MSE News: Loyalty really DOESN'T pay as ISAs for faithful customers offer dire rates

Former_MSE_Karl

Banks and building societies touting 'loyalty ISAs' are offering existing customers dismal rates compared to the market's best buys, MoneySavingExpert analysis shows - yet more proof that as we've always said, loyalty doesn't pay.....

Read the full story:
'Loyalty really DOESN'T pay as ISAs for faithful customers offer dire rates'


Click reply below to discuss. If you haven't already, join the forum to reply.

VT82

I have a Nationwide Flexclusive ISA. It's flexible, so I can take the cash out in full the day after the new tax year, deposit it at 1.3% elsewhere, then put it back into Nationwide on the last day of the tax year and top it up with my extra allowance to do the same again the next day if I so choose. Alternatively, I can keep my cash in the ISA at Nationwide earning a decent 1%, and transfer cash immediately to my current account for transferring anywhere as and when needed, safe in the knowledge I can replace it in the ISA whenever I want.


Virgin only has 2 withdrawals per year, and neither Virgin nor Shawbrook are flexible, so you would never withdraw from them anyway, so not remotely comparable to the Nationwide ISA as far as I am concerned.


The Santander 2 year ISA stood out as the absolute stinker in the pile to me.

roddydogs

Wow, who'd have thought it!

ValiantSon

This just in: the pope is a Catholic!

Another pointless "news" story from MSE. Whatever would I do without them?

Herbalus

This is nonsense.

You need to compare them to products that are not "loyalty" from that provider, and you will see that loyalty products offer more than standard products.

Like nationwide loyalty ISA (0.7%+) pays more than their standard cash ISA (0.5%). That is the definition of boosting the rate through loyalty.

Loyalty products never promised to be market-leading, so why would you assume them to be?

It's not difficult.

gadgetmind

I've never seen the point in cash ISAs TBH and have happily spent many decades building up S&S ISAs staring from the days when they were PEPs.

Our emergency cash is mostly in NS&I linkers, which suits me just fine.

Reed_Richards

It was only a few month ago when Nationwide ran a Loyalty Single Access ISA paying 1.4%. But this is no longer available to those who missed that offer.

jimjames

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've never seen the point in cash ISAs TBH and have happily spent many decades building up S&S ISAs staring from the days when they were PEPs.

Same here but I use current accounts for my savings.

I do wonder why MSE seem to keep ramping cash ISAs when they are such poor accounts for most people. The only cash ISA I've had was HSBC when it offered £10 per month version and I paid in only enough to qualify for the extra.

Malchester

Had a large pot in a Paragon Cash ISA which matured recently. I moved it to Nationwide 1.4% ISA which I just got into with this years ISA deposit. Paragon said I could take advantage of a loyalty rate if I reinvested it with them. Only problem was that the loyalty rate was exactly the same as the rate at which new customers could deposit. When I pointed this out they said that the rate would not change for the term of the investment! Same for all.

minislim

i think this is a bit unfair bad press for nationwide.
at least a couple of months back they offered a flexible Isa that was 1.4% and was actually higher than any other banks 1 year isa's in the market.

why didn't you pick on other banks who offer the paltry rates all of the time! Natwest, Santander, Barcleys, Lloyds etc?