Nationwide ISA has ended - what should I do? Please help.

MissJaneMarple

Thank you everyone who helped. Have decided that we probably do need the ISA as we have some private pension as well as government pension, so I guess we will be paying tax, even if the "first £1000"  is tax free.  I still wonder how the NS & I Guaranteed Growth Bonds compare to an ISA - are these taxable?  Or I could try and be really clever and get Guaranteed Income Bonds and each month put the money from there into a Regular Saving Account somewhere, but I guess that is taxable. We have a few Premium Bonds that we manage online, so I guess we could manage one of those 2 products online.

If it is to be ISA however, we could open one online with Marcus at 4.3% I think (our offspring have done and tell us it is simple!) I think I saw Skipton is offering 3.7% - is that right?  There is a branch not too far away, but I would have to ask if we can open one in the branch.  Have I got these rates right?  Some final points - yes, we have money for emergencies and do not expect to need this for at least 3 years - so could potentially take long than a 1 year ISA if advisable. We have made wills, but no POA in place yet - it's on the to do list.  We have current accounts with Halifax and Nationwide.

refluxer

MissJaneMarple said:

I still wonder how the NS & I Guaranteed Growth Bonds compare to an ISA - are these taxable?  Or I could try and be really clever and get Guaranteed Income Bonds and each month put the money from there into a Regular Saving Account somewhere, but I guess that is taxable.

Interest earned on all the savings accounts/bonds offered by NS&I is potentially subject to tax (it's only Premium Bond prizes that are tax free) and the interest earned in any (non-ISA) Regular Saver will be, too.

MissJaneMarple said:

If it is to be ISA however, we could open one online with Marcus at 4.3% I think (our offspring have done and tell us it is simple!) I think I saw Skipton is offering 3.7% - is that right?  There is a branch not too far away, but I would have to ask if we can open one in the branch.  Have I got these rates right?  Some final points - yes, we have money for emergencies and do not expect to need this for at least 3 years - so could potentially take long than a 1 year ISA if advisable. We have made wills, but no POA in place yet - it's on the to do list.  We have current accounts with Halifax and Nationwide.

The best easy access cash ISAs are currently paying better rates than the best fixed rate ISAs at the moment due to the interest rate drops that are predicted for the next few years, so you'll need to think carefully about whether you're likely to need access to the money and if you don't, how long you want to fix for. 

If you want access to your ISA cash, then you can currently earn up to 5.15% in the best easy access cash ISAs so Marcus @ 4.30% is pretty poor. If you're willing to open one online, then you might as well go for one with a higher rate than Marcus are currently offering. While the best providers are app-only and may look a bit unfamiliar, there are some well-established names like Charter, Cynergy or Ford (at 4.60%) if you want unlimited access to your money or Paragon, Principality and Coventry BS (all around 4.80-4.87%) if you don't mind limited access. I have various online accounts with most of those banks and building societies and haven't had a problem with any of them.

If you want to fix your ISA cash to lock in the current 4%+ rates, this is a handy table of the best fixed rate cash ISAs currently available.

If you decided that you wanted to stick with opening and managing your cash ISAs in a branch, then you can do a 'full search' on the Moneyfactscompare site and filter accordingly. Here is an example of the best 1 year fixed rate cash ISAs that can be opened in a branch.

One thing to bear in mind is that the next Bank of England meeting is on Thursday 7th November and if the base rate drops as predicted, most of the rates currently on offer are likely to drop too.