Fixed ISA recommendations

refluxer

pookey said:

35har1old said:

If you have last years allowance available to transfer do a transfer to say Virgin at 5.85 leaving just over £10000 in YBS then transfer the £10000+ to Santander 5.6 + gift card for £50 = 0.5 after a short period

Sorry what do you mean by 0.5 after a short period? 

I'm not sure what that means either but, as mentioned above, Santander have now dropped that rate - the new rate is 5.25% for 1 year, so doing a transfer-in of £10k would give you an effective rate of 5.75% (or 5.5% on £20k), once you take the £50 eVoucher into account. (Note that only full transfers qualify for a voucher).

If you're already a Virgin Money customer, then their (exclusive) 5.85% 1 year fixed rate would be the better option for the whole amount and one good thing about Virgin is their early withdrawal penalty for that account is only 60 days (it's 90 days for most other providers).

If you're not a Virgin Money customer though (and don't want the hassle of opening a current account just to get access to a slightly higher rate) then OakNorth for 1 year at 5.80% will save you the hassle and it's the option I would go with personally, due to what I've read about ISA transfer problems involving Virgin over on the ISA forum.

OakNorth's 1 year early withdrawal penalty is the standard 90 days though so if you did think there was a chance you'd need access to some of the money, then doing a partial transfer into that and retaining a portion in your YBS ISA could be a sensible option (your 5.2% YBS easy access rate is higher than the best currently available).

I've been an OakNorth customer for a few years now and they've been fine for me, although I haven't opened any ISAs with them so far. As they're currently the top of the 1 year fixed rate ISA table (if you exclude Virgin's exclusive offering) then I'd be surprised if that rate will hang around for long.

35har1old

pookey said:

35har1old said:

pookey said:

Beddie said:

Virgin are fine, no issues at all. How much money do you have? Why not move some to Virgin and keep the rest on the good easy access rate with Yorkshire, in case you need to draw on it. But if you think you might need all of it you may as well stay where you are.

Assuming you have the maximum in Yorkshire - £20k at 5.2%. The extra over a year in the fix (assuming variable rates don't change) is 0.6% i.e. £120. The penalty if you withdraw would be £192.

Apologies to the pedants if the figures are not quite right, but you get the idea.

I didn't realise i could move part of it, i thought i had to move all of it. 
I have 20k in it but wanted to fix it in case the rates go down. I don't think I'll need the money, but would prefer to have access to it in case of anything. I've got the same ISA for this year too but haven't maxed out out yet. Was thinking to keep that in there for emergencies and fix last year's ISA

If you have last years allowance available to transfer do a transfer to say Virgin at 5.85 leaving just over £10000 in YBS then transfer the £10000+ to Santander 5.6 + gift card for £50 = 0.5 after a short period

Sorry what do you mean by 0.5 after a short period? 

Gift card doesn't arrive immediately but ISA is no longer available at the 5.6% rate so it's no longer a good deal

pookey

refluxer said:

pookey said:

35har1old said:

If you have last years allowance available to transfer do a transfer to say Virgin at 5.85 leaving just over £10000 in YBS then transfer the £10000+ to Santander 5.6 + gift card for £50 = 0.5 after a short period

Sorry what do you mean by 0.5 after a short period? 

I'm not sure what that means either but, as mentioned above, Santander have now dropped that rate - the new rate is 5.25% for 1 year, so doing a transfer-in of £10k would give you an effective rate of 5.75% (or 5.5% on £20k), once you take the £50 eVoucher into account. (Note that only full transfers qualify for a voucher).

If you're already a Virgin Money customer, then their (exclusive) 5.85% 1 year fixed rate would be the better option for the whole amount and one good thing about Virgin is their early withdrawal penalty for that account is only 60 days (it's 90 days for most other providers).

If you're not a Virgin Money customer though (and don't want the hassle of opening a current account just to get access to a slightly higher rate) then OakNorth for 1 year at 5.80% will save you the hassle and it's the option I would go with personally, due to what I've read about ISA transfer problems involving Virgin over on the ISA forum.

OakNorth's 1 year early withdrawal penalty is the standard 90 days though so if you did think there was a chance you'd need access to some of the money, then doing a partial transfer into that and retaining a portion in your YBS ISA could be a sensible option (your 5.2% YBS easy access rate is higher than the best currently available).

I've been an OakNorth customer for a few years now and they've been fine for me, although I haven't opened any ISAs with them so far. As they're currently the top of the 1 year fixed rate ISA table (if you exclude Virgin's exclusive offering) then I'd be surprised if that rate will hang around for long.

Thanks for all the info. 

I'm a Barclays customer so that's good to know as i didn't realise there was a fixed ISA that's also flexible.  I don't have the Virgin current account but only the credit card. I know i would need to get the current account to get the higher rate ISA. I'm kind of leaning towards Virgin as its a higher rate with only 60 days interest period. The only thing putting me off is having problems getting the account set up and transfer completed. Somebody mentioned i can split the ISA(last year's). into different accounts, is that possible? I always thought its only one cash ISA per year. 

OakNorth is very tempting. I'm not a customer, is it fairly easy to set up? 

Digital_Payback

Just opened a 12 mth. Fixed Rate Cash ISA with OakNorth Bank via their App. A very easy process. 

Gave my current acc. details and sent a test payment. 

But can someone tell me if only the first payment has to come from the nominated account or ALL future payments. Thanks for the info. 

refluxer

pookey said:
Somebody mentioned i can split the ISA(last year's). into different accounts, is that possible? I always thought its only one cash ISA per year. 

You can split ISAs that contain money from subscriptions paid in during previous tax years into as many new ISAs as you like - you just have to ensure that the providers (and accounts) you deal with accept partial transfers in and out and also bear in mind any maximum or minimum balance requirements.

The 'one cash ISA per year' restriction you mention only relates to subscriptions paid into an ISA during the current tax year - these subscriptions have to stay together (they can't be split) so this means you can only pay new subscriptions into one cash ISA at any one time during the current tax year.

pookey said:
OakNorth is very tempting. I'm not a customer, is it fairly easy to set up? 

I've only had fixed rate accounts with OakNorth - it was a few years ago, but I don't remember having any issues setting myself up as a new customer. I would have passed their online ID checks though, meaning that I didn't have to send them ID documents. Obviously, YMMV. Their online banking site is simple but functional and they have a simple app, too. They also use the BACs ISA transfer service, meaning that transfers to and from another provider who also uses the service should be done wholly online, which is a good thing.

refluxer

Digital_Payback said:

Just opened a 12 mth. Fixed Rate Cash ISA with OakNorth Bank via their App. A very easy process. 

Gave my current acc. details and sent a test payment. 

But can someone tell me if only the first payment has to come from the nominated account or ALL future payments. Thanks for the info. 

I can't comment on that account specifically but usually, if you're required to set up a nominated account for a savings account, then it's likely that all payments will need to come from that account. If you have savings elsewhere, I would just route them all through the nominated account.

Digital_Payback

refluxer said:

Digital_Payback said:

Just opened a 12 mth. Fixed Rate Cash ISA with OakNorth Bank via their App. A very easy process. 

Gave my current acc. details and sent a test payment. 

But can someone tell me if only the first payment has to come from the nominated account or ALL future payments. Thanks for the info. 

I can't comment on that account specifically but usually, if you're required to set up a nominated account for a savings account, then it's likely that all payments will need to come from that account. If you have savings elsewhere, I would just route them all through the nominated account.

Will do. Many thanks for the kind reply. 

OakNorth sent an email after I opened the ISA and it seems ALL funding must come from the nominated account within 30 days. Thanks again for your suggestion. 👍

pookey

refluxer said:

pookey said:
Somebody mentioned i can split the ISA(last year's). into different accounts, is that possible? I always thought its only one cash ISA per year. 

You can split ISAs that contain money from subscriptions paid in during previous tax years into as many new ISAs as you like - you just have to ensure that the providers (and accounts) you deal with accept partial transfers in and out and also bear in mind any maximum or minimum balance requirements.

The 'one cash ISA per year' restriction you mention only relates to subscriptions paid into an ISA during the current tax year - these subscriptions have to stay together (they can't be split) so this means you can only pay new subscriptions into one cash ISA at any one time during the current tax year.

pookey said:
OakNorth is very tempting. I'm not a customer, is it fairly easy to set up? 

I've only had fixed rate accounts with OakNorth - it was a few years ago, but I don't remember having any issues setting myself up as a new customer. I would have passed their online ID checks though, meaning that I didn't have to send them ID documents. Obviously, YMMV. Their online banking site is simple but functional and they have a simple app, too. They also use the BACs ISA transfer service, meaning that transfers to and from another provider who also uses the service should be done wholly online, which is a good thing.

Thank you. 


What does YMMV stand for please?

😊

refluxer

pookey said:

refluxer said:

pookey said:
Somebody mentioned i can split the ISA(last year's). into different accounts, is that possible? I always thought its only one cash ISA per year. 

You can split ISAs that contain money from subscriptions paid in during previous tax years into as many new ISAs as you like - you just have to ensure that the providers (and accounts) you deal with accept partial transfers in and out and also bear in mind any maximum or minimum balance requirements.

The 'one cash ISA per year' restriction you mention only relates to subscriptions paid into an ISA during the current tax year - these subscriptions have to stay together (they can't be split) so this means you can only pay new subscriptions into one cash ISA at any one time during the current tax year.

pookey said:
OakNorth is very tempting. I'm not a customer, is it fairly easy to set up? 

I've only had fixed rate accounts with OakNorth - it was a few years ago, but I don't remember having any issues setting myself up as a new customer. I would have passed their online ID checks though, meaning that I didn't have to send them ID documents. Obviously, YMMV. Their online banking site is simple but functional and they have a simple app, too. They also use the BACs ISA transfer service, meaning that transfers to and from another provider who also uses the service should be done wholly online, which is a good thing.

Thank you. 


What does YMMV stand for please?

😊

Your mileage may vary I mean I passed their online ID checks but if you didn't for some reason, then signing up as a new customer wouldn't go quite so smoothly.

OakNorth have reduced their 1 year fixed ISA rate today, just in case you hadn't spotted it.

pookey

refluxer said:

pookey said:

refluxer said:

pookey said:
Somebody mentioned i can split the ISA(last year's). into different accounts, is that possible? I always thought its only one cash ISA per year. 

You can split ISAs that contain money from subscriptions paid in during previous tax years into as many new ISAs as you like - you just have to ensure that the providers (and accounts) you deal with accept partial transfers in and out and also bear in mind any maximum or minimum balance requirements.

The 'one cash ISA per year' restriction you mention only relates to subscriptions paid into an ISA during the current tax year - these subscriptions have to stay together (they can't be split) so this means you can only pay new subscriptions into one cash ISA at any one time during the current tax year.

pookey said:
OakNorth is very tempting. I'm not a customer, is it fairly easy to set up? 

I've only had fixed rate accounts with OakNorth - it was a few years ago, but I don't remember having any issues setting myself up as a new customer. I would have passed their online ID checks though, meaning that I didn't have to send them ID documents. Obviously, YMMV. Their online banking site is simple but functional and they have a simple app, too. They also use the BACs ISA transfer service, meaning that transfers to and from another provider who also uses the service should be done wholly online, which is a good thing.

Thank you. 


What does YMMV stand for please?

😊

Your mileage may vary I mean I passed their online ID checks but if you didn't for some reason, then signing up as a new customer wouldn't go quite so smoothly.

OakNorth have reduced their 1 year fixed ISA rate today, just in case you hadn't spotted it.

Thank you, serves me right for dithering so much. 
I think I'll stick with the Virgin one. Do you have any idea how long they give to provide I.D or whatever in case it's not as easy as I'm hoping? I'm on holiday at the moment so need to make sure i have enough time to get to a branch 😬