MSE News: It's a new tax year – so think about using your new ISA allowance

le_loup

Still not right.
You can deposit between zero and & £1,250 per month.

redbiro

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Agree, for anyone wanting a cash ISA, drip-feeding regular savers from good current accounts can be a very good approach.

Nottingham is great if you can go to a Nottingham Branch to open it. Saffron is open all Saffron members (i.e. not many people) but need to use branch or snail mail. There are other niche providers like dotcomunity that offer higher than usual interest so might be worth investigating. None of these are open to everyone. The only truly nationwide one is Nationwide.

Is the dotcommunity covered by the £85.000 Goverment safety net like banks?

zagfles

le_loup wrote: »

Read the T&Cs of the ISA account. It's quite clear ... no deposit required each month.

Why is this so hard? Yes, none required, but what interest rate do you get? That's the issue.

As YB pointed out, http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/regular-saver-isa/rates-and-information

states that you get the 2.57% rate for a £1+ "Monthly balance increase".

So what happens if the balance doesn't increase? What rate do you get? According to the above, it's undefined. Zero? There is no interest rate stated for a £0 or negative monthly balance increase.

I suspect the above is a mistake, that's what my previous posts were about. That's why I compared the basic summary on the comparison page with the non-ISA.

le_loup

I know you've read them but if not here they are again:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/regular-saver-isa/rates-and-information#xtab:terms
If it doesn't say you have to deposit every month or you will get a different rate of interest or no interest at all, it MUST say so. It don't.
If you're worried ring and ask and then you can report back and tell us we were wrong at which point we will say that T&Cs rule, OK.

zagfles

le_loup wrote: »

I know you've read them but if not here they are again:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/regular-saver-isa/rates-and-information#xtab:terms

Yes, I have read them and it doesn't state anywhere what the interest rates are (just that they are variable).

If it doesn't say you have to deposit every month or you will get a different rate of interest or no interest at all, it MUST say so.

Must it? I believe you, but it's far from obvious.

It don't.
If you're worried ring and ask and then you can report back and tell us we were wrong at which point we will say that T&Cs rule, OK.

I'm not worried at all, as I'm fairly sure they've made a mistake in the interest rate table where it says "monthy balance increase". Like I've been trying to say. We've both come to the same conclusion from different angles. It was YB who was worried about lower rates if you don't deposit.

YorkshireBoy

zagfles wrote: »

...I'm fairly sure they've made a mistake in the interest rate table where it says "monthy balance increase".

Looks like a copy and paste job from the ordinary regular saver along with poor proof reading/editorial, which is the point I think you were making?


I agree with le loup that it's the T&Cs that matter (which at the time I posted I hadn't read thoroughly)...not the (as I suspect) copy and paste table info mentioning an "increase in balance".

Perelandra

Interesting, the huge hike (there, using MSE's favourite word, but this time legitimately! ) in cash ISA allowance now makes the benefit of "protecting your ISA allowance" less important than before.

If, in an ideal world, you wanted to save £5k a year, then not utilising your annual ISA allowance could be rectified in 5 years (with a £6k allowance). Now, you can do it in a single year.

Only savers who, in an ideal world, would want to put away close to £15k+ a year will find themselves unable to ever "catch up", so surely the NISA change will now mean that far more people than previously will now benefit from not using their ISA allowance each year, and maxxing out on the higher (but taxable rates) that are being discussed above.

Above related to Cash ISAs only, of course.

jimjames

Perelandra wrote: »

Only savers who, in an ideal world, would want to put away close to £15k+ a year will find themselves unable to ever "catch up", so surely the NISA change will now mean that far more people than previously will now benefit from not using their ISA allowance each year, and maxxing out on the higher (but taxable rates) that are being discussed above.

Above related to Cash ISAs only, of course.

Very good point. When the average savings balance is under £2k the ability to use your ISA allowance in any future year is much easier.

I think it will also mean that many people can use an ISA as an instant access savings account if rates are better. If you have £3k then it isn't easy to take out and replenish in an account when the max is £6k per year. Much easier to do when the limit is £15k.

Perelandra

jimjames wrote: »

I think it will also mean that many people can use an ISA as an instant access savings account if rates are better.

Also likely to be true.

I wonder if ISA rates will improve as a result now, moving towards non-ISA savings rates; probably only if people can get out of the mode of thinking that states "you have to protect your ISA allowance at all costs". MSE! New mission for you!

badger09

Perelandra wrote: »

Also likely to be true.

I wonder if ISA rates will improve as a result now, moving towards non-ISA savings rates; probably only if people can get out of the mode of thinking that states "you have to protect your ISA allowance at all costs". MSE! New mission for you!

But non-ISA savings account rates are equally dire. The only decent rates are on current accounts & some regular savers.