The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion Area

Malchester

patpalloon said:

Anyone with experience of Oxbury? They do an EA at 4.8 but was thinking of the 95 day notice account. But has pretty bad reviews especially of the app

Not impressed with them. Yes deposits are instant but withdrawals are very slow. Still waiting for a withdrawal and account closure and return of funds from instructions given well before the cut off point yesterday. Agent not very helpful and could not say they would have sorted it out today. Also opened notice account but haven't funded it and will not bother now 

Rheumatoid

boingy said:

When deciding between ISA and non-ISA you should also take into account what may happen in the future. Maybe you become a higher rate tax payer. Maybe the tax rules change and that may include the savings allowance so it's always worth considering tucking stuff into the safety of an ISA even if it's at a slightly lower rate, because ISAs will most likely remain tax free forever. This year I will not pay any tax at all but I'm still using up my ISA allowance in preparation for future years.

Agreed and I'm doing the same to try and avoid entering a higher tax band due to interest, but its not always a 'no brainer'

PloughmansLunch

Malchester said:

patpalloon said:

Anyone with experience of Oxbury? They do an EA at 4.8 but was thinking of the 95 day notice account. But has pretty bad reviews especially of the app

Not impressed with them. Yes deposits are instant but withdrawals are very slow. Still waiting for a withdrawal and account closure and return of funds from instructions given well before the cut off point yesterday. Agent not very helpful and could not say they would have sorted it out today. Also opened notice account but haven't funded it and will not bother now 

That's odd, every single withdrawal I've made lunchtime or earlier has arrived the same day just after 3pm. Anything after 1pm has been the next day, again around 3pm, so I factor this mid-afternoon window in if I choose to shift funds around.

jpsman

The big advantage of ISAs that I can see , outside of tax implications,  is that locking my money away in higher interest fixed ISAs for 1, 2, 3, 5 years doesn't mean it's completely locked and I could withdraw (with a penalty) if I need to - unlike with similar interest bonds, which I won't even consider as the idea of no access whatsoever to my money is a nonstarter.

But this is getting off topic!

janusd

patpalloon said:

Anyone with experience of Oxbury? They do an EA at 4.8 but was thinking of the 95 day notice account. But has pretty bad reviews especially of the app

I've been with them for 9 months and I like them - first with a notice account and in the last few months with EA too.

If you need to chat with an agent 9-5 weekdays, i've found them to be very helpful... as others have said, deposits are quick and withdrawals before 1pm weekdays should be same day.... they also will give 14 days notice before dropping the rate.

the thing you need to be aware of with Oxbury is that they often, though not always, release new issues when changing rates - sometimes the rate on an existing issue is changed, but if they release a new issue at a higher rate, you might need to contact them to transfer... though to be fair this has applied more to notice accounts (where you open the new issue yourself and email/chat with them requesting to transfer the balance and close the older issue) as their EA account is still on Issue 1 and the rate on that account has increased automatically.

I can confirm that the Android app is only for authentication for logging into the site - Apple app would show balances etc but Android App won't... I did try to install it on my iPad, but was a hassle - so I just use the Android app now to login.

km1500

jpsman said:

The big advantage of ISAs that I can see , outside of tax implications,  is that locking my money away in higher interest fixed ISAs for 1, 2, 3, 5 years doesn't mean it's completely locked and I could withdraw (with a penalty) if I need to - unlike with similar interest bonds, which I won't even consider as the idea of no access whatsoever to my money is a nonstarter.

But this is getting off topic!

the other advantage of a cash Isa is the ease of transfer from one provider to another when chasing higher rates

phillw

martinm1 said:
But if you've got more than 85k in an EA account I would wonder why not put it into a 120 day as I can't think of a time when I've needed more than 20k in a couple of months.

He said it was for a house sale. I had the same when I bought a house, money in fixed rate accounts matured and I wasn't sure when I was going to complete so it just sat in an easy access account.

It wasn't that long because I'd been dragging my heels waiting for it to mature.

KevinG

Rheumatoid said:

Zopa_Trooper said:

If you're paying tax on your savings, ISA's are a no-brainer.

only if you are saving more tax than you would pay on a higher interest non-ISA savings account.

Obviously, and with today's rates, even the top instant access rate of 5% is equivalent to only 4% after tax and this is easily beaten by an ISA.

KevinG

km1500 said:

jpsman said:

The big advantage of ISAs that I can see , outside of tax implications,  is that locking my money away in higher interest fixed ISAs for 1, 2, 3, 5 years doesn't mean it's completely locked and I could withdraw (with a penalty) if I need to - unlike with similar interest bonds, which I won't even consider as the idea of no access whatsoever to my money is a nonstarter.

But this is getting off topic!

the other advantage of a cash Isa is the ease of transfer from one provider to another when chasing higher rates

Sometimes it's easy and takes a few days, sometimes it isn't and takes weeks. I have had both experiences in the past year.

uptdale

KevinG said:

Rheumatoid said:

Zopa_Trooper said:

If you're paying tax on your savings, ISA's are a no-brainer.

only if you are saving more tax than you would pay on a higher interest non-ISA savings account.

Obviously, and with today's rates, even the top instant access rate of 5% is equivalent to only 4% after tax and this is easily beaten by an ISA.

Or 3% if you're a higher rate taxpayer, or 2% if you fall into the 60% marginal rate which kicks in when your taxable income is between £100k and £125k.