Trying to decide which ISA to move to

Scruffy_Meee

I am trying to decide which ISA to move our money to, currently in a nationwide one with a low interest rate, there seem to be so many choices.... 

Trading 212
Plum
Moneybox 
Paragon
Monument

I am erring towards Trading212 as they seem to have a good initial base rate . I am not keen on the ones with the 1 year bonuses as I may take the money our prior to the year anniversary so thinking a better base rate with monthly interest if possible. 

anyone got a better option than trading212?

TIA

refluxer

What kind of access do you need ? If you want the ability to make unlimited withdrawals, then that rules out both Paragon's Double Access and Moneybox's cash ISAs.

Plum require you to hold the account for 12 months in order to get the bonus and they also pay a lower rate for transfers-in, both of which presumably rule that one out for you.

As Trading212 is primarily a stocks and shares investment platform, I get the impression that they're offering the cash ISA account as a kind of 'loss-leader', hoping that you'll be tempted to invest rather than save at some point in the future. In fact, there have been reports of cash ISA customers getting notified that the platform is actually intended for investing. You can stick with cash and ignore these reminders of course, which is what many forumites will be doing. 

When looking at the likes of Trading 212, Plum and Moneybox, be sure to read all the T&Cs carefully as they all have quirks that set them apart from ISAs offered by the more conventional providers. For example - one of them doesn't actually hold your cash in one bank but spreads them around different banks (so you'll need to know what these banks are if you hold large amounts of savings elsewhere and want to stay below the FSCS limit) and speaking of FSCS protection, interest due (but not credited) is not covered with at least one of them. (Sorry - I can't remember which).

Monument's cash ISA is flexible and has a decent rate but it has a £10k minimum if you don't have other accounts with them. I haven't read all the T&Cs for this account but it appears on the surface to be the most conventional easy access cash ISA account that you listed.

Lastly, with 3 more interest rate cuts currently predicted for this year, all of these easy access rates could look pretty poor by the end of the year (compared with current fixed rates) if that turns out to be accurate, so putting any cash you don't need access to in a fixed rate account might at least be worth considering.

bripat

I'm sure nationwide ISA was 4.2% fixed not bad but I'm sure it will be dropping very soon (as you are with them now).

P1Fanatic

The T212 (new customer only) base is 4.35% with a 12 month bonus so not sure why you see that as better?

friolento

Avoid Plum, as they have a very sneaky, very low interest rate for transferred ISAs

Scruffy_Meee

bripat said:

I'm sure nationwide ISA was 4.2% fixed not bad but I'm sure it will be dropping very soon (as you are with them now).

yes I think it is fixed @ 4.25 but no withdrawals allowed. Ideally I want something like there 1 Year Triple Access Online ISA with a fixed rate but the rate on that one is variable

Scruffy_Meee

refluxer said:

What kind of access do you need ? If you want the ability to make unlimited withdrawals, then that rules out both Paragon's Double Access and Moneybox's cash ISAs.

Plum require you to hold the account for 12 months in order to get the bonus and they also pay a lower rate for transfers-in, both of which presumably rule that one out for you.

As Trading212 is primarily a stocks and shares investment platform, I get the impression that they're offering the cash ISA account as a kind of 'loss-leader', hoping that you'll be tempted to invest rather than save at some point in the future. In fact, there have been reports of cash ISA customers getting notified that the platform is actually intended for investing. You can stick with cash and ignore these reminders of course, which is what many forumites will be doing. 

When looking at the likes of Trading 212, Plum and Moneybox, be sure to read all the T&Cs carefully as they all have quirks that set them apart from ISAs offered by the more conventional providers. For example - one of them doesn't actually hold your cash in one bank but spreads them around different banks (so you'll need to know what these banks are if you hold large amounts of savings elsewhere and want to stay below the FSCS limit) and speaking of FSCS protection, interest due (but not credited) is not covered with at least one of them. (Sorry - I can't remember which).

Monument's cash ISA is flexible and has a decent rate but it has a £10k minimum if you don't have other accounts with them. I haven't read all the T&Cs for this account but it appears on the surface to be the most conventional easy access cash ISA account that you listed.

Lastly, with 3 more interest rate cuts currently predicted for this year, all of these easy access rates could look pretty poor by the end of the year (compared with current fixed rates) if that turns out to be accurate, so putting any cash you don't need access to in a fixed rate account might at least be worth considering.

yep, so basically I want a fixed rate ISA to try and safe guard against the interest rate cuts which allows a limited amount of withdrawals 1/2 a year.  Most of them are either higher rates but variable. 

I was looking at the Monument's cash ISA (Although variable) as it starts at a decent 4.76% so even with the predicted cuts its may fair better than some of the others.  

refluxer

Scruffy_Meee said:

yep, so basically I want a fixed rate ISA to try and safe guard against the interest rate cuts which allows a limited amount of withdrawals 1/2 a year.  Most of them are either higher rates but variable. 

Unfortunately, you can't have both. ISAs that allow withdrawals will have variable rates and fixed rate ISAs tend not to allow withdrawals (at least not without a penalty) although the Barclays fixed term flexible cash ISAs are a notable exception to this, as you can (IIRC) make up to 3 penalty-free withdrawals a year of up to 10% of the total balance each time, while maintaining the benefit of a fixed interest rate. You can also add future new subscriptions to them too, throughout the duration of the fixed rate period.

If you're not likely to need access to all the money, then one option would be to split it between a variable rate and fixed. Your current provider/account would need to allow partial transfers-out and new providers would need to allow partial transfers-in.

VNX

Been with paragon for years can’t fault them