Top Cash ISAs Discussion Area

Sceptic001

waterwatereverywhere wrote: »

Oh I'm sorry I've just seen the info in the FAQ section on their website. It is protected under the Irish compensation scheme. Given the dire straits of the Irish economy (not that ours is really much better) would it be safer/better to opt for an ISA that has protection under the English compensation scheme? What do people think pls as we're fairly dim when it comes to stuff like this!

Many thx.

Personally I wouldn't put much faith in the Irish government guarantee, but if the worst happens I doubt that the British government would let savers who had put their money into a Post Office branded product hang out to dry.

wendywoo4u

.............yes as Martin states - you have to be a current account customer to open one of these in branch only and they are not advertised on their web-site - but if you only have for example a premier 21 account as my daughter does, you are not eligable as the current account has to be funded by a minimum £1,000 a month, so unless you can do this the rate does not apply and the best rate they offered my daughter was 2% on an instant access ISA which can be beaten elsewhere.

wendywoo4u

...yes just been told this when I rang to enquire for my daughter who has a premier 21 account with them - as she cannot fund the account with £1000 a month she cannot apply for it. Glad I rang them and did not waste my time travelling 30 miles to my nearest A&L branch! She will simply have to open a flex account with Nationwide instead and open an ISA with them at 2.75%!

goldnet

gunmaker wrote: »

I posted the above on 9th May. As I understand it the A&L Flexible ISA was withdrawn around this time. A&L shouldn't have made an appointment with you after then to open a Flexible ISA.

The conditions you quote, ie, £1000/mnth deposit, change DDs etc are their conditions for opening current accounts. When my wife & I opened our A&L Flexible ISAs @ 3.5% at the end of March there were no conditions provided you met the ISA rules.

Looks like it was a misunderstanding all round.

I went to my local Santander branch to open the 3.2% ISA today. First, they couldn't handle the application without making an appointment for me to come back another day.

Before doing so, I asked if my cahoot ("A Santander Company" according to my bank card) current account qualified for the ISA. I was told it didn't, only a real Santander (or Alliance and Leicester) account would do.

Funny that when I previously enquired about transferring my current account to Santander to gain a £100 sign-on bonus, I was turned down on the grounds that cahoot was a Santander company and thus I already had an account with them!

Seems they want it both ways - bank wins, customer loses every time...

goldnet

goldnet wrote: »

I went to my local Santander branch to open the 3.2% ISA today. First, they couldn't handle the application without making an appointment for me to come back another day.

Before doing so, I asked if my cahoot ("A Santander Company" according to my bank card) current account qualified for the ISA. I was told it didn't, only a real Santander (or Alliance and Leicester) account would do.

Funny that when I previously enquired about transferring my current account to Santander to gain a £100 sign-on bonus, I was turned down on the grounds that cahoot was a Santander company and thus I already had an account with them!

Seems they want it both ways - bank wins, customer loses every time...

I called Santander and explained situation - although they still refuse to let me benefit from the £100 sign-up bonus, they did agree to open a current account for me at the 5% fixed rate interest for 1 year and let me also open the flexible ISA, waiving the 3-month qualification period from opening the current account. I have to do this at the branch or on the telephone (which they say will be faster) and have to switch the DDs from cahoot myself). The advisor gave me her name and extension number so she can handle this without my having to explain it all anew (and possibly benefit from an incentive payment, which is fine by me). Tempted to proceed as I benefit from the ISA plus £125 interest in the 1st year and the same rate as cahoot thereafter...

rd6821

Halifax are currently offering their ISA Direct Reward at 2.6% variable. This seems to be a reasonable rate to me, being only 0.1% lower than the Best Buys on the Cash ISA article. What do people think?

10_66

rd6821 wrote: »

Halifax are currently offering their ISA Direct Reward at 2.6% variable. This seems to be a reasonable rate to me, being only 0.1% lower than the Best Buys on the Cash ISA article. What do people think?

Depends on who you fee happiest with really. Personally I wouldn't touch Santander's 2.75% with a barge pole, but N'wide offer 2.75%, with others offering 2.70% and 2.65%, so as Halifax is only offering 2.60% I'd go with one of the others myself, if not a fixed rate.

JohnG

We're trying to transfer some savings into a Satander ISA, I have a current account with A&L so don't think there will be a problem but it's still hard work - you have to book an appointment at least two days in advance and then trying to get a day and time that suits is also problematic - we've finally got an appointment for saturday week! You get the feeling they don't actually want your money as they make it as difficult as possible.

Stressmonkey

I popped into my local Santander branch last week to ask about the "in branch, existing customer only top rate Cash ISA" as I meet this criteria. The lady at the customer service desk hadn't heard of it, checked "online" and stated that they only had the Santander Direct ISA (Issue 6) at 2.75% AER variable. I asked if she were certain as I had just seen it flagged on MSE as the pick of the bunch at 3.2% or at least 2.7% above base rate guaranteed. She asked 2 separate colleagues who confirmed the Issue 6 was their only Cash ISA. Anyone know if the Santander/A&L "3.2% Cash ISA" has been dropped, or are they all mistaken? Either way the Nationwide 2.75% offer seems preferable given all the poor customer service stories in this thread!
Cheers
Ross

luci

Stressmonkey wrote: »

I popped into my local Santander branch last week to ask about the "in branch, existing customer only top rate Cash ISA" as I meet this criteria. The lady at the customer service desk hadn't heard of it, checked "online" and stated that they only had the Santander Direct ISA (Issue 6) at 2.75% AER variable. I asked if she were certain as I had just seen it flagged on MSE as the pick of the bunch at 3.2% or at least 2.7% above base rate guaranteed. She asked 2 separate colleagues who confirmed the Issue 6 was their only Cash ISA. Anyone know if the Santander/A&L "3.2% Cash ISA" has been dropped, or are they all mistaken? Either way the Nationwide 2.75% offer seems preferable given all the poor customer service stories in this thread!
Cheers
Ross

I would suggest changing your username if you can or deleting your account and starting again. Not a good idea to have your email address as your log in unless you want bombarded with spam.