Mum's Barclays ISA...12 years it's been in !

glassonion

My mother who's 86 has just told me she has an ISA in Barclays that's been there 12 years ( ? ). She says she's earned £108 from it. Now she might be getting the facts wrong...but they might be right. Should Barclays have contacted her and suggested a better deal if this is correct ? I've mentioned that she can take the money out and reinvest it. Any thoughts people ?

Money_Grabber13579

I don’t think Barclays would have been under any obligation to tell her that a better rate was available, so the onus would have been on her to check what the interest rate was and the. To decide whether a better product was available.

It likely does make sense to think about moving it to a different product (if she has only learnt £108 in 12 years, assuming there is a reasonable amount of capital in there) but remember to do it using the ISA transfer mechanism if you want to retain ISA protection.

xylophone

Has your mother given you sight of the account statement?


But yes, if she deposited money in a variable rate ISA twelve years ago and it was subject to the  ultra low interest rates

prevailing until about two years ago, her return could indeed be very modest.

Reed_Richards

£108 doesn't sound much in the way of accumulated interest but without knowing how much was deposited it's impossible to say if this is good or bad. 

poseidon1

glassonion said:

My mother who's 86 has just told me she has an ISA in Barclays that's been there 12 years ( ? ). She says she's earned £108 from it. Now she might be getting the facts wrong...but they might be right. Should Barclays have contacted her and suggested a better deal if this is correct ? I've mentioned that she can take the money out and reinvest it. Any thoughts people ?

My mother was in exactly the same position with her Barclays cash ISA until I intervened in 2016, to transfer her cash ISA  to a stocks and shares ISA with HL.  Barclays ( and indeed all mainstream banks) would have been more than happy for her to languish on poor cash isa rates eternally.

At that time reinvested on her behalf to increase her 0.2% cash return, to 6% to 7% income yield on various stock market securities and unit trusts. 

Beddie

Yes, you can transfer to a better ISA rate. Pick a provider that allows transfers and you can get around 5% on easy access.

Here's a list: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1583864/Best-savings-rates-Isas-Cash-Isa-accounts-fixed-rate-Isas.html

jimjames

Reed_Richards said:

£108 doesn't sound much in the way of accumulated interest but without knowing how much was deposited it's impossible to say if this is good or bad. 

Exactly. Without that crucial piece of info we have no way of knowing. If there was £500 in the ISA then £108 would be a good return.