Hampshire trust Bank 2 year fixed ISA

babe-ruth

Does anyone know what HTB early redemption fees are? I can’t find any figures or percentages in T&C only that there will be a fee

refluxer

The penalty for withdrawing early from a Fixed Rate Cash ISA will be a stated as a certain number of days-worth of interest and will be mentioned in the 'Can I withdraw money ?' section on the account summary and also in the T&Cs.

The loss of 180 days interest is common for a 2 Year Cash ISA although some banks do charge less than this.

Are you looking to transfer to a higher rate or do you just need access to the cash ? Transferring to a higher rate isn't always a no-brainer when large penalties like 180 days are involved, especially if you're approaching the end of the current term. 

I would check your T&Cs again or confirm what the penalty would be with HTB first before making any decisions.

eskbanker

There's an archived copy of their November 2021 key facts document at https://web.archive.org/web/20220528075617/https://www.htb.co.uk/htbcontent/uploads/2021/11/HTB_PS_ISA_Keyfacts_17112021.pdf which states 180 days for premature transfers of 2 year products at that time, even though not explicitly stating that it's the same for withdrawals:

Can I withdraw money? 

• This is a fixed term ISA, so you can only withdraw money without incurring a charge at the end of the fixed term. 

• You are permitted to transfer your ISA to another ISA provider before the end of the fixed term, but this is subject to a charge on your investment equivalent to 90 days interest for a 1 Year Bond, 180 days interest for a 2 Year Bond and 270 days interest for a 3 Year Bond.

babe-ruth

Thank you both for your replies.  It’s  about 6 months into the first year of a two year fixed so other isa’s currently paying more. I saw that Lewis said It could be worth while ditch and switch. Thanks eskbanker, still can’t find fee in current t&c so your reply is very helpful. Just need to do the sums now

refluxer

Essentially, if you're 6 months into a 2 year fix and the early transfer penalty is 180 days, then you should get back roughly what you put in (after the penalty has been deducted) so you just need to work out whether you can earn as much at the new rate in the 18 months remaining from your old term as you would have done if you'd left the original ISA to mature.

There's a simple online interest calculator here which should help with your calculations - just bear in mind that it won't take compounding into account (which is relevant as your ISA is for longer than a year) however this probably won't make a big difference to the overall calculation (unless you have a really large amount saved).