Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

bristolleedsfan

2010 said:

@bristolleedsfan

I open a new fixed rate cash ISA and fund it from an existing account, transferring the full amount.
The old provider transfers the money and closes the account.
Within the 14 day cooling off period of the new account I find a higher rate with another provider.
How does the current provider deal with this transfer request?

This is not hypothetical but something that could easily happen in the current scramble by providers to have the highest rate.

Don`t take quotes out of context, just answer the question or say you don`t know.

eskbanker has provided all the answers within thread badger09 linked, this being a key point.

"the cooling off period is there to allow you to cancel a new product and unwind it as if you'd never opened and used it"

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466213/cash-isa-transfer#latest

liger

Hi
I've just opened a new 1 Year Virgin ISA at 5.76% and did a transfer from the Virgin easy access ISA.  So if Virgin increase their 1 Year ISA higher than 5.76% in the next 14 days can I get the new rate?  What is the exact process I can do to get the new rate?  Do I have to send a secure message or do I apply for the new rate and then an ISA transfer?

intalex

bristolleedsfan said:

eskbanker has provided all the answers within thread badger09 linked, this being a key point.
"the cooling off period is there to allow you to cancel a new product and unwind it as if you'd never opened and used it"

It's a matter of perspective, but I consider it legitimate to use the cooling off period in a change of heart on part of the investment with a fixed term commitment, nowhere is it implied to be on an "all or nothing" basis.

And as you can't normally unwind an account back to a closed account with the previous provider, it can hardly be considered unacceptable to be able to transfer it to any new account, I'm not sure it impacts the current provider much apart from simply honouring the penalty waiver as long as notice was provided during the cooling off period.

When markets are volatile, people will move and take advantage of cooling off periods, that's the reality of the matter - in fact people may even prioritise this flexibility over rates to some extent. If financial institutions don't want to deal with these movements, then simply make the terms rigid (and less competitive).

Virgin Money have been a good sport in automating their internal account change process and penalty waivers during cooling off periods, which together with their low penalty fees, makes them quite popular (their problems of manually requesting switches and huge backlogs/delays are even forgotten for some)!

2010

liger said:

Hi
I've just opened a new 1 Year Virgin ISA at 5.76% and did a transfer from the Virgin easy access ISA.  So if Virgin increase their 1 Year ISA higher than 5.76% in the next 14 days can I get the new rate?  What is the exact process I can do to get the new rate?  Do I have to send a secure message or do I apply for the new rate and then an ISA transfer?

Basically the answer is yes you can open a higher rate one and transfer to it.
This thread is so long but there are posts where they tell you the procedure.
They nickname it the Virgin shuffle.
No doubt someone will further comment to tell you how to go about it IF rates change shortly.

Bigwheels1111

2010 said:

liger said:

Hi
I've just opened a new 1 Year Virgin ISA at 5.76% and did a transfer from the Virgin easy access ISA.  So if Virgin increase their 1 Year ISA higher than 5.76% in the next 14 days can I get the new rate?  What is the exact process I can do to get the new rate?  Do I have to send a secure message or do I apply for the new rate and then an ISA transfer?

Basically the answer is yes you can open a higher rate one and transfer to it.
This thread is so long but there are posts where they tell you the procedure.
They nickname it the Virgin shuffle.
No doubt someone will further comment to tell you how to go about it IF rates change shortly.

Its simple.

Login to Virgin,

The first page shows how much you have ie £10k,

Scrool down the page,

New savings account button ih half way down.

Click on it,

Select the new ISA rate,

Tick the boxes and put in you Ni nimber,

Dropdown box for funding option,

Old ISA,

Next etc,

Your done, account is open and any funds plus interest earned so far will be in your new ISA and rate is updated next day.

A 2 minute job.

I think I named it the Virgin shuffle

2010

bristolleedsfan said:

2010 said:

@bristolleedsfan

I open a new fixed rate cash ISA and fund it from an existing account, transferring the full amount.
The old provider transfers the money and closes the account.
Within the 14 day cooling off period of the new account I find a higher rate with another provider.
How does the current provider deal with this transfer request?

This is not hypothetical but something that could easily happen in the current scramble by providers to have the highest rate.

Don`t take quotes out of context, just answer the question or say you don`t know.

"the cooling off period is there to allow you to cancel a new product and unwind it as if you'd never opened and used it"

This cannot be done if you have transferred all funds from an existing ISA which has been closed.

intalex

intalex said:

It's a matter of perspective, but I consider it legitimate to use the cooling off period in a change of heart on part of the investment with a fixed term commitment, nowhere is it implied to be on an "all or nothing" basis.

Just completed a partial ISA transfer (inc. full current year subscription) out of a Shawbrook 5-year fixed ISA to another provider, under the 14-day cooling off period. I had merely requested the partial ISA transfer from the new provider, but after seeing some comments on here, decided to supplement it with a secure message to Shawbrook specifying that I was exercising my 14-day cooling off period for this transfer. Completed without issues.

For anyone interested, I've left just over £1,000 (minimum required balance) in the Shawbrook 5-year fixed ISA, and plan to top it up with future tax years' ISA allowances in the respective tax years, something that is relatively unique to the Shawbrook fixed ISAs.

nomorekids

Nat West group, new rate for one year fixed rate down to 5.55%

Rate applies from

15/08/2023 and maturity now 4th October 24

dlevene

In the Top Easy Access thread, someone mused about Chip throwing in the towel on the top spot given Tandem's recent offering, and branching out to other products such as ISAs.

On their forum, they indeed confirm they are "close to launching our Cash ISA"

More competition, with a provider generally offering competitive rates on their leading products, can only be good news. Fingers crossed for a proper bump

pecunianonolet

dlevene said:

In the Top Easy Access thread, someone mused about Chip throwing in the towel on the top spot given Tandem's recent offering, and branching out to other products such as ISAs.

On their forum, they indeed confirm they are "close to launching our Cash ISA"

More competition, with a provider generally offering competitive rates on their leading products, can only be good news. Fingers crossed for a proper bump

A simple sign to me that market volatility with resulting in and out flows is too complicated to manage long term and they need to build up a base level of funds to stay longer term so they can access longer term market products to remain profitable. Some sort of hedging the risk of further rate volatility by the BOE as well as other macroeconomic data feeding into policy making.