New to ISA's - how many can I open?

Gareth77

Hi I am new to ISA's


I have about 70K in a savings account with Natwest (interest rate 1.75%)

I would also like to save more - 1.5K a month

Should I transfer all of this to a single ISA? (Sainsbury's looks good) 

or do I need to create separate ISA's with different banks?

I would like money to be relatively easily accessible (ie; not locked for more than 12 months)


Thanks in advanced

Robin9

Even within NatWest you can get 5.01%

Have a good look at their website

eskbanker

Gareth77 said:

Hi I am new to ISA's

I have about 70K in a savings account with Natwest (interest rate 1.75%)

I would also like to save more - 1.5K a month

Should I transfer all of this to a single ISA? (Sainsbury's looks good) 

or do I need to create separate ISA's with different banks?

First things first, the annual ISA contribution limit is £20K, i.e. you can't pay any more than that into ISAs in any tax year (and can only fund one ISA of each type, i.e. you can't use different banks concurrently).

Whether or not ISAs are appropriate for your needs will depend to a certain extent on your tax situation, but chances are you'll be paying tax on some interest, so using the ISA tax wrapper is likely to be beneficial.

What is it you're saving for and when?

Bigwheels1111

Can I just say wow, you’re flushing money down the toilet.
Best easy access today.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/easy-access-savings-accounts/?quick-links-first=false
Click on rate order or amount of year then rate order.
Best ISA
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/isa/fixed-rate-isas/?quick-links-first=false

Fixed rates.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/fixed-rate-bonds/?quick-links-first=false

Gareth77

Bigwheels1111 said:

Can I just say wow, you’re flushing money down the toilet.
Best easy access today.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/easy-access-savings-accounts/?quick-links-first=false
Click on rate order or amount of year then rate order.
Best ISA
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/isa/fixed-rate-isas/?quick-links-first=false

Fixed rates.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/fixed-rate-bonds/?quick-links-first=false

is what I am doing bad at the moment?

Gareth77

So I am saving to then over pay the mortgage in 3 years time. From the above it feels like I should

1) put 20K in a fixed term ISA (to avoid tax and this is the max I can put in a ISA) for 2 years

2) put 20K in a fixed term savings (say Natwest 5%) for 2 years

3) put the rest in an easy access account (incase something happens and I need it) - and keep saving to that each month 

eskbanker

Gareth77 said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

Can I just say wow, you’re flushing money down the toilet.
Best easy access today.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/easy-access-savings-accounts/?quick-links-first=false
Click on rate order or amount of year then rate order.
Best ISA
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/isa/fixed-rate-isas/?quick-links-first=false

Fixed rates.
https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/savings-accounts/fixed-rate-bonds/?quick-links-first=false

is what I am doing bad at the moment?

I believe the point being made was that currently having £70K in an account paying 1.75% is way off market rates, so, regardless of the potential future use of ISAs, a priority should be shifting the money somewhere that it'll earn realistic interest.

As above, the most you could get into ISAs is £20K, so it would probably be better to focus your initial efforts on the other £50K....

r6mile

1.7% is a very poor interest rate at the moment.

How much of the 70k do you want to have immediately available? Unless you need all of it available now, I would suggest you max out your 20k ISA allowance and put it in a 1-year fixed term ISA, where you can get close to 5% in an ISA these days. Then maybe the rest in a range of normal savings accounts, perhaps some in another fixed-term account, some in a "limited access" account (ie like the Coventry one which allows 4 penalty-free withdrawals in a year), some in an easy-access one.

Gareth77

I feel such an idiot - I've had it sat there for a while.

I think I can easy safe guard 20K for future use - so I'll transfer that straight to a fixed ISA (Sainsburys look good).   I'll look to see what Natwest can give for normal savings - should I be looking at 5% for that?

eskbanker

Gareth77 said:

I feel such an idiot - I've had it sat there for a while.

I think I can easy safe guard 20K for future use - so I'll transfer that straight to a fixed ISA (Sainsburys look good).   I'll look to see what Natwest can give for normal savings - should I be looking at 5% for that?

If you want to get decent interest on your money it'll probably be best not to approach it from the perspective of seeing what your current bank can offer, but to use comparison sites (such as those linked above) to identify what the market is doing....

Albermarle

As  has been in the news today, big banks generally have been generally slow to pass on interest rate rises, with a few exceptions.
This is nothing new and typically the well known High St banks have pretty much always offered poor savings accounts. Normally you are better looking at smaller banks and some building societies for the good rates.