ISA - who does the interest work.

Avii_2

Hi
this may sound stilly, i an confussed as to how i make my interest on my ISA.
I have so far got about £10k, but have not but any more in for about 3 years.
i got my statement, showing that i only made £50 interest in the year gone.?
this sounds such a small amount for the amouth i have put in.

do i have to keep putting in funds to get interest? I though with whati have it woudl get me adecent amouth.

thanks

xylophone

What is the interest rate you are receiving on your ISA?

Has it changed since you opened it?

When did you make your contributions and how much each time?

westy22

I presume you are talking about a cash ISA? Who is it with and what is the current interest rate per annum?

If you had £10,000 in at the start of a 12 month period and you only earned £50 interest then it sounds like you are being paid 0.5% which is woeful.

tanith

Sorry to say you can't just open an ISA and then leave it alone and expect a decent rate of interest, it needs monitoring and moving if your interest rate drops after a time and most do. You need to check your rate of interest and if as its been suggested its really low then you need to move it if you want a decent return.

Ifts

Variable rate ISA? and the rate has dropped over the years (usually after 12 months) or fixed rate has come to an end, if thats the case move it elsewhere to get a better rate.

0.5% would be similar to what providers put you on when your original offer/rate that you took out has expired.

Who is the ISA with?

badger09

If the total you have in a cash ISA is £10k and you really want to keep it in cash, then you should probably forget about ISAs and look at all the posts on this forum (and the Budgeting & Bank Accounts forum) about current accounts eg Nationwide FlexDirect, TSB Plus, Lloyds Club, Santander 123 etc etc

You could get 3 - 5% instead of 0.5%

eskbanker

Apart from various HMRC-imposed rules and regs, a cash ISA is essentially just the same as any other savings account, where you need to monitor interest rates on an ongoing basis and take action when necessary, either when variable rates drop or when fixed rate periods expire.