Why do you leave it till now to use your 14/15 isa allowance?

CCFC_80

edinburgher wrote: »

Why? Pretty sure they've been paying it to me for just over 3 years now...

Think people have had a good run on this and they no it can be withdrawn at any time.

There is a saying going to quit whilst your ahead

CCFC_80

Vortigern wrote: »

I wonder what they'll call it when the rate drops? Santander 0.5|1.5|2.5?

1. You're an optimist
2. Pigs might fly
3. If an improved rate comes along in April or later I'll transfer £15K in straight away

Very Sarcastic Vortigern, hadn't occurred to me why it was called that, but hey maybe they will just drop the account all together and call it something else;)

Archi_Bald

CCFC_80 wrote: »

Think people have had a good run on this and they no it can be withdrawn at any time.

to be precise, people will get at least 2 months notice of any changes. Which will give them plenty of time to consider their options at the time.

CCFC_80 wrote: »

There is a saying going to quit whilst your ahead

This must be the worst possible advice for 123 customers.

bowlhead99

Archi_Bald wrote: »

This must be the worst possible advice for 123 customers.

Exactly - quit while you are ahead implies if you stay on you might lose. But as the rates are known and published and your balances insured by FSCS, you can't 'lose'.

If you don't keep aware of other opportunities you might miss out on the best deal, of course. You may want to be able to move quickly. That's why having your money instant access that also happens to pay the best rate in town for a £20k deposit, is quite valuable.

jimjames

CCFC_80 wrote: »

Think people have had a good run on this and they no it can be withdrawn at any time.

There is a saying going to quit whilst your ahead

Why not only quit when it changes?

There's another saying too - "make hay while the sun shines"

CCFC_80

jimjames wrote: »

Why not only quit when it changes?

There's another saying too - "make hay while the sun shines"

So the concensus of opinion then is to forfeit your 15k Isa allowance this year which is tax free & let the Santander 123 account keep on running in the hope that it is still going to retain it's 3% interest rate.

jimjames

CCFC_80 wrote: »

So the concensus of opinion then is to forfeit your 15k Isa allowance this year which is tax free & let the Santander 123 account keep on running in the hope that it is still going to retain it's 3% interest rate.

Yes.

Unless you have so much cash that you need to fully use the ISA allowance every year and have no plans to spend the money in the near future.

If that is the case then a S&S ISA for longer term money may be more appropriate anyway.

So that emphasises not using cash ISA even more.

The average balance in an ISA is around £7k, just under 70% of people have under £2k in savings.

Why would an ISA be an obvious choice for any of them now the limit is so high?

Vortigern

CCFC_80 wrote: »

So the concensus of opinion then is to forfeit your 15k Isa allowance this year which is tax free & let the Santander 123 account keep on running in the hope that it is still going to retain it's 3% interest rate.

There's no forfeit if you use your allowance for S&S. Realistically, if Santander wanted to reduce the amount they spend paying 3% interest, they would probably reduce the max £20K on which they pay interest, then they could keep the 123 name and its meaning.

Putting my money where my sarcastic mouth is I've recently moved 20K out of a cash ISA and into a 123 current account.

N1AK

CCFC_80 wrote: »

So the concensus of opinion then is to forfeit your 15k Isa allowance this year which is tax free & let the Santander 123 account keep on running in the hope that it is still going to retain it's 3% interest rate.

IF
1/ You are in a position to max out this years allowance, next years allowance, and so on
2/ You are a higher rate tax payer, or likely to become one in the not too distant future
3/ You are confident you won't want any of the money you are putting into ISAs anytime soon
then using this years allowance is an attractive option. Most people aren't in that position, so the answer is less clear cut.

We will be using our ISA allowance for this year, primarily because we are beginning to move some cash savings into bonds and avoiding higher rate tax makes it a better option than 3% on a current account.

N1AK

jimjames wrote: »

That only works if things drop during the year. If markets rise then you'd be better off putting it all in as early as possible!

If you know markets are about to increase then re-mortgaging, taking out as many loans as possible and sticking it all on the markets is the smart thing to do. As you don't know that will happen, when investing considerable sums of money, it is worth taking steps minimise risk.

Investing regularly, rather than trying to time the market, is a way of decreasing risk; it will also decrease the chance of making a massive quick gain, but that's a fair trade.