A stupid move?

T3B3

I'm not quite sure where this one belong (either the ISA forum or this one).

After seeing that all three of my FelxDirect accounts have paid the 5% I am now considering closing my maxed out NS&I ISA @ 2.25% and spreading the money between all three accounts. the ISA was only opened at the beginning of February so not much lost.

Anyone feel this is a wise move? There are no ISA's currently on the market (and for the foreseeable future) that come close to the 5% rate.

BR
:money:

innovate

If you need the ISA money to fund your FDs, you might as well try. Though be aware Nationwide might enforce their T&Cs and stop paying for more than one account. Make hay whilst the sun shines....

T3B3

Thank you for the reply :j

Even if they withdrew the 5% I could still make more with other current accounts i.e. Santanders 123 @ 3%.

NS&I will be getting a phone call tomorrow!

Have a great day everyone.

gkerr4

don't "close them" - transfer them.

once you close the account you lose the tax-benefit forever.

no ISA is paying good interest at the moment to be honest, but years down the line you'll be grateful of that tax shelter when you savings have grown.

innovate

You can't transfer an ISA into FlexDirects. Yes, it is true, you lose you allowance, and it it true that you should be very careful about losing your ISA allowance.

But if all you have is max £7K, and not much in your ISA yet, you might as well put them into the 5% accounts (4% net after tax) for a while. That's a good deal more than you can get in an instant access ISA.

Come next March/April, you can then fill an ISA, may be.

gkerr4

ah sorry - i hadn't appreciated the specifics of the FlexDirect accounts.

srcandas

Not sure I go with this fear of losing cash ISA benefits - certainly in the shortterm. You need to accrue a lot and need it in short time for any great benefit.

If you have the right balance of pensions and savings I suspect very very few see any benefit at all.

OK if interest rates were over 6% perhaps.

Another thought is of course if the gov reduced or killed non ISA benefits - like the CGT allowance. But equally if they get short of dosh they could put a 60% tax on ISA funds :rotfl:

Just an opinion

bigfreddiel

srcandas wrote: »

Not sure I go with this fear of losing cash ISA benefits - certainly in the shortterm. You need to accrue a lot and need it in short time for any great benefit.

If you have the right balance of pensions and savings I suspect very very few see any benefit at all.

well with £200k+ in isas now i'm seeng the benefit - and like you i thought why bother when i only had a few k in my isa account and only £100 interest - if i had taken your pov it would still be the same :-( a few yesrs on

hope that helps

fj

1997 unemployed
2013 retired - net worth £1.3m approx
and i was only a public sector employee!

innovate

You wouldn't have got to £200K+ in ISAs by putting your full allowance into a mediocre cash ISA at the start of a tax year if you could have made a small mint elsewhere and filled your cash ISA before the allowance expired, would you?

You also wouldn't have got to £200K in cash ISAs, full stop.

Not sure what value you are going to add to the OP by bragging about your wealth. Much more helpful if you give them pertinent information that no doubt you have since obviously you have been where they are at some point (haven't we all).

srcandas

bigfreddiel wrote: »

well with £200k+ in isas now i'm seeng the benefit - and like you i thought why bother when i only had a few k in my isa account and only £100 interest - if i had taken your pov it would still be the same :-( a few yesrs on

hope that helps

bigfreddiel for many who buy a house, raise kids, have pension provision, and use ISAs when it makes sense and not because everyone says if you don't you are mad, it is not a big deal

There will be cases when ISAs make sense but it is not a religion

bigadaj

srcandas wrote: »

bigfreddiel for many who buy a house, raise kids, have pension provision, and use ISAs when it makes sense and not because everyone says if you don't you are mad, it is not a big deal

There will be cases when ISAs make sense but it is not a religion

Unlike the religion of the evil IFAs.