I'm SO confused!!!

chrispyphillips

Just a quikkie, and please dont berate me for not reading the main articles, i've spent the last 2 hours looking at them and am at a loss!! I could really do with someones personal advice!! Anyone...?

Basically, I have a current account, and a joint account with a partner, but would like to open a small savings account for small deposits. Basically, we are paying £100 a month into an account to pay off our TV we bought and will be doing so for 9 months. I dont want to put the money in our joint account as it'll get frittered away on food and drink most prob!!

What I want is a savings account that I can put in £100 a month (for now) which I can take out whenever, which isnt capped, which has a pretty decent AER (naturally). When I've got enough saved up for the TV to pay it off, I want to keep the money going into it, and maybe use it as a holiday saving account, possibly putting even more than £100 a month in!!

Does anyone know where I can start looking? This whole mini cash ISA (Only £3000 a year, regardless of how much you take out) and Regular Savings accounts which alter your interest if you make withdrawals, are frying my brain and I dont know whats best for my situation.

Thanks for being patient, any advice would help me out! Main things are No caps on saving, good interest and no penalties for taking money out whenever! And please dont say 'open another bank account' cos I'm sick of them!!!:p

chrispyphillips

Thanks Albatross, no got no debts other than studey loan and mortgage, so no worries there. I'll look at the others you listed, but have noticed the ICICI in the recent email from Martin, so will check that too!!

Cheers!

Judwin

It sounds like you are not currently using your Cash ISA allowance ?

If that's correct, then I'd be putting my £100 per month into a Cash ISA. That's £1200 per year - a lot less than the £3000 maximum you're allowed.

Cash ISA's pay interest gross - without tax being deducted. Therefore, the interest you get is what it says on the tin. You should be able to get in excess of 6%, perhaps even 6.4%.

Any other sort of cash savings account will be taxed at 20%, so even if the APR is shown as 6%, you'll only recieve 80% of that interest, or 4.8%.

Most Cash ISA's allow instant access, so there is little difference between them and other cash savings accounts.

Cheers,
Judwin

lolarentt

chrispyphillips wrote: »

Thanks Albatross, no got no debts other than studey loan and mortgage, so no worries there. I'll look at the others you listed, but have noticed the ICICI in the recent email from Martin, so will check that too!!

Cheers!

ICICI is great, high interest, no charges, no minimum this or thats just pay it in, regular payments if you want, and pull it out whenever you like. Currently paying 6.41%. You just need to link a current account to it for the transactions:

http://www.icicibank.co.uk/

Also ING is similar, very straightforward, no complications or max/mins etc. Their interest rate isn't so great at the moment however, 5.4%. ( ICICI has stayed ahead of the pack since it started a couple of years back.)

http://www.ingdirect.co.uk/

Jonbvn

It is clear you are not using your ISA. Use the ISA before you consider any of the normal savings accounts.

BTW, the ING a/c is very poor - rates are cr*p - avoid.

lolarentt

Jonbvn wrote: »

the ING a/c is very poor - rates are cr*p - avoid.

Although I said it's 5.4% it's not that bad for existing customers, where they are offering 6% for the next 6 months for new deposits. As any of us with any sense will have reduced balances with then down to a minimum, this does mean one can include them when wanting to spread cash funds a little wider, with the current uncertainty on the stock market

chesky369

There are better accounts than ING - Sainsbury's; ICEsave; ICICI has a good rate but I think still suffers from too many slip-ups and bad customer service.

chrispyphillips

Thank you for the replies everyone!!

The ISA thing is confusing the back teeth off me at the mo! I've read about them, but it seemed like for what i wanted (Put in as much as i wanted, take out money whenever etc) I thought it might just be an awkward option. It could be better than a savings account, but the whole kerfufle confuses me no end, and i'm quite an intelligent individual! On paper it just doesnt seem to be what i'm after!

I applied for the ICICI account and have been accepted, just waiting to hear back now!! I might consider a private mini ISA, but already have a cash ISA, and have had for several years, and not sure i have enough money left over at the end of the month to start one up!!

But again, thank you, I knew this place would be the fountain of all knowledge! Lets hope i've made the right choice! :cool:

Judwin

chrispyphillips wrote: »

I applied for the ICICI account and have been accepted, just waiting to hear back now!! I might consider a private mini ISA, but already have a cash ISA, and have had for several years, and not sure i have enough money left over at the end of the month to start one up!!

ISA's are really quite simple.

Every tax year you can put £3000 into one. What you did in previous tax years doesn't affect what you do this tax year. For just about everyone, the first £3000 of cash savings should be put into an ISA every year. If you get 6% interest on an ISA then you'd have to find a savings account paying more than 7.5% APR gross to better it.

If you've got more than £3000 to save in any tax year, then still put the first £3000 into an ISA, and put any remainder into savings accounts - like the ones you're investigating.

If you can leave the money in the ISA long term (several years +) then the interest earned will compound, giving you even more money. However, if you need to access the money after only a few days/weeks/months to pay off a bill (like your TV) , then you can still do so.

The only thing you cant do is pay in more than £3000 in any one tax year. If you paid in £3000 on day one, then needed to take out (say) £500 you cannnot put it back again later. However, you're only on about £100 per month, so that comes to £1200 and therefore isn't an issue.

I really, really do think an ISA is ideal for what you want. However, I'd probably opt for one from a high street building society or bank so that you've got really easy access.

Cheers,
Judwin

Jonbvn

chrispyphillips wrote: »

I might consider a private mini ISA, but already have a cash ISA, and have had for several years, and not sure i have enough money left over at the end of the month to start one up!!
:cool:

What you have written is somewhat confusing. If you have paid into an mini cash ISA this tax year, then you cannot open another one this tax-year.

However, if you opened a mini cash ISA several years ago then it has no bearing on on any ISA you open this tax year.

Finally, most ISA's can be opened with a minimal amount of money.