Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

sly_dog_jonah

10_66 wrote: »

first direct are reducing the interest rates on their Cash ISAs wef 16/10/14:
£1 - £14,999 = £1.30 AER
£15,000 - £29,999 = 1.40% AER
£30,000 + = 1.50% AER


Have tried to send a PM to Kazza, but inbox is full.

Swines! I've just opened a Cash ISA and sent off the transfer in forms yesterday, which were sufficient to get the 2.00% currently on offer.

No mention on their website though, nor on a quick Google news search. What's your source if you don't mind me asking?

Vortigern

Both Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale 40-day notice ISAs now accept incoming transfers. Both pay 2% on balances over £24000.

Yorkshire Bank

Clydesdale

Zanderman

Vortigern wrote: »

Both Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale 40-day notice ISAs now accept incoming transfers. Both pay 2% on balances over £24000.

Yorkshire Bank

Clydesdale

The 'penalty-free' 40 day notice seems ambiguous on these. Both say:

Making withdrawals
You can make penalty free withdrawals from your account by giving us 40 days’ notice. If you need to access your money in a hurry, there will be a minimum charge of £30. We will then transfer any remaining balance to our instant access Cash ISA. If you have invested the full allowance, you won’t be able to make any further deposits in that tax year even if you have withdrawn funds.

Which seems to imply that if you make a withdrawal the remaining balance is transferred to their instant access ISA - which only pays up to 1.1%. That doesn't seem 'penalty-free' to me!

Stompa

Zanderman wrote: »

The 'penalty-free' 40 day notice seems ambiguous on these. Both say:


Which seems to imply that if you make a withdrawal the remaining balance is transferred to their instant access ISA - which only pays up to 1.1%. That doesn't seem 'penalty-free' to me!

I was just puzzling over that. My reading is that as long as you give 40 days notice then you can make withdrawals as and when required. It's only if you need an instant withdrawal that the whole account converts to an instant access ISA (and you're charged a penalty fee). It would be good to have that confirmed though.

Vortigern

Zanderman wrote: »

The 'penalty-free' 40 day notice seems ambiguous on these.

It would be clearer if they'd written "If you don't give 40 days notice..." rather than "If you need to access your money in a hurry"

...and perhaps introduced some more spacing between the penalty free and £30 penalty clauses.

ETA: The full terms & conditions (PDF here) are more explicit. I believe the account is penalty free for full or partial withdrawals as long as the required notice is given.

tipsychick

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

No mention on their website though, nor on a quick Google news search. What's your source if you don't mind me asking?

Existing holders are receiving letters to this effect dated July 2014 - got mine this morning .

The rate doesn't seem to be fixed with the Yorkshire/Clydesdale offering, so nothing to stop them dropping it either. Website says they last changed the rate on 1/12/13 (no doubt downwards!) and FD last dropped theirs at the start of November 2013, so every chance Yorkshire/Clydesdale customers will be getting a similar letter shortly. IME once one drops, the rest follow.

Zanderman

Vortigern wrote: »

It would be clearer if they'd written "If you don't give 40 days notice..." rather than "If you need to access your money in a hurry"

...and perhaps introduced some more spacing between the penalty free and £30 penalty clauses.

ETA: The full terms & conditions (PDF here) are more explicit. I believe the account is penalty free for full or partial withdrawals as long as the required notice is given.

Yes, thanks, for the link - the full T&C are much more explicit:

Cash ISA – 40 Day Notice: You may make a withdrawal from your ISA, in whole or in part, by giving 40 days notice. If you do not give 40 days notice, your Cash ISA – 40 Day Notice account will switch to a Cash ISA – Instant Access account and a charge will apply

You'd think, as the process is so easy to describe in the full T&C, that they could have said it the same way in the summary.

Clarification notwithstanding it does seem a bit mean of them to give a double penalty (switching to a lower rate AND charging a fee) for short-notice withdrawals, but that's just how it is I s'pose. Good incentive not to do it though.

10_66

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

Swines! I've just opened a Cash ISA and sent off the transfer in forms yesterday, which were sufficient to get the 2.00% currently on offer.

No mention on their website though, nor on a quick Google news search. What's your source if you don't mind me asking?

Received a letter from them. It's getting to the point where I think I might just binge on lottery tickets than use ISA's!

Kazza242

Hello everyone.

I have made an update to the first post.

(Again, there were lots of PMs to go through - thanks for contacting me. I have gone through them and made some space in my PM box.)

Has anyone yet to take out an ISA for 2014/15?

Archi_Bald

Kazza242 wrote: »

Has anyone yet to take out an ISA for 2014/15?

I would hope there will be lots of people who intend to make use of their 2014-15 allowance in a cash ISA but are not planning on depositing the money into an ISA before late March 2015. For the simple reason that almost everybody can make significantly more money in interest paying current accounts until then, whilst not losing their ISA allowance.