Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

boobbby

innovate wrote: »

make your decision in March 2015? Nobody will nick your ISA allowance before then, and interest rates will almost certainly not be worse than they are now. Even if they were, you still have a £100 advantage in the bag. But only you can decide what's best for you

Your right ! I suppose I was really asking if anybody thought the ISA interest rate would improve before I go for another FRISA. There seems to be a question being asked by lenders about funding your mortgage at higher interest rates which in my mind might just be preparing people for that eventuality. (must be my suspicious mind)

boobbby

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Are there any other high interest paying current accts? Santander 123 is not an option for me as I don't pay enough bills for the cashback to outweigh the fee. I gather Lloyds Vantage might have been an option but it's dropping its rate in July?



Nationwide also pays 5% on its flexdirect current account

innovate

purplestar133 wrote: »

Are there any other high interest paying current accts? Santander 123 is not an option for me as I don't pay enough bills for the cashback to outweigh the fee. I gather Lloyds Vantage might have been an option but it's dropping its rate in July?

Vantage would not really have been an option since you need at least £3K in to account to get 3%. Similar is true for the 123.

As you are only looking for a home for £1.5K, would the Nationwide FlexDirect work for you? 5% for up to £2.5K for 12 months.

You are saying you are using the YB account to save your Current year's ISA money in - that maxes out at £3K, too. Other interest paying current accounts might not be a good choice for you since you don't get decent interest below at least £3K - - but since you seem to do regular saving, what about a monthly saver that pays 3%? Newcastle BHS comes in ISA and non-ISA form, and you can put in max £1,250 a month. Similar at Nottingham BS if you have access to one of their branches - their ISA pays 4% for max £1,250 a month.

purplestar133

boobbby wrote: »

[

Are there any other high interest paying current accts? Santander 123 is not an option for me as I don't pay enough bills for the cashback to outweigh the fee. I gather Lloyds Vantage might have been an option but it's dropping its rate in July?



Nationwide also pays 5% on its flexdirect current account

innovate wrote: »

Vantage would not really have been an option since you need at least £3K in to account to get 3%. Similar is true for the 123.

As you are only looking for a home for £1.5K, would the Nationwide FlexDirect work for you? 5% for up to £2.5K for 12 months.

You are saying you are using the YB account to save your Current year's ISA money in - that maxes out at £3K, too. Other interest paying current accounts might not be a good choice for you since you don't get decent interest below at least £3K - - but since you seem to do regular saving, what about a monthly saver that pays 3%? Newcastle BHS comes in ISA and non-ISA form, and you can put in max £1,250 a month. Similar at Nottingham BS if you have access to one of their branches - their ISA pays 4% for max £1,250 a month.

Thanks. Forgot to say I've already had the Nationwide FlexDirect year at 5%, used that for last year's ISA money.

Will have a look at the regular savers. I might not be able to meet the conditions as I can't always save every month but will look into it.

Thanks!

innovate

Many monthly savers don't require the same sum each month. £1 a month is allowed in the Newcastle one, as well as as many payments as you like, up to £1,250 each month.

purplestar133

innovate wrote: »

Many monthly savers don't require the same sum each month. £1 a month is allowed in the Newcastle one, as well as as many payments as you like, up to £1,250 each month.

I've not looked at the details yet and I'm just thinking out loud, but if I was to do this, I should prob use the remaining £1500 from Santander to max out the YB current acct and then put any monthly savings into the regular saver. What strikes me though is that if I use a regular saver ISA for this year's money, I'm not going to have anywhere to put the current acct money at the end of the year. The plan was to get the higher interest rate in the current accts and then put in an ISA last min for the tax free status. Unless I use the current accts to drip feed into the regular saver isa over the year, which isn't going to be maximising the interest is it?

I had all my ISAs planned out and open and I'm now I'm getting in a last minute tangle!

Thanks for all your thoughts on this. Sometimes (usually, actually) I just need someone to say "what about doing this...", it's like I can't see the wood for the trees otherwise!

(Oh and I do have a Nottingham BS branch near me.)

purplestar133

Just looking at the details for the Nottingham BS Starter ISA Issue 4.

They say "In March 2015 you can top up your balance to £15,000 which is the maximum ISA allowance for the tax year 2014-2015".

So, I can pay in any spare money I have at the end of the month, each month then, towards the end of the tax year, put the money I have been keeping in high interest currents accounts into the Starter ISA too?

If so, that answers the concerns I noted in my earlier post!

It's just odd how it says you can do it in March 2015, not in July when the changes come in, and no further detail, like when in March.

It's also a pain that it's operated by branch. I can do it as I work near the branch, but would rather be able to make online transfers.

Ed-1

purplestar133 wrote: »

Just looking at the details for the Nottingham BS Starter ISA Issue 4.

They say "In March 2015 you can top up your balance to £15,000 which is the maximum ISA allowance for the tax year 2014-2015".

So, I can pay in any spare money I have at the end of the month, each month then, towards the end of the tax year, put the money I have been keeping in high interest currents accounts into the Starter ISA too?

If so, that answers the concerns I noted in my earlier post!

It's just odd how it says you can do it in March 2015, not in July when the changes come in, and no further detail, like when in March.

It's also a pain that it's operated by branch. I can do it as I work near the branch, but would rather be able to make online transfers.

The top up in March is nothing to do with the increased limit. Because its a fixed term account that matures on 5th April, since the maximum monthly limit is £1250 if you open the account late or missed payments in earlier months, you wouldn't be able to reach the £15000 ISA limit by 5th April 2015 so the monthly limit is removed from 1st March 2015 to allow you to reach the limit for the final month of the account regardless of what you have paid in previously.

amiehall

purplestar133 wrote: »

Just looking at the details for the Nottingham BS Starter ISA Issue 4.

They say "In March 2015 you can top up your balance to £15,000 which is the maximum ISA allowance for the tax year 2014-2015".

So, I can pay in any spare money I have at the end of the month, each month then, towards the end of the tax year, put the money I have been keeping in high interest currents accounts into the Starter ISA too?

If so, that answers the concerns I noted in my earlier post!

It's just odd how it says you can do it in March 2015, not in July when the changes come in, and no further detail, like when in March.

It's also a pain that it's operated by branch. I can do it as I work near the branch, but would rather be able to make online transfers.

It's a regular saver ISA so you can pay in a max of £1250 each month. This means that you will automatically stick to the current and new ISA allowances over the year. You don't need to be allowed to make up the extra in July as if you saved £1250 each month, you would end up with £15k saved over the year. Like most regular saver ISAs, they then allow you to top the account up at the end of the year so you don't lose any of your allowance if you were unable to pay in the full amount each month for whatever reason.

I definitely don't understand your point about branch access. Once the account is open, you can definitely use online transfers to deposit the money. No partial withdrawals are allowed from the account, so trips to the branch to do this are not necessary.

Ed-1

amiehall wrote: »

It's a regular saver ISA so you can pay in a max of £1250 each month. This means that you will automatically stick to the current and new ISA allowances over the year. You don't need to be allowed to make up the extra in July as if you saved £1250 each month, you would end up with £15k saved over the year. Like most regular saver ISAs, they then allow you to top the account up at the end of the year so you don't lose any of your allowance if you were unable to pay in the full amount each month for whatever reason.

I definitely don't understand your point about branch access. Once the account is open, you can definitely use online transfers to deposit the money. No partial withdrawals are allowed from the account, so trips to the branch to do this are not necessary.

You don't even need branch access to transfer away when the account matures as you just send the transfer form to your new provider!