Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

Bridlington1

refluxer said:

Just a heads-up for any existing Leek Building Society members - they currently have some pretty competitive 'existing customer only' fixed rate cash ISAs available to anyone who's had an account with them for the last 12 months or more. These accounts don't feature on the comparison sites (as they're not available to all), so could be easily overlooked.

These are the rates (with the current market leaders in brackets for comparison)...

1 year - 5.50%  (Virgin Money 5.50% - current account holders only) 
2 years - 5.55%  (Zopa 5.07% - transfers-in not allowed)
5 years - 5.00%  (UBL 4.81%)

You can open and manage the ISAs online but Leek don't use the BACs ISA transfer service so if you want to transfer-in, you'll need to download a transfer form and post it off or visit a branch. The deposit field on the online application can be your intended cash deposit or the amount you intend to transfer-in. You get 30 days to fund the accounts.

These rates have been around since October and weren't particularly great at the time, but have become competitive now since rates elsewhere have fallen. I'm actually surprised they're still around - particularly the 2 year rate, as it's so much higher than anything else currently available. If you think you might want to open one of these, I wouldn't hang about.

They do feature on comparison sites, though they tend to be a bit less prominent than some other accounts. From moneyfacts (go to full search and select "yes" to "existing customer accounts"):

[....]

refluxer

I've just received an email from Zopa stating that they now allow transfers-in from other cash ISAs, which means that their (easy access) Smart ISA @ 5.08% and associated Fixed Term ISA pots are no longer restricted to those who haven't yet made use of their 2023-24 ISA allowance.

I don't currently have an 'Access' ISA pot so I can't make this a specific recommendation or comment on how well it operates (or how efficient transfers are as the option is so new) but the (non-ISA) Smart Saver Primary Access pot works well and payments in and out are really quick. I put my ISA allowance into a 3 year Fixed Term ISA pot back in September which I've had no issues with so far, but I guess I won't be able to provide proper feedback until 2026 ! 

The warning about transfers-in not being allowed does seem to have been removed from their website, but an FAQ still says transfers-in aren't allowed so if you're interested, it might make sense to wait until it becomes official (and isn't just initially limited to existing customers).

As I've mentioned elsewhere, if you are interested in this and are considering opening 'Fixed Term' ISA pots alongside the (Easy) 'Access' pot, then you just need to be aware that Zopa operate their Smart ISA a little differently to other providers in that all ISA pots are considered to be part of the same ISA (you get one reference number) and partial transfers-out are not allowed which means that if you wanted to transfer out in the future, you'd have to transfer out the entire contents of your Smart ISA and so if you had any Fixed Term ISA pots running, you'd have to close them and pay a penalty.

This is only a potential problem if you want to open different combinations of pots though (eg. Access and 1 Year Fixed or a 1 Year Fixed plus a 2 Year Fixed) - if you only wanted to have a single pot going (eg. an Access pot for flexible easy access or a single Fixed Term pot to lock in a particular rate), then this won't be an issue.

sheslookinhot

Leeds Building Society easy access now 5.05%, up from 4.95%.

dlevene

Metro Bank still haven't completed my ISA transfer after 22 days. Having a nightmare with customer service. And now online banking and the app are down. Very worrying.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/service-status/

subjecttocontract

dlevene said:

Metro Bank still haven't completed my ISA transfer after 22 days. Having a nightmare with customer service. And now online banking and the app are down. Very worrying.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/service-status/

1. I don't understand how with online banking and the app being down it can affect your ISA transfer.
2. The transfer delay may not be the fault of Metro......it may be the outgoing ISA provider or Royal Mail.

Are you aware that Metro pay interest on the transfer from the date the transfer starts ? Surely therefore it doesn't matter to you how long they take ?

dlevene

subjecttocontract said:

dlevene said:

Metro Bank still haven't completed my ISA transfer after 22 days. Having a nightmare with customer service. And now online banking and the app are down. Very worrying.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/service-status/

1. I don't understand how with online banking and the app being down it can affect your ISA transfer.
2. The transfer delay may not be the fault of Metro......it may be the outgoing ISA provider or Royal Mail.

Are you aware that Metro pay interest on the transfer from the date the transfer starts ? Surely therefore it doesn't matter to you how long they take ?

1) because I can't check if the transfer has gone through

2) They didn't give my current provider payment information when they reached out, but regardless, there's no excuse for the customer service

Yes, I am aware of that. That's not really the point though. Stuck in limbo forever isn't acceptable 

kjs31

dlevene said:

Metro Bank still haven't completed my ISA transfer after 22 days. Having a nightmare with customer service. And now online banking and the app are down. Very worrying.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/service-status/

I’m a few days behind you so won’t be checking every day now until you post that your one is done 😉. 

I’m with you though that it’s not great for it to take so long. I just want to see the damn money hit my (as yet) zero balance account without having to wonder whether I’m going to have the hassle of chasing customer services or (if they close my account down after the 30 day funding window passes) having to progress a complaint. Agro that I don’t need TBH. 

refluxer

kjs31 said:

I’m with you though that it’s not great for it to take so long. I just want to see the damn money hit my (as yet) zero balance account without having to wonder whether I’m going to have the hassle of chasing customer services or (if they close my account down after the 30 day funding window passes) having to progress a complaint.

FWIW, I find that some banks will waive the funding window provided a transfer request has been received and is in progress. I've definitely had one or ISA transfers in the past that have extended beyond the funding window and both were eventually successful. If the transfer was to fail for some reason, then I guess it's possible that this might cause a problem, though. 

kjs31

refluxer said:

FWIW, I find that some banks will waive the funding window provided a transfer request has been received and is in progress. I've definitely had one or ISA transfers in the past that have extended beyond the funding window and both were eventually successful. If the transfer was to fail for some reason, then I guess it's possible that this might cause a problem, though. 

Thanks. I just checked back to when I transferred 80k to a Virgin ISA back in September. Maturity date is 24th Sept but funds weren’t credited until 20th October so it took almost a month. I guess you need to work out at maturity if the interest has been credited on the account opening date rather than when money is applied to the account? I haven’t bothered with a fixed term ISA that needed a transfer before. 

subjecttocontract

My other half has an ISA transfer to Metro currently in progress. It was initiated on 28th November, she received a call from Metro yesterday apologising for the delays. The money left the current provider on 11th December and it's expected to all be finalised early next week......which will be 15 working days. It's no problem for her, Metro have been paying 5.71% interest since 28th November on money they don't have available to lend or invest....they are the only party disadvantaged.