Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

NotWhereIWantToBe

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

RG2015

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

Some Virgin Money ISAs are exclusive and require that you have a Virgin Money current account. Most though do not require a current account.

This information is readily available on their website.

Annual or monthly interest is a personal choice unless the terms and conditions do not allow monthly interest. In some cases this can help to avoid tax by changing the tax year for the interest payment.

If the guides on Money Saving Expert do not help you then I am not sure how users on here would do any better.

I also doubt that Martin Lewis has actually written any guides on this site.   

Bigwheels1111

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

No, is the answer.
First you create a login account.
Once you have logged in you select saving and ISA, did it this morning.
Just be aware that they don’t do confirmation of payee.
FD did not want me to send any money.
I just did it myself and sent £10, it arrived in around 20 minutes. Later on I sent a large amount and it arrived in 5 minutes.
Now as I have 14 days to switch the ISA to a new one within Virgin if their rates rise without penalty.
Or as I’ve read on here switch to a 2 year giving me another 14 day to switch and so on.
I will check their rate’s daily.

NotWhereIWantToBe

Bigwheels1111 said:

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

No, is the answer.
First you create a login account.
Once you have logged in you select saving and ISA, did it this morning.
Just be aware that they don’t do confirmation of payee.
FD did not want me to send any money.
I just did it myself and sent £10, it arrived in around 20 minutes. Later on I sent a large amount and it arrived in 5 minutes.
Now as I have 14 days to switch the ISA to a new one within Virgin if their rates rise without penalty.
Or as I’ve read on here switch to a 2 year giving me another 14 day to switch and so on.
I will check their rate’s daily.

Thank you - I still have savings accounts with them but have switched the current accounts away so do have a log in. I am tempted to put some in an ISA and some in a fixed term but as I don't fully understand how it all works with paying tax on savings I will probably just go with the ISA.

Bigwheels1111

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

No, is the answer.
First you create a login account.
Once you have logged in you select saving and ISA, did it this morning.
Just be aware that they don’t do confirmation of payee.
FD did not want me to send any money.
I just did it myself and sent £10, it arrived in around 20 minutes. Later on I sent a large amount and it arrived in 5 minutes.
Now as I have 14 days to switch the ISA to a new one within Virgin if their rates rise without penalty.
Or as I’ve read on here switch to a 2 year giving me another 14 day to switch and so on.
I will check their rate’s daily.

Thank you - I still have savings accounts with them but have switched the current accounts away so do have a log in. I am tempted to put some in an ISA and some in a fixed term but as I don't fully understand how it all works with paying tax on savings I will probably just go with the ISA.

How much do you earn, above or below £12,570.
If above £12,570 to £17,570 20 tax is paid.
Say you earn £15k the rest of the £17.570 can be tax free interest, ie £2,570 + your £1k personal savings allowance.

Now if you were a carer and earned to huge amount of £4010.00 carers allowance you could get £14,560 of interest
tax free, but would need to file a tax return when 10k plus of interest is earned.
Hope this helps.

pookey

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

No, is the answer.
First you create a login account.
Once you have logged in you select saving and ISA, did it this morning.
Just be aware that they don’t do confirmation of payee.
FD did not want me to send any money.
I just did it myself and sent £10, it arrived in around 20 minutes. Later on I sent a large amount and it arrived in 5 minutes.
Now as I have 14 days to switch the ISA to a new one within Virgin if their rates rise without penalty.
Or as I’ve read on here switch to a 2 year giving me another 14 day to switch and so on.
I will check their rate’s daily.

Thank you - I still have savings accounts with them but have switched the current accounts away so do have a log in. I am tempted to put some in an ISA and some in a fixed term but as I don't fully understand how it all works with paying tax on savings I will probably just go with the ISA.

If your a basic rate tax payer your allowance is £1,000 of tax free interest.
So you can calculate the interest you will earn in this tax year to see if you will go over that. I think I read somewhere that it's around £25k in a top paying account but that's a very rough guide.

Some fixed accounts might not pay interest in this tax year so you need to check the details properly.  It's a little tedious to work out but worth it in the long run

NotWhereIWantToBe

Bigwheels1111 said:

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

NotWhereIWantToBe said:

Does anyone know if you have to have a Virgin current account to open a cash ISA ?
I can't find anything that says you do but not sure if I have missed it. 
Also - is it better to get the interest annually, monthly or at maturity ?
I am a basic rate tax payer and unlikely to meet the PSA by April next year but really do not understand how it all works, despite reading Martin's guides several times 

No, is the answer.
First you create a login account.
Once you have logged in you select saving and ISA, did it this morning.
Just be aware that they don’t do confirmation of payee.
FD did not want me to send any money.
I just did it myself and sent £10, it arrived in around 20 minutes. Later on I sent a large amount and it arrived in 5 minutes.
Now as I have 14 days to switch the ISA to a new one within Virgin if their rates rise without penalty.
Or as I’ve read on here switch to a 2 year giving me another 14 day to switch and so on.
I will check their rate’s daily.

Thank you - I still have savings accounts with them but have switched the current accounts away so do have a log in. I am tempted to put some in an ISA and some in a fixed term but as I don't fully understand how it all works with paying tax on savings I will probably just go with the ISA.

How much do you earn, above or below £12,570.
If above £12,570 to £17,570 20 tax is paid.
Say you earn £15k the rest of the £17.570 can be tax free interest, ie £2,570 + your £1k personal savings allowance.

Now if you were a carer and earned to huge amount of £4010.00 carers allowance you could get £14,560 of interest
tax free, but would need to file a tax return when 10k plus of interest is earned.
Hope this helps.

I earn over £25K.
That is helpful thank you :-)

someone

kipsterno1 said:

Deleted_Userlj said:

Also, there’s been a bit of chatter on here about repeatedly changing isa rates to keep within the 14 day cooling off period,  but it’s never really been elaborated on. 

I had a virgin 1yr fixed rate isa mature last weekend, which I moved to another virgin 1yr fix. now they have released a new issue yesterday, I’m planning to move to their latest rate. But with the hunch that rates will rise again next month, could I theoretically every 13 days move to a different product so that I am still within the cooling period in time for the next base rate decision and then move to a higher fix in August?

I openned a 1 year fixed rate mid April. It was 4.11%at the time. Due to the near weekly rate increases I have transfered to the higher rate at each increase. If I get to a point were there hasn't been an increase for 13 days I will then move to their  2 year fixed maintaining the 14 day cooling off period and then back to the 1 year when it does increase. Virgin have made it very simple to complete the transfer process to the latest issue.

@kipsterno1 a true MSEer.

I have two questions

1. Have you noticed if there is a specific day of the week they update their accounts?

2. How do you invoke the cooling off transfer? Is it via a new account application, filling out message, ringing them up etc.

Bigwheels1111

ISA is your only real option then if interest will go over you £1k PSA.

ForumUser7

Coventry BS Fixed Rate ISA (219) 30.09.2024 5.10%

Coventry BS Fixed Rate ISA (220) 30.09.2025 5.20%

Yorkshire BS Limited Access ISA 4.00%

Principality BS Online ISA 3.90%

Leeds BS Limited Issue Online Access ISA (Issue 62) 3.80%

So many new accounts I won't type out all the terms, but if any look interesting have a look at their website tomorrow (probably after 09:00 as some of the new accounts are not 'live' yet)