Interest on my halifax ISA?

Kev79

Hi

I was wondering if anybody could help me out with this.

I opened an ISA with Halifax at the start of January and by the time the tax year was up I had added £2130 to the account. Now when I checked my interest on it this morning, it was only £1.11 which seems really low to me?

Though up until the 27th of march the account only ever had £100 in it, the rest of the cash was added after this date. Could anybody tell me if this is the reason why the interest paid is so low?

shjo558

£100 cash at 3% would be £3.00 interest for the whole year. As you only had the account for 3 months I would make that £0.75 interest plus a tiny bit extra when you increased the deposit for a few days at the end of march.

(assuming the interest rate was 3%)

anna42hmr

how many days was the money in for and what rate, so ie what date did you add the £100, then what date did you add the extra £2130 in (and was it in one lump or in batches) interest is calculated on a daily basis depending upone how much is in the account

david78

Most of the money has only been in the account for 9 days. Seems about right to me.

Kev79

Ah right. Well it seems I went about it all wrong.

I opened the account with £20 0n the 9th January. I then added £30 on the 16th January and £50 on 23rd January which took it up to £100. Then I withdrew £50 0n the 1st February, but then put it back in on the 13th February.

The account stayed at £100 until 27th march and then I added £1600 into it in one lump sum. Following that there was £100 added 2nd April, £320 added 3rd April and £10 yesterday which took it up to £2130.

The account is the 1.95% (including 12 month fixed bonus of 1.70%). So does this mean that this bonus period is still active until January of next year?

david78

Yes. You get the bonus for 1 year from account opening. You get the rest of the bonus when the next interest payment is made (next April).

However, if you are transfering out in January (And you are aren't you?) you will get the interest then.

Kev79

Ok cheers for that David.

Well at first I was going to leave this account as it is, without adding that much to it (but still add to it) and open another new account elsewhere which offers a better rate. But then I learned that you can't add to two accounts at the same time in the same year.

So im a little unsure as to which direction to take now? Should I keep adding to this Halifax account and then transfer somewhere else in January?

Should I open another ISA now somewhere else, leave the cash in this Halifax account and start from scratch with the new account..only adding to that this tax year?

Or is there any other better options to take?

david78

Its better to leave the Halifax alone until January, and open another cash ISA with a better rate for this tax year. The coventry pays 2.6% for example, which beats the 1.95%.

Sensory

If possible, and assuming no penalties, you could transfer the ISA away from Halifax to a higher rate elsewhere (e.g. Leeds BS @ 2.55%). In addition to this, open a new ISA (e.g. Coventry @ 2.6%).