Cash ISAs: The Best Currently Available List

pookey

slinger2 said:

pookey said:

I've got just over £4k in my chip ISA at 4.58%
I know it's not a huge amount but I'm planning to top it up a bit more. I'm considering to transfer it to moneybox to get the 5.17% but was wondering if anyone heard about it going down any time soon? If i transfer the ISA out, I'm not allowed to open another chip ISA from what I've read so just want to make sure if it sounds worth it.

I forgot to mention, I'm planning to fix it if i find a good rate 😅 or if the variable rates drop below the top rated fix. 

No idea how much of your £20k allowance you've used (or planning to use) but you could simply take the money from Chip (leaving the odd £ perhaps) and open the Moneybox Cash ISA with that money. You'd be wasting some of your allowance but maybe that's not an issue for you. Note that Chip is flexible but Moneybox is not (as I remember).

Note that the Chip product is a tracker, so the rate is already down following last week's BOE rate reduction. Moneybox is variable and you'd get a minimum of 14 days notice of a rate reduction. They haven't changed their rate since last week, so clearly are much more likely to do so in the coming weeks.

Thank you, that's a good point. 
I've only topped up this and 4k in my LISA. 

As chip is flexible, if i withdraw the majority and keep the account open i could put money back in if i need to (reimburse what i removed) In case i need to max out my ISA, is that right?

Yes i know they haven't reduced the money box  isa yet, I'm hoping they fight it out with trading 212 for a few months 😂

slinger2

pookey said:

slinger2 said:

pookey said:

I've got just over £4k in my chip ISA at 4.58%
I know it's not a huge amount but I'm planning to top it up a bit more. I'm considering to transfer it to moneybox to get the 5.17% but was wondering if anyone heard about it going down any time soon? If i transfer the ISA out, I'm not allowed to open another chip ISA from what I've read so just want to make sure if it sounds worth it.

I forgot to mention, I'm planning to fix it if i find a good rate 😅 or if the variable rates drop below the top rated fix. 

No idea how much of your £20k allowance you've used (or planning to use) but you could simply take the money from Chip (leaving the odd £ perhaps) and open the Moneybox Cash ISA with that money. You'd be wasting some of your allowance but maybe that's not an issue for you. Note that Chip is flexible but Moneybox is not (as I remember).

Note that the Chip product is a tracker, so the rate is already down following last week's BOE rate reduction. Moneybox is variable and you'd get a minimum of 14 days notice of a rate reduction. They haven't changed their rate since last week, so clearly are much more likely to do so in the coming weeks.

Thank you, that's a good point. 
I've only topped up this and 4k in my LISA. 

As chip is flexible, if i withdraw the majority and keep the account open i could put money back in if i need to (reimburse what i removed) In case i need to max out my ISA, is that right?

Yes i know they haven't reduced the money box  isa yet, I'm hoping they fight it out with trading 212 for a few months 😂

Because the Chip ISA is flexible you'd be able to replace what you withdraw without it counting towards your £20k allowance. However the replacement would need to be done in the same tax year as the withdrawal, so by 5 Apr 2025. After that you'd be using part of your 25/26 allowance.

winkowinko

I have a query.

Is there typically a rise in interest rates from 6th April when providers seek new customers?

subjecttocontract

Providers can seek customers at any time of the year. April 6th is the start of the financial year but it doesn't follow that providers want to attract new customers then.

winkowinko

subjecttocontract said:

Providers can seek customers at any time of the year. April 6th is the start of the financial year but it doesn't follow that providers want to attract new customers then.

Fair enough. I just wondered whether there was a rate hike around the date when everyone gets their fresh ISA allowance. Surely April must be the month where most new ISA's are opened?

slinger2

winkowinko said:

subjecttocontract said:

Providers can seek customers at any time of the year. April 6th is the start of the financial year but it doesn't follow that providers want to attract new customers then.

Fair enough. I just wondered whether there was a rate hike around the date when everyone gets their fresh ISA allowance. Surely April must be the month where most new ISA's are opened?

There are many people opening ISAs towards the end of the tax year, keen to use up their allowance before it's lost forever. My suspicion is that March and April are the busiest months for ISAs

SirHugo

It looks like the Virgin Money 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been pulled. 

Gutted. Was going to open this ready to transfer in a Virgin Money ISA which matures on 29th Nov.

No member exclusive rates showing at the moment, just a 1 year fix at 4.11%. If nothing better shows up I will probably just transfer to my Trading 212 easy access ISA.

refluxer

winkowinko said:

subjecttocontract said:

Providers can seek customers at any time of the year. April 6th is the start of the financial year but it doesn't follow that providers want to attract new customers then.

Fair enough. I just wondered whether there was a rate hike around the date when everyone gets their fresh ISA allowance. Surely April must be the month where most new ISA's are opened?

I think this was more noticeable in pre-Covid times (when interest rates fairly stable) when ISA providers would sometimes give a small boost to their fixed cash ISA rates around the start of the new tax year, either to attract savers who hadn't made use of their current allowance (in the run-up to 6th April), or to attract savers once the new allowance became available (6th April onwards). Holding out for the former was often a  bit of a gamble though for anyone who hadn't made use of their allowance, as many providers would withdraw their cash ISAs completely in the final weeks of the tax year plus, for those wanting to transfer an existing ISA, there was no guarantee that rates would be the same (or higher) when those accounts were relaunched.

I doubt the effect will be noticeable these days, especially with rates generally decreasing. I suspect a lot will depend on the BoE rate outlook at the time and how desperate the providers are for your money.

cricidmuslibale

SirHugo said:

It looks like the Virgin Money 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been pulled. 

Gutted. Was going to open this ready to transfer in a Virgin Money ISA which matures on 29th Nov.

No member exclusive rates showing at the moment, just a 1 year fix at 4.11%. If nothing better shows up I will probably just transfer to my Trading 212 easy access ISA.

@SirHugo I'm genuinely sorry to hear about this but, to be honest, I'm not really that surprised by it. There has been a noticeable change, to me at least, in Virgin Money's approach to these 1 year Exclusive fixed ISAs since roughly the time they were taken over by Nationwide. Prior to this acquisition, Virgin Money seemed pretty keen to maintain the interest rate of the 1 year Exclusive fixed ISA at a level roughly 0.10% above the next best interest rate available for a 1 year fixed rate ISA; thus, for example, several consecutive issues paying 5.05% fixed annual interest were available until around the end of August this year. Since then, the next three issues paying fixed annual interest rates of 4.75%, 4.61% and 4.51% respectively have been both noticeably less generous and less likely to be there for very long; the 4.75% issue in particular was only available for a couple of weeks or so! And it has become pretty clear to me at least that Virgin Money no longer seems to want to maintain the interest rate of its 1 year Exclusive fixed ISA at c. 0.10% above the interest rate of its nearest rival!

Clearly we are now are in a falling interest rate environment overall but there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to how quickly interest rates are likely to fall in the short to medium term and whether in the medium to long term they may even need to rise again; there are several measures in the recent Budget, such as the National Insurance hike for employers, that may well add to upward pressures on inflation, not to mention some of the likely policies of the incoming Trump administration in the USA. Thus, for me at least, these 1 year fixed rate Virgin Money Exclusive ISAs, which up until recently were very worthwhile and good value in terms of the interest rate - particularly those paying 5.85% fixed annual interest that were available until the end of 2023 - have from early September this year onwards become far less appealing and good value for money; their interest rates are now not much better (or worse) than the other leading interest rates currently available for fixed rate ISAs, none of which really stand out to me as being particularly good value at present, with a deeply uncertain future for interest rates on the horizon!

(This fairly negative but I hope also realistic verdict also applies to my view of the leading interest rates currently available on fixed rate bonds, particularly for fixed terms of longer than 1 year's duration.)

SirHugo

cricidmuslibale said:

SirHugo said:

It looks like the Virgin Money 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been pulled. 

Gutted. Was going to open this ready to transfer in a Virgin Money ISA which matures on 29th Nov.

No member exclusive rates showing at the moment, just a 1 year fix at 4.11%. If nothing better shows up I will probably just transfer to my Trading 212 easy access ISA.

@SirHugo I'm genuinely sorry to hear about this but, to be honest, I'm not really that surprised by it. There has been a noticeable change, to me at least, in Virgin Money's approach to these 1 year Exclusive fixed ISAs since roughly the time they were taken over by Nationwide. Prior to this acquisition, Virgin Money seemed pretty keen to maintain the interest rate of the 1 year Exclusive fixed ISA at a level roughly 0.10% above the next best interest rate available for a 1 year fixed rate ISA; thus, for example, several consecutive issues paying 5.05% fixed annual interest were available until around the end of August this year. Since then, the next three issues paying fixed annual interest rates of 4.75%, 4.61% and 4.51% respectively have been both noticeably less generous and less likely to be there for very long; the 4.75% issue in particular was only available for a couple of weeks or so! And it has become pretty clear to me at least that Virgin Money no longer seems to want to maintain the interest rate of its 1 year Exclusive fixed ISA at c. 0.10% above the interest rate of its nearest rival!

Clearly we are now are in a falling interest rate environment overall but there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to how quickly interest rates are likely to fall in the short to medium term and whether in the medium to long term they may even need to rise again; there are several measures in the recent Budget, such as the National Insurance hike for employers, that may well add to upward pressures on inflation, not to mention some of the likely policies of the incoming Trump administration in the USA. Thus, for me at least, these 1 year fixed rate Virgin Money Exclusive ISAs, which up until recently were very worthwhile and good value in terms of the interest rate - particularly those paying 5.85% fixed annual interest that were available until the end of 2023 - have from early September this year onwards become far less appealing and good value for money; their interest rates are now not much better (or worse) than the other leading interest rates currently available for fixed rate ISAs, none of which really stand out to me as being particularly good value at present with a deeply uncertain future for interest rates on the horizon!

(This fairly negative but I hope also realistic verdict also applies to my view of the leading interest rates currently available on fixed rate bonds, particularly for fixed terms of 1 year or longer.)

Thanks for this lengthy reply. Yes, it's certainly a difficult choice now where to put my money next. My maturing ISA is the 5.85% rate one and just last week I had a 6.01% Oxbury fix mature. That's gone into an Investec Notice account for 90 days. I'll probably now transfer my ISA into my Trading 212 easy access ISA and see how things look in the next few months.