Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

Kazza242

KrazyKash wrote: »

Hello:cool:

Sorry if this seems like a silly question. In an ISA (or any saving account) than pays interest annually (say March 2008) - if one was to put £3000 in now would the interest not be higher (once paid out in March) than if the deposit was made later eg December?

Yes, because interest is calculated daily and in most cases paid annually - though some accounts pay monthly interest. Therefore, the earlier you have the money in the account during the year, the more interest you'll receive.

Kazza242

malcolmwilliamson wrote: »

I have recently transferred all my ISAs up to 2006-2007 to Abbey Direct.
I haven't yet taken up an ISA for this tax year.
Financial pundits all reckon that interest rates are set to rise again soon so I'm waiting for a month or two to see which is the best buy then. Is that a good idea?

There's nothing wrong with waiting, I think that it is sensible to do so, especially with the anticipated base rate rise next month. The MPC are meeting on the 9/10th May to discuss it and it looks pretty likely that they will increase it to 5.50%.

A couple of weeks after the base rate decision, we should all know which providers are increasing their variable rate ISAs fully. Hopefully, some new fixed rate ISAs should be launched too - though it isn't certain that they will pay higher rates than those currently available.

Woodyrocks

Hope you don't mind Kazza but just wanted to update on my Taxbeater situation. I popped into the branch yesterday and was given an appointment for today to try and find out what is going on with the ISA I opened on March 19th and still haven't heard anything about. I was told in the end that the a/c hadn't been open yet but was still in processing. This led to me requesting they call whoever they needed to confirm this. I was told though that I would be paid interest from the day the app was received (19th). As I have been trying to pay more money in for about 11days now I was also informed that everyone that has had trouble depositing their allowance for the NEW tax year due to having no a/c number for their isa will also have interest paid from the first date of the new tax year. I was given an address in Liverpool to forward a cheque to along with a cover note and a note was also made on the computer.

The last word was that I should receive all relevant paperwork by May 1st. The personal advisor asked me if I had thought about taking up other services with Barclays and it was all I could do not to laugh. They have not sold themselves well at all with this campaign.

Kazza242

Thanks for the info Woodyrocks. I think the info you've posted above would also be really helpful to the members on the 'Barclays Tax Beater ISA - the experiences so far' thread.

Barclays have completely underestimated the demand for this ISA. I really hope that within the next week they get more ISAs open. When mine is finally opened I will ask them to backdate the interest.

Angelselondon

Kazza,

Thank you so much for this, I've been looking for a thread like this all year.

Leanne
x

Kazza242

Angelselondon wrote: »

Kazza,

Thank you so much for this, I've been looking for a thread like this all year.

Leanne
x

You're welcome. I'm glad the thread has helped.

DemiDee

You have done a grand job Kazza! What useful thread!
After the mammouth task of compiling (and keeping up to date!)
all this information, I would be interested to know what you
plumped for in terms of an ISA Kazza. :-)

Kazza242

DemiDee wrote: »

You have done a grand job Kazza! What useful thread!

Thanks. I'm pleased it's helped so many people.

DemiDee wrote: »

After the mammouth task of compiling (and keeping up to date!) all this information, I would be interested to know what you plumped for in terms of an ISA Kazza. :-)

This year I chose not to keep all of my ISA savings with one provider. So I went for a 'new money' ISA for my 07/08 allowance. As I hold a 12.5% regular savings account and current account with them, I went with Barclays' 6.50% offering. They are taking an age to open up their ISAs, but they have promised to backdate interest.

For my existing ISA savings from previous tax years, I considered the Abbey Direct ISA 5.75%, Kent Reliance 5.71%, YBS 5.65% and Northern Rock's 1 6.01% ISA and even completed the application form for the latter. However, as it looks likely that BOE base rate will rise again on May 10th and some of my ISAs don't mature until around then, I've decided to wait a few weeks longer before making my final decision.

Middle_Sister

Same here. I'm holding out till mid May.

DemiDee

Me too! Many thanks for your response Kazza! You do realise that you have an 'ISA fan following' now don't you?!