Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

BargainGalore

Halifax did last year for me on 3 isa's

lisyloo

Has anyone benefited from "ISA promise",

Yep, took 6 weeks to transfer my ISA to Halifax in November 2010.
I gained 5 weeks interest from it - 1 week was genuine transfer "in the post" time.

This time the transfer from Halifax has been almost instantaneous, so I think the guidelines have been tightened up.
There are now guidelines for exactly how long everything should take (15 days) so I think there has been significant improvement.

But certainly a lot of people got double interest.
We had quite a lot in ISAs and I think we gained several hundred of pounds between the two of us from the ISA promise (£240 rings a bell).

Kazza242

rb10 wrote: »

That is part of the General ISA Terms and Conditions.

Under the Direct Cash ISA T&Cs (condition 2), it says:

adindas wrote:

For direct Cash ISA i1
They do not allow transfer in from previous year subscription. I called them about a week ago in two different time and persons. Both confirmed no transfer in is allowed.

Kazza242 wrote: »

There seemed to be confusion amongst Cheshire staff about this. When I called them when the ISA first launched, the advisor told me that it didn't accept transfers in.

I am going to move it to the variable rate ISA transfers section but I will also contact Cheshire again tomorrow.

Hi rb10 and adindas, as stated in my post above, I fully intended to call Cheshire today to ask a manager to check this again (please see the section of my quote above highlighted in bold), as they seem to be giving conflicting information about this ISA.

As promised, I did call Cheshire first thing this morning and I spoke with a manager about this. He wasn't sure at first and then after 10 mins, he told me that he'd checked this and that it doesn't accept transfers in. I will be updating the first post in a moment.

Kazza242

edda wrote: »

The rates for the M&S fixed ISAs have increased:

Thanks edda. The revised rates have been added to the first post.

It's ISA season now and there'll be frequent changes to rates between now and May.

sly_dog_jonah

adindas wrote: »

Dear All

Has anyone benefited from "ISA promise", the new provider promise to pay interest start from the day they receive the transfer from, not the day they receives the money.

Yep I have benefitted from it 3 times, first when transferring into Halifax, then later into Nationwide (the latter of which took 2 months from application to receipt, so for most of that 2 months I got paid nearly double interest on £11.5k), and finally getting when getting the closing balance transferred to Nationwide again.

The final transfer in Sept only took 5 days though.

CarolynCh

Boobbby wrote: »

just had a look and it is still showing on my computer.. it is under variable cash ISA's that allow transfers in

Kazza242 wrote: »

The Nationwide Online ISA has been on the list of ISAs on the first page for some time. Maybe your Internet browser is displaying a cached page?

Here is where the ISA is on the list:

Variable Rate Cash ISAs that accept transfers in:


[*]Nationwide Online ISA - 3.10%
Rate guarantee? Yes, fixed until 31/01/2013. Rate effective from: 11/11/2011.
Minimum deposit: £25,000 (to qualify for the higher rate). Operated via: Internet.
Important: After 31/01/2013 reverts to variable rate. Unlimited withdrawals.

Sorry, didn't explain myself very well - what I meant was, why isn't the Nationwide ISA showing at the top of the "top rate cash ISA" list since the rate is higher than Cheshire @3.06%. Presumably because the balance is more than one year's ISA allowance? So the "top rate cash ISA" list is really only for those wishing to just invest for the current tax year.

sly_dog_jonah

CarolynCh wrote: »

Sorry, didn't explain myself very well - what I meant was, why isn't the Nationwide ISA showing at the top of the "top rate cash ISA" list since the rate is higher than Cheshire @3.06%. Presumably because the balance is more than one year's ISA allowance? So the "top rate cash ISA" list is really only for those wishing to just invest for the current tax year.

Indeed, the quote above the first list reads:

Variable Rate Cash ISAs for 'new money' only (i.e. they don't accept transfers in):

So it's quite right that the first list doesn't include Nationwide's account.

Kazza242

CarolynCh wrote: »

Sorry, didn't explain myself very well - what I meant was, why isn't the Nationwide ISA showing at the top of the "top rate cash ISA" list since the rate is higher than Cheshire @3.06%. Presumably because the balance is more than one year's ISA allowance? So the "top rate cash ISA" list is really only for those wishing to just invest for the current tax year.

As already explained by sly_dog_jonah, the Nationwide Online ISA features at the top of the variable rate ISAs list for products that accept transfers in. The Cheshire BS Direct Cash ISA (issue 1) is at the top of the 'new money' does not accept transfers list.

I prefer to keep the products that accept transfers in and those that don't separate. Going by the feedback I've had, it seems to work well.

Kazza242

The new Aldermore one year fixed rate ISA, paying 3.35% has been added to the list on the first page.

boobbby

I notice today in the Mail that the Nationwide ISA issue 3 will pay 3.1% and you will only need to invest £1000. Available later this week !!