ISA Before or After next financial year

J_i_m

I assume that means when a fixed period has finished. Could be a year, could be longer.

innovate

Keep your powder dry and do more research

• you do not need to have a salary of 1.5K a month - - you just need to pay 1.5K a month in. That can be in multiples of e.g. £300 or £500 etc. Just cycle the money between your existing accounts and the FDs once a month. Takes 10 minutes by Faster Payment
• you only need the 1.5K until you have bagged the £100
• you must, however, use their switcher service, and 2 DDs must be transferred. You can tell them which DDs. And you could set some up specifically for the purpose.....some savings accounts allow funding by DDs, and charities take DDs....
• you do not need to pay the tenner - you just open a proper FD Savings account and put £1 in - that waives the tenner (sorry, should have listed this on the action list)
• i.e. you can pocket every last penny of the Reg Saver interest. And the £100 account opening on top if you play your cards right.

"Maturity" is when your Regular Saver , or some other fixed term savings contract, comes to an end. 12 months in the case of the FD Reg Saver oneone.

innovate

Ah I see, didn't look at that ISA so closely, just at the interest rate! Still, you can save into it now to get the 3.1%, and then hope after April 6 there will be something at similar rates for your new ISA.

Normally ISA rates are highest in April but whether this will be the same this year remains to be seen - so it's a bit of a gamble. May be securing 2.75% now until end of 2013 is a better idea. If there is something better in April, you can stop paying into the West Brom one and just start the new one.

vpdanas

innovate wrote: »

Ah I see, didn't look at that ISA so closely, just at the interest rate! Still, you can save into it now to get the 3.1%, and then hope after April 6 there will be something at similar rates for your new ISA.

Normally ISA rates are highest in April but whether this will be the same this year remains to be seen - so it's a bit of a gamble. May be securing 2.75% now until end of 2013 is a better idea. If there is something better in April, you can stop paying into the West Brom one and just start the new one.

Pardon my dopeyness, im not good with these things and trying to learn and big decision was want to make it as informed as poss...so if i joined the coventry isa and pay in until its final pay in time (5th April) does this mean that after 5th April, will that as my current ISA stop and a new one automatically start with Coventry if i don'T do anything...and if the rate drops so i chose to stop and open a new great rate ISA can I then transfer those savings up to 5th April to that new one? Thanks again for the help innovate

raysouthern42

Hi

Just in regards to the above, you can only open one first direct regular saver at any one time.

Just checked faqs on first direct website

innovate

vpdanas wrote: »

Pardon my dopeyness, im not good with these things and trying to learn and big decision was want to make it as informed as poss...so if i joined the coventry isa and pay in until its final pay in time (5th April) does this mean that after 5th April, will that as my current ISA stop and a new one automatically start with Coventry if i don'T do anything...and if the rate drops so i chose to stop and open a new great rate ISA can I then transfer those savings up to 5th April to that new one? Thanks again for the help innovate

No, no new ISA will start automatically.

For any transfer of your Coventry ISA into any new ISA you need to consider:

1. there is a 60 day notice period on the Coventry ISA. So the earliest you can request a transfer (with the new provider) is 60 days after you have given Coventry notice
2. the 'better' ISA may or may not allow transfers-in.

So you might decide to

1. leave the Coventry ISA as is until a later stage, or until you need to spend the money
2. give notice for the Coventry ISA, request transfer to the new ISA if that one allows transfers in
3. give notice for the Coventry ISA and request transfer into a new ISA that you run in parallel to the ISA you opened to pay in your 2013-14 contribution

Example:
ISA 1 pays 4% but doesn't allow transfers in; ISA 2 pays 3.5% and does allow transfers in.

You would pay your new 2013-14 contributions into ISA 1.
You would request the ISA 2 provider to transfer your Coventry ISA.

It is totally legal to have these 2 ISAs in parallel. Also, transfers don't count towards your annual allowance.

innovate

raysouthern42 wrote: »

Hi

Just in regards to the above, you can only open one first direct regular saver at any one time.

Just checked faqs on first direct website

There is two people, so they can each have one account, making two accounts in total.

ajdj

vpdanas wrote: »

Yes I've looked at the Coventry one looks....BUT....it was this very ISA that confused me about the timeline thing....they say if you open up an ISA with them NOW you can only pay in with them until 5th April! Hence my query, should I not just wait until 5th April where I can pay right through til APril 2014?

I checked with The Coventry yesterday and they confirmed that a 60 day notice ISA opened now can be added to after April 5th for 2013/2014 allowance. It is just poor wording on the website. Rate is only guaranteed until 31st November though.