wrong by taking an NS&I Direct ISA at 5.80% guaranteed to be 0.55% above base rate until 2009 surely?

YorkshireBoy

Beate wrote: »

Right, no bad words about Abbey, interesting.

Since you've asked...

I had a top-paying Safeway postal ISA a few years ago, which was administered by Abbey. When the rate became uncompetitive I moved to Intelligent Finance and Abbey managed to make the most basic of mistakes...someone forgot to sign the cheque!!!!!

This lost me approximately two weeks interest, which they said they couldn't replace. They obviously compensated me for my loss, but it still left a bad taste.

ManAtHome

Kilty wrote: »

Anyone actually opening a new ISA rather than transferring can't go wrong by taking an NS&I Direct ISA at 5.80% guaranteed to be 0.55% above base rate until 2009 surely?

Is it 2008 or 2009 Kitty - still my preferred ISA for new money by the way, with Kent Reliance (5.71%) for transfers as neither of them seem to drag their feet when BoE rates increase.

Kazza242

Kilty wrote: »

Anyone actually opening a new ISA rather than transferring can't go wrong by taking an NS&I Direct ISA at 5.80% guaranteed to be 0.55% above base rate until 2009 surely?

I was actually thinking of keeping my existing isa savings and new isa for 2007-08 separate rather than combining them into one isa account with one provider.

Right now NS&I is a very strong contender for my new isa. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my existing isa savings, whether a variable or a fixed rate. It depends on where you see the rates going. I may fix some of it while leaving some of it in a variable isa.

RayWolfe

Kazza242 wrote: »

I I may fix some of it while leaving some of it in a variable isa.

Sounds like a very sensible strategy.
Why?
Because that's what I'm doing! ;-)

Kazza242

RayWolfe wrote: »

Sounds like a very sensible strategy.
Why?
Because that's what I'm doing! ;-)

Agreed, it does seem like the most sensible strategy, as none of us, including the leading economists know for sure where rates will be going. With this strategy you can't really lose out on a large scale because fixing part of your savings protects you from dips in the BOE base rate, while the variable isa's allow you to enjoy some of the increases in rates.

Regarding the variable part of your isa savings, I think it is also sensible to go for a variable rate isa which guarantees to match base rate increases otherwise you could still lose out even if rates rise.

Kilty_2

Ah, I was a bit mistaken with NS&I, it's guaranteed until 5 April 2008.

empfun

This Abbey mini cash ISA sounds good.

I already have an existing postal ISA with Abbey with a £10K balance. If I opened this new cash ISA in 07/08 financial year. Can I transfer my full balance and add new £3K on top? Will the whole balance of £13K be earning 5.75%? Thanks a lot!