Help me choose- Al Rayan, Danske, Skipton, Nationwide, ?

Archi_Bald

masonic wrote: »

I would have thought the reason why not to go for a S&S ISA is the OP potentially needing this money (possibly even within 12 months) for a deposit on a flat.

oops, I overlooked the OP said they want to put their money towards a flat in the next year or two.

In which case, they shouldn't be contemplating any ISA of any form at all.

pavane

Archi, it is not that I "don't understand the question", you're not actually reading. You're just assuming, jumping to conclusions and doing the copy-paste job about current accounts.

I'm guessing the 3% you're talking about S123. I have that! READ! And yes, I have Lloyds Club and TSB and Tesco and Vantage and Halifax. I have maxed the current accounts and those regular I could get.

You then immediately jump to "if you have more than X in high current accounts you should be doing long term this and that". Seriously, what do you know about my situation?

You're one of the most active users here and generally helpful but please take the time to read and answer the topic at hand. I didn't ask for financial advice, I asked for feedback on a few cash ISA options.

Archi_Bald

pavane wrote: »

Seriously, what do you know about my situation?

As much as you care to share.

bowlhead99

apologies for a bit of a rant to follow

Archi_Bald wrote: »

pavane wrote: »

You then immediately jump to "if you have more than X in high current accounts you should be doing long term this and that". Seriously, what do you know about my situation?

As much as you care to share.

Well, he cared to share that he might use the money to buy a flat in the next year or so, hence didn't want long term lockups and by implication, S&S ISA would be totally inappropriate. He also cared to share that he was well aware of high interest current accounts and that although he knew people would try to start talking about them to try to educate him, he didn't need it.

What more can a person do, to cut off the unnecessary, off at a tangent, discussion which always comes up about how there are other products that pay more if you haven't already used them and you have a low enough tax rate, even though the person is already aware about high interest current accounts and regular saver accounts and pensioner bonds etc etc.

Clearly the OP was quite a long detailed post about what information he was actually looking for, and was specifically requesting that while you are all going to be nice and 'educational' with some veiled or blatant digs about how stupid he is for not using a taxable account, he does not want it because he knows about them.

Maybe it's because he doesn't want the hassle. Maybe it's because he's filled all the good ones. Maybe he's on a high marginal tax rate so that even a 4% from Lloyds is less than the 2% headline rate at Al Rayan after tax. He shouldn't have to give his whole life story to avoid the barbed comments- since when should a respectful request to !!!!!! about current accounts be completely ignored so that everyone can show off that they know about them?

So, how well did everyone do at sticking to the questions asked and keeping their mouth shut about products he didn't want?

Within Colsten's first two posts we had

Usual forum comment: are you sure a cash ISA is your best choice?

Well yes, he has specifically said that's what he wants and has started to narrow them down with very exacting criteria and explained that he knows about high interest current accounts and doesn't need educating...

The main question you should ask yourself is whether a cash ISA is the best you can do for yourself.

He has probably done that, given his specific questions, and his deliberate reference to other products in the market that he knows about but doesn't want extra 'education' on...

Then we get

I wonder why you appear to be determined to go for a cash ISA even though there is no evidence...

Then even after being told that he has maxed all these accounts which he specifically asked you not to talk about, you're back with...

I also would not understand why anyone would want to throw away money in the current tax year.

So after he told you at 7pm that his current accounts were maxed, and you'd come back half an hour later to still tell him he's throwing money away... he asks you again to quit it with the current account stuff - you're back at 9pm to retort:

Why would you not go for current accounts?

..Putting any money into a cash ISA before April 6 2016 at less than 3% AER begs the very serious question of why you aren't using higher interest paying accounts and why you are throwing money away? If you don't understand the question...

It's clearly you and Colsten et al who don't understand or simply don't want to understand what you're being asked for assistance with, until he tells you again for the umpteenth time ; hopefully it's clear that he knows what an ISA is and what a good current account is and how he can - and does - save effectively.

So a few people push S&S ISAs which are clearly not going to work if you need money back to buy a flat in the next year or two. But after that is kindly pointed out, for the benefit of those who didn't spot it back in post 1, people are now saying :

another reason why a cash ISA is potentially pointless if long term savings is not part of the picture

WHAT? If the money cannot be put away for the long term because it's needed to buy a flat, so S&S is out, and the 2-3 year deposit accounts don't work for the same reason, and the top current accounts are exhausted, and basic savings accounts only pay 1.6% at the most before 20%, 40%, 45%, 60% tax or whatever: why should cash ISA at 1.5%+ not be a completely logical choice as the best netting account out there, even if only for 6 months or a year or two ?

It is perfectly rational and sensible thing to do.

And then we get your realisation that the person is not able to invest for the long term and has maxed all the high accounts, so presumably you are now going to, graciously, be OK with him daring to use an ISA to save tax...? But no!

Apparently only having a year or two before he might need the money for a flat (but presumably, might not, if circumstances change; he mentioned he could potentially hit the 85k threshold with Nationwide in a couple of years) means:

In which case, they shouldn't be contemplating any ISA of any form at all.

Seriously? There's no point saving tax at your marginal tax rate if you can only do it for a year or two before you might spend all your money and your interest on a big purchase?? You should just throw this year's tax wrapper in the bin and pay more tax than you need to? What school of money saving experts did you go to?

This is a great forum and people make valuable contributions that save or make a lot of other people money every day of the week. I just wish people would stop being so self-absorbed that they would let a thread run the course that the OP wants it to take rather than keep banging on about their own pet topics. Guilty of that myself sometimes I suppose
---
To the OP - if you don't want more than 60 days notice, and you think you might be pulling the trigger on a flat in less than a year, makes sense to forget an account which needs 4 months notice. Sure, you can get your cash out instantly by transferring it out to another instant access product there or elsewhere. But only by giving up a big chunk of interest (in their terms, 'profit').

Basically they replace your entitlement to your deposit plus the 2% target profit, with your deposit plus an amount

"equal to the minimum expected profit rate product from our savings account range, at the date of transfer out

. This will be instead of the applicable expected profit rate on your NCISA for the last calculation periods (120 days)".

The lowest expected profit rate product in their range pays 0.05%: much lower than the 120 day product. So it sounds like if you kept the account for 240 days and then transferred out, you'd get the last 120 days paid at pretty much zero leaving you an average total return for the period which is only halfway between the 2% target and the 0.05% target.

So if that account doesn't really work, and the other ones are only 1.6% with providers you don't know, versus 1.5% at Nationwide which you know and are happy with - I would go with Nationwide. If the account is accessible then the fact you might approach the £85k in a couple of years is not a big deal - you could just deal with that when you actually do approach it.

ajdj

The Nationwide Save to Buy ISA pays 2% and accepts transfers from other Nationwide ISA products. Only stipulation is that you must pay in £50/month minimum.

Wonder if you could do Lloyds > Nationwide 1.5% > Nationwide 2% and pay in £50/month to keep the rate?

Edit- the 2% is only good for balances up to £20k, so you need to keep some in the 1.5% as well. Good thing is Nationwide let you split your allowance across different ISA products.

Archi_Bald

bowlhead99 wrote: »

apologies for a bit of a rant to follow

apologies for not reading more than the first two paras of your rant, and if I have therefore jumped to a wrong conclusion about the purpose of your rant.

It seems the gist of your rant might be that everyone must only respond with what the OP asks and must not offer other opinions or suggestions. Nobody seems to be allowed to make mistakes, either, and if anybody apologises for a mistake, such apologies seem to get ignored. Or something like that.

I shall refer you to your rant next time you offer a poster an alternative to their original thinking.:D