Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

pecunianonolet

Plum is launching a new Cash ISA. 

https://withplum.com/cash-isa/

Key notes of what is known:

- Save from £1
- Transfers in from anywhere
- Easy access with funds transferred the next working day
- FSCS protection as usual

Unknown (or I haven't seen it yet):

- Interest rate
- Launch timings
- Flexible or not
- Will they also offer fixes?

They make you join a wait list, perhaps the first xx get an additional bonus as I don't know what else it would be for when they send out an email anyway, which I got today. Maybe just a simple marketing tool to grasp the level of interest?

I'll guess they will join the likes of Zopa, Moneybox, Chip and I would expect similar rates for the former two as the Chip rate is underwhelming. 

dlevene

Metro have just emailed to say they're dropping the variable ISA from 5.11% to 4.86% from the 22nd April.

It's a shame it's such a big drop after it was such a hassle to open, but it's a fair while away and the market may well look a little different in 2 months (not least as the start of the financial year often sees quite a bit of movement).

Have to say I won't miss Metro.

pecunianonolet

dlevene said:

Metro have just emailed to say they're dropping the variable ISA from 5.11% to 4.86% from the 22nd April.

It's a shame it's such a big drop after it was such a hassle to open, but it's a fair while away and the market may well look a little different in 2 months (not least as the start of the financial year often sees quite a bit of movement).

Have to say I won't miss Metro.

With many other providers around and so many easy access rates above 5% at the moment plus the simplification of ISA rules I would not be surprised if they will have a lot of funds flowing elsewhere.

Especially with the new rules in place ISA's are becoming very flexible when it comes to moving funds around to chase better rates. Bound to a transfer but if done electronically it should with most providers still be rather quick. Also, if savers will make more use of the new rules and open more accounts the number of transfer requests will skyrocket and banks and building societies in particular will have to upgrade there systems to cope or offer attractive rates to make me fill out paper forms or even agree to manual processes of sending cheques between institutions. 

Further, it's a 0.25% cut so to me it indicates that Metro expects the base rate to fall by 0.25% on the 9th May MPC meeting.

dlevene

Yes that's my hope too - combination of new rules and new FY resetting the allowances leads to both improved rates and improved transfer process...

freeguy1984uk

Hi, I'm a bit confused as this thread has Zopa down as NOT accepting transfers in (new money only). 

But Zopa's own website says they DO accept transfers in?

https://www.zopa.com/smart-isa

"Can I transfer a cash ISA with another provider into my Smart ISA?

Absolutely!"

RG2015

freeguy1984uk said:

Hi, I'm a bit confused as this thread has Zopa down as NOT accepting transfers in (new money only). 

But Zopa's own website says they DO accept transfers in?

https://www.zopa.com/smart-isa

"Can I transfer a cash ISA with another provider into my Smart ISA?

Absolutely!"

I transferred an ISA in last week. See also the link below.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6503767/transfer-in-to-zopa/p1

refluxer

freeguy1984uk said:

Hi, I'm a bit confused as this thread has Zopa down as NOT accepting transfers in (new money only). 

But Zopa's own website says they DO accept transfers in?

https://www.zopa.com/smart-isa

"Can I transfer a cash ISA with another provider into my Smart ISA?

Absolutely!"

They only started accepting transfers-in in December 2023 - they didn't use to before that.

RobinhoodSavings

Coventry are pulling the Four Access ISA (Online) tonight!

pecunianonolet

RobinhoodSavings said:

Coventry are pulling the Four Access ISA (Online) tonight!

I wouldn't mind if they would replace it with a higher rate version but I guess it's just wishful thinking. Do you have any source?

CuparLad

What to do, what to do...

A SecureTrust 1 Yr Fix matured on Monday and is currently winging its way to the Coventry Four Access ISA @ 5.05% (the ST Matured Funds ISA was an offensive 2.25%). Both Shawbrook and Oaknorth have a 5.03% 1 Yr Fix, but not sure whether to grab one of those, or wait it out and see whether the closure of the ISA season throws up any better deals. Of course there's Hunt's budget next week and the MPC on 21st March to consider too...