Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

Kim_13

subjecttocontract said:

......and therein lies the problem.
Some will stick rigidly to the declaration and others will ignore the declaration in favour of the Governments relaxation of the rules. Rightly or wrongly it's a recipe for total confusion.

People have been ignoring nonsensical declarations for years I imagine, as I did at least once last year. It said that had not opened another ISA in this tax year (I had, for 23/24 money and the later applications were transfers (prior year and the then current year in full.)

RetSol

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-13159799/Be-warned-banks-tell-WONT-ready-major-Isa-shake-says-SYLVIA-MORRIS.html

pecunianonolet

Kim_13 said:

subjecttocontract said:

......and therein lies the problem.
Some will stick rigidly to the declaration and others will ignore the declaration in favour of the Governments relaxation of the rules. Rightly or wrongly it's a recipe for total confusion.

People have been ignoring nonsensical declarations for years I imagine, as I did at least once last year. It said that had not opened another ISA in this tax year (I had, for 23/24 money and the later applications were (prior year and the then current year in full.)

I opened 7 ISA's last tax year.

1 x Shawbrook 1y fix
1 x Coventry 4 access online (5.05%) when it was available
1 x Virgin Easy Access Exclusive
1 x Virgin Exclusive 1y fix issue 10
1 x WestBrom 60 day notice ISA
1 x Zopa Easy Access
1 x Moneybox

I only subscribed to the Shawbrook ISA in the last tax year.

I wanted too keep my options open as I had a Virgin 1y fix maturing on 29th March. I handed in transfer in instructions to WestBrom in February for 1 quid just to open the account. Instructed a transfer of 500 to Moneybox and transferred a 5er to Coventry. 

The Coventry account was sitting unfunded for months and I only provided transfer in instructions on the 30th of March, Moneybox opened on the 30th with transfer instructions. All the other accounts I have opened before, some even back in 2023.

On the 2nd of April I provided Virgin with maturity instructions to move funds into Exclusive 1y fix issue 11. WestBrom and Coventry transfers were completed on the 3rd of April and Moneybox on the 4th.

All the other ISA's are still showing in apps but unfunded an I am sure if I now start to pay 1 quid into them from this years allowance nothing would happen and in old fashioned 19999 left to fund would appear with all of them.

subjecttocontract

This situation has all the hallmarks of a rushed change of policy by the Gov'. You would have thought they would have consulted with financial institutions, established the feasibility, what would be needed, the lead time, how many were prepared to adopt etc etc. But it seems very little of that was done just so they could make an announcement to grab the headlines. Appalling.

Emily_Joy

Principality advised via the messaging system and confirmed over the phone today that they will allow only one ISA per person for 2024/25 tax year funded by "new money".

slinger2

Emily_Joy said:

Principality advised via the messaging system and confirmed over the phone today that they will allow only one ISA per person for 2024/25 tax year funded by "new money".

So they're not going to let me open two ISA with them funded by "new money"? Fair enough. Clearly they're not in a position to "allow" or not "allow" me to open two ISAs with other companies. Just nonsense.

pecunianonolet

subjecttocontract said:

This situation has all the hallmarks of a rushed change of policy by the Gov'. You would have thought they would have consulted with financial institutions, established the feasibility, what would be needed, the lead time, how many were prepared to adopt etc etc. But it seems very little of that was done just so they could make an announcement to grab the headlines. Appalling.

Budget was 22nd November, I am sure consultations of some sort were conducted before. Ca 4 months should be enough to prepare IT systems or at the very least provide and update declarations and get some comprehensive Q&A's created and staff trained.

If mortgage and other saving deals can be launched, amended and withdrawn within days to react to market changes or on demand, I am sure some IT magic could have happened in that time too. Enough time for regulatory departments to work up some Q&A documents. 

RetSol

subjecttocontract said:

This situation has all the hallmarks of a rushed change of policy by the Gov'. You would have thought they would have consulted with financial institutions, established the feasibility, what would be needed, the lead time, how many were prepared to adopt etc etc. But it seems very little of that was done just so they could make an announcement to grab the headlines. Appalling.

Ex-civil servant here.

My thoughts exactly!

The necessary regulations were made on 11th March 2024 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/350/made - so no certainty or clarity for providers until that date. 

subjecttocontract

Yes......insufficient time to implement but I guess they didn't want to wait another year.........totally political, as the announcement wouldn't have benefited the Tory party this time next year !  It's fairly obvious to me what's going to happen going forward. Lots of savers are going to disregard declarations with banks and building societies and go ahead and open multi ISA accounts with different institutions.

Fortunately I won't be one of them as I don't need to spread my ISA money around, I will be putting it all in the same place. It's going to be fun seeing how this mess unfolds.

FB13

RetSol said:

subjecttocontract said:

This situation has all the hallmarks of a rushed change of policy by the Gov'. You would have thought they would have consulted with financial institutions, established the feasibility, what would be needed, the lead time, how many were prepared to adopt etc etc. But it seems very little of that was done just so they could make an announcement to grab the headlines. Appalling.

Ex-civil servant here.

My thoughts exactly!

The necessary regulations were made on 11th March 2024 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/350/made - so no certainty or clarity for providers until that date. 

Ex-SI drafter for HMT here. 

For someone who claims to have been a civil servant you’d hope that you would be aware that HMG publishes a document alongside the SI that discusses the consultation carried out. The EM confirms HMRC did exactly what subjecttocontract thinks they should have done.

But that is beside the point. This policy is simple enough that banks don’t need to see those final regs to know what they need to do.