FSCS: long term ISAs + temporary high balance

morgyhill

We've just sold our house and are wondering where to put the money temporarily until we buy a new house. We are considering a Virgin account (the Double Take E-Saver) which looks good, but we already have around £5k in ISAs with Virgin.

The temporary high balance will be covered by the FSCS if Virgin fails, but if that happens, would we lose the money in the ISAs, as the balance in those is not temporary, and the house money is more than £85k ?

masonic

The terms of this are rather vague (I'd have thought it would cover all funds as long as you weren't in excess of £85k before the "life event" that created the temporary high balance), but I'd point out Marcus as an alternative paying the same rate, where you presumably don't have any savings at the moment.

alanq

morgyhill wrote: »

We've just sold our house and are wondering where to put the money temporarily until we buy a new house. We are considering a Virgin account (the Double Take E-Saver) which looks good, but we already have around £5k in ISAs with Virgin.

The temporary high balance will be covered by the FSCS if Virgin fails, but if that happens, would we lose the money in the ISAs, as the balance in those is not temporary, and the house money is more than £85k ?

Standard FSCS cover is doubled for joint accounts i.e. £170,000. I haven't found anywhere that spells out whether the £1m temporary high balance cover is also doubled.

https://www.fscs.org.uk/news/2017/january/new-85000-deposit-limit-from-today/

morgyhill

The terms of this are rather vague (I'd have thought it would cover all funds as long as you weren't in excess of £85k before the "life event" that created the temporary high balance)

@masonic Thanks for the reply. I agree. I'd love to have some more definite info on this.

As for the Marcus account, thanks for mentioning that. It looks like a pretty good option, and doesn't have the limitation on number of withdrawals that the Virgin account does. We wouldn't want to go for a joint account BTW, as only one of us is a higher-rate tax payer, so as I understand it, half the interest would be liable for tax at 40%.