Struggling to keep up with top ISA rates

Rheumatoid

allegro120 said:

jungleboy123 said:

Hello,

As the BOE keeps moving the goalposts downwards  making it harder to score the top rate of interest (no pun intended).

I have now opened and moved accounts with Trading 212, Chip, Atom and Moneybox, so i think i would count and a existing customer and not be eligible for the boost. Idk why they keep doing these boost offers it makes it confusing and i keep switching!!

Can someone please tell me before i go silly which accounts i am eligible to open to give me the highest rate? I keep switching and the rate drops the month after....

Tembo at 4.8% looks like it might be the highest but their page says we're currently reviewing our rates and they blocked transfers in and i have no idea if that block has ended?

Thanks.

I've opened 6 this financial year.  Funded 4 from this year's allowance, that's an easy bit... the problems start when you want to do transfers.  In my experience: Transfers in - Tembo failed, T212 failed, Monument took over a month and I had to complain to get the transfer done, the only one went smooth and quick was CMC but I don't want to increase there because the funds are not protected by FSCS.  Transfers out - started 2 transfers (to Vida and Paragon) out of Monument, both failed.
Bouncing money between the accounts wouldn't be a problem if transfers worked.  I found it difficult to deal with moving funds in this "hit and miss" environment.  I feel like leaving it for now. At the moment all my ISA accounts are paying very good rates. Monument will drop to 4.25% on 29th May, that's disappointing because 50% of my ISA money is there but I can live with this.

This is a major problem. It seems to be a lottery. Both I moved this year required a complaint to complete. Virgin to moneybox and Vanguard to Coventry.

DontBringBertie

Altior said:

No different to changing your insurer every year. 

If you put the effort in, you'll beat the outcomes of sticky customers.

The alternative is to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator like the domestic energy price floor cap. Where the people who were willing to put the work in will lose out to the majority; those who didn't care, either/or don't have the inclination to spend a bit of time improving their personal finances. 

Although well intentioned, this was a major flaw with Martin’s campaign to ban insurers charging higher premiums to existing customers.

It meant people who spent time comparing and switching each year (like I assume most on this forum do) no longer have any benefit for their efforts and the ‘sticky’ customers get rewarded for doing nothing.

It went against his entire mantra. 

InvesterJones

DontBringBertie said:

Altior said:

No different to changing your insurer every year. 

If you put the effort in, you'll beat the outcomes of sticky customers.

The alternative is to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator like the domestic energy price floor cap. Where the people who were willing to put the work in will lose out to the majority; those who didn't care, either/or don't have the inclination to spend a bit of time improving their personal finances. 

Although well intentioned, this was a major flaw with Martin’s campaign to ban insurers charging higher premiums to existing customers.

It meant people who spent time comparing and switching each year (like I assume most on this forum do) no longer have any benefit for their efforts and the ‘sticky’ customers get rewarded for doing nothing.

It went against his entire mantra. 

I don't think it did - the mantra of switching to make a difference is only because of the need to switch in the first place to avoid being penalised. Better to not need it and pay for insurance based on risk/coverage, not how much time you have.

DontBringBertie

InvesterJones said:

DontBringBertie said:

Altior said:

No different to changing your insurer every year. 

If you put the effort in, you'll beat the outcomes of sticky customers.

The alternative is to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator like the domestic energy price floor cap. Where the people who were willing to put the work in will lose out to the majority; those who didn't care, either/or don't have the inclination to spend a bit of time improving their personal finances. 

Although well intentioned, this was a major flaw with Martin’s campaign to ban insurers charging higher premiums to existing customers.

It meant people who spent time comparing and switching each year (like I assume most on this forum do) no longer have any benefit for their efforts and the ‘sticky’ customers get rewarded for doing nothing.

It went against his entire mantra. 

I don't think it did - the mantra of switching to make a difference is only because of the need to switch in the first place to avoid being penalised. Better to not need it and pay for insurance based on risk/coverage, not how much time you have.

It’s not a coincidence that average insurance premiums shot up as soon as the policy was put in place.

same with the requiring broadband providers to put their rises in £ instead of %. It’s just led to higher rises than there would have been.

jungleboy123

DontBringBertie said:

Altior said:

No different to changing your insurer every year. 

If you put the effort in, you'll beat the outcomes of sticky customers.

The alternative is to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator like the domestic energy price floor cap. Where the people who were willing to put the work in will lose out to the majority; those who didn't care, either/or don't have the inclination to spend a bit of time improving their personal finances. 

Although well intentioned, this was a major flaw with Martin’s campaign to ban insurers charging higher premiums to existing customers.

It meant people who spent time comparing and switching each year (like I assume most on this forum do) no longer have any benefit for their efforts and the ‘sticky’ customers get rewarded for doing nothing.

It went against his entire mantra. 

Wont derail my thread too much but the same happened with his campaign to stop broadband suppliers annual/mid contract price hikes. Its worse now than it was originally. Cant really blame him, the system is rigged.

ISA's feel the same way, like another poster said on here. Trying to transfer takes an eternity and involves a lot of complications.

1spiral

jungleboy123 said:

ISA's feel the same way, like another poster said on here. Trying to transfer takes an eternity and involves a lot of complications.

I've had close hand experience of 9 cash isa transfers this year, only 4 have completed in a timely fashion without any intervention. 4 have resulted in complaints being raised and 2 are still to complete after nearly 4 weeks.

For normal savings accounts, I will move accounts for 0.05% better or less. For Isa's it has to be at least 0.25% better for me to bother.

Ciprico

....have you actually worked out what 0.05% really is...

If you enjoy the sport of it, go for it and don't complain....

.05% on a full years ISA 20k is £10 over a full year, if you transfer half way through, it's a fiver...., either way, less than £1.00 a month.

There must be easier and less time consuming/stressful ways you could save a pound a month.

I know it's a money saving forum, but..... 

allegro120

Ciprico said:

....have you actually worked out what 0.05% really is...

If you enjoy the sport of it, go for it and don't complain....

.05% on a full years ISA 20k is £10 over a full year, if you transfer half way through, it's a fiver...., either way, less than £1.00 a month.

There must be easier and less time consuming/stressful ways you could save a pound a month.

I know it's a money saving forum, but..... 

I think you have misread the post. 0.05% better or less for normal savings accounts, 0.25% for ISAs. I have the same strategy.

1spiral

Ciprico said:

....have you actually worked out what 0.05% really is...

If you enjoy the sport of it, go for it and don't complain....

.05% on a full years ISA 20k is £10 over a full year, if you transfer half way through, it's a fiver...., either way, less than £1.00 a month.

There must be easier and less time consuming/stressful ways you could save a pound a month.

I know it's a money saving forum, but..... 

I was making the point that out of 9 isa transfers this year that I'm aware of, almost half have resulted in complaints surrounding their transfer process.

Transferring Isa's is much more of a pita than for standard savings accounts so the benefit has to be much greater for me to embark on that journey.