Help please: NS & I Direct ISA: Unsure what to do.

booklover

Hello

I have had an NS & I Direct ISA for 13 years, but have never added to it. There is only 1k in it and the interest rate is currently 0.90%. I would like to transfer it to a better paying account. Have you any advice. I'm very confused. 

Many thanks. 

md258

Follow the steps on https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/ to find the best account for you (depending on your tax bracket it may or may not be an ISA).

If it is not an ISA, withdraw the money from NS&I and pay it into the new account.

If the best account for you is an ISA and you are likely to get close to the £20k subscription limit, you'll need to do an ISA transfer with the new ISA provider. If you're going to be nowhere near the limit or the account doesn't allow transfers in, you can just withdraw the money to your current account and then pay it in.

jimbow25

I was actually thinking about opening one of these!
0.9% is sadly not bad for an instant access ISA at this point and NS&I do at least maintain one single ISA rather than forcing you to open brand new issue 2, issue 3 etc to get their headline rate. Appreciate it may not suit everyone's needs at the moment. If you are someone who want to leave an account alone for years (13 years so far in your case!), but also have access whenever you like, it could be worse. Even a market leading account from a few years ago is likely to be in 0.1% territory now.

My Coventry ISA drops from 1.5% to 0.85% next week and then to 0.5% on 31st July. For the amount of money I have in there I am keen to keep it instant access and within the ISA wrapper so may go for NS&I in July.