Top Cash ISAs Discussion Area

cptncanary

Hopefully, someone has some thoughts on this; I save monthly, to pay for annual or school termly outgoings, such as annual car insurance, club subscriptions, etc. Until now, I've been paying into savings accounts, and obviously paying tax as a result.
My question is; is it worth paying this cash into an ISA, even if I have no intention of keeping some of it there for more than a few months?
I know I would eat up the annual ISA cash allowance, but I thought it might be better than paying into a similar interest rate savings account?

deenstar

Ive been very unfincially savvy this year and havent opened a cash isa yet so still have my full years allowance for 11/12.

If i open an isa that has a bonus, the AA one on top of this list for example and put this years allowance into and then in April put in my next years (12/13) allowance in one go, will the rate/bonus be applied to the total value of the isa for 10 calendar months ie from May-12 to Feb-13? This would mean that i forego being able to open an isa in the new year that may have a better rate but otherwise a good idea?

DragonQ

You'll get 3.5% on all of the money in the ISA for the first 12 months. So if you open the account now, by March 2013 you'll have had £5340 in there for 12 months and £5640 in there for 11 months, and you'll get:

5340 * 0.035
+
5640 * (0.035/12)*11
=
~£187 + ~£181 = ~£368

It's definitely a good idea if there's no better accounts around by the 6th of April.

Also, I just spoke to the AA on the phone and they said that you can apply now and wait up to 90 days for your first deposit. This means people who've already used up their allowance for 2011-12 can still open this account and deposit their 2012-13 allowance from the 6th of April. Applications close on Wednesday 21/03/2012 though, so hurry!

samizdat

DragonQ wrote: »

Also, I just spoke to the AA on the phone and they said that you can apply now and wait up to 90 days for your first deposit. This means people who've already used up their allowance for 2011-12 can still open this account and deposit their 2012-13 allowance from the 6th of April. Applications close on Wednesday 21/03/2012 though, so hurry!

Interesting to hear that DragonQ, because I was told that I would only have 14 days from the date of product withdrawal to make any deposit. Moreover, the main MSE article on Cash ISAs is now showing a deadline of 21 March for applications on this product.

What I did was to choose the option of funding the account by cheque; otherwise, my deposit would have been taken automatically from the linked account that you are required to specify during your application. This way, I can just decide not to fund the account at all if I am unable to do so in the 2012/13 financial year.

Anyway, I hope what you were told is true.

DragonQ

Yep, I'm gonna apply for the account now and choose to deposit by cheque (it'll be only the second time I've ever used a cheque in my life) and hope that they accept it on or just after 06/04/2012.

I have also been told that these two lines on the website, which are shown towards the end of the application process, are wrong and can be ignored:

- "Please note your first deposit must be the full amount you wish to invest in the account."
- "Your valid cheque must be received by the last banking day in the tax year."

tacotaco

Opening my first ISA... First two attempts (AA and Santander) have failed because I don't have cheques. Can't believe these companies still require it.

DragonQ

Yeah I had to get a chequebook just to open a saving account last year. Seems like a caveman way of doing things, lol.

DreamerV

I've ordered a cheque book for the first time in 5 years (I didn't use it back then either) just in case I need one to open an ISA. Seems a waste of paper - whole cheque book to write at most 1 cheque per year.

saveusall

Hello - a quick question from me...
I opened my first ISA at the start of this year but due to travel committments havent had time to throw any money into it. But now I see the interest rates on offer currently are a little bit better than the account I opened. I know I can only deposit into one account, but since I havent deposited any cash into the first account, can I open a different one and deposit into that instead? Or do I have to do a transfer to get these better rates?

Thanks everybody

Scarpacci

saveusall wrote: »

Hello - a quick question from me...
I opened my first ISA at the start of this year but due to travel committments havent had time to throw any money into it. But now I see the interest rates on offer currently are a little bit better than the account I opened. I know I can only deposit into one account, but since I havent deposited any cash into the first account, can I open a different one and deposit into that instead? Or do I have to do a transfer to get these better rates?

Thanks everybody

You can simply open a new one and deposit the money there. An ISA that has not had any money paid in this tax year will not count as your subscription for the year.