First time ISA buyer. Confused

twisted.angel

Hello

I will have £1000 at the end of the month which i would like to save long term and add £50 to £100 a month to it.

Is a ISA the way to go? I do not intend in using it for a few years but would like to be able to get to it if an emergency happened.

What ISAs would be most suitable for me?

Thank you for your help.

tnIRV

twisted.angel wrote: »

Hello

I will have £1000 at the end of the month which i would like to save long term and add £50 to £100 a month to it.

Is a ISA the way to go? I do not intend in using it for a few years but would like to be able to get to it if an emergency happened.

What ISAs would be most suitable for me?

Thank you for your help.

Depends what you want to use it for i guess. If you intend to use it to save up for a deposit for a house in the future then a Help to Buy ISA might be a good option for you as you get the interest from the bank on it as well as an eventual bonus of money from the government towards buying a house, only if your a first time buyer though.
Plus you can take the money out anytime but you will loose government bonus on it!

If you are just saving in general for whatever you want, interest rates in ISA's aren't very good at the moment; you would be better getting a general savings account which offer much higher interest rates.
First Direct and other banks offer a 5% interest rate on their savings account for their customers and it allows you to save for a year which you said you wanted long-term, however you cant take money out while you are using this savings account which you wanted to do, maybe another bank would allow withdrawals i dont know.

After the year is up just open another high interest rate savings account and squirrel money into that to keep on earning high interest rates.

You would have to drip feed your £1000 into the savings accounts though as you would not be able to put the money in, in one go, usually they only allow a max of 200/300 in every month.

thenewguy

If you!!!8217;ve never owned a property before and plan to use the money towards a deposit, a HTB ISA will give you a 25% bonus upon purchase of a property under £250,000 (or £450,000 in London), and easy-access to the money if not.

If you are aged 18-39, LISA will give you a 25% bonus upfront (i.e. the bonus isn!!!8217;t dependent on completion of a property purchase) and allows you to buy a more expensive property (£450,000). However, if you need emergency access to the money before you turn 60, you will pay a 25% charge, which equates to you losing 6.25% of the amount you put in.

Rates on regular ISAs are rubbish, so if you want easy access and you!!!8217;re not intending to buy a property, then you might want to look to current accounts and the savings accounts they might give you access to.