Transfer Cash ISAs Discussion Area

blind_eye

a quick question of two, would be good to have some input if possible.
Have a cash isa at present, its only earnt 0.35% in the past year. I'd like to get away from santander who it's with at the moment. I'd like to move it to the barclays isa at 3.20% however its only for new isas. If I withdraw the money from the current isa, is the only penalty going to be I will lose 20% of the 0.35% on tax. I can then use it for the new account with barclays. I know generally its advised to just transfer isa to isa, however the amount of interest earnt is so low, I can't see the downside, except it I'm missing something?

ALso santander advised isa to isa transfers are 14 days, does this mean you have to start transfers 14 days before april the 5th?

Any input would be great, Somewhat confused at present.

Lokolo_2

blind_eye wrote: »

a quick question of two, would be good to have some input if possible.
Have a cash isa at present, its only earnt 0.35% in the past year. I'd like to get away from santander who it's with at the moment. I'd like to move it to the barclays isa at 3.20% however its only for new isas. If I withdraw the money from the current isa, is the only penalty going to be I will lose 20% of the 0.35% on tax. I can then use it for the new account with barclays. I know generally its advised to just transfer isa to isa, however the amount of interest earnt is so low, I can't see the downside, except it I'm missing something?

ALso santander advised isa to isa transfers are 14 days, does this mean you have to start transfers 14 days before april the 5th?

Any input would be great, Somewhat confused at present.

Oh dear 0.35% is rather bad, it's good that you noticed this and are taking action!

If you withdraw the money from your current ISA, you will get paid the full interest accrued up to the point, you will NOT lose any tax on it at all! :j
Once withdrawn you would be able to easily deposit it into the Barclays 3.25% Cash ISA. The main reason that people advise you not to withdraw is that you are taking the money out of its tax-free wrapper, and when you re-deposit it again then it will count towards either this or next year's (April 6th) ISA allowance whenever you chose to do this.

Yes, ISA transfers can take up to 14 days, however you can transfer at ANY time, however many times you like. The only reason to transfer before the next tax year is if you still have some of this year's ISA allowance left to deposit, however you could still top up your ISA now and then transfer.

From April 6th you'll be able to put up to £5340 into a Cash ISA :j

blind_eye

Thanks for clearing this up. Much appreciated. It doesn't look like i can hit the thanks button more than once or i would!

Alias_Omega

Northern Rock 3 yr Fixed Rate Issue 6 - 4.00% (with 120 days loss of interest on the amount withdrawn, with ISA transfers accepted)

The above deal appeals to us, as we would like to be able to withdraw from the account if the cash is needed. The likely of the cash being required is low. On the £5100 deposited, we calculated an interest of £17 per month, which if the whole £5100 was withdrawn we calculated a maximum loss of £51. Which would be 3 months interest.

The benefit of this too, is that if transferred in the current year (ie 2010-2011), another e-ISA could be opened after 6th April for the 2011-2012 year.

We would of gone with a fixed-rate-bond in the past, but we would like the cash there just case it is needed for house repairs etc.


Can anyone beat this offer, with the flexibilty of withdraw the cash just incase.?

ceejayblue

Nationwide are offering 3.1% and acccept transfers in, including from their own existing ISAs, which I have. Also I have an ISA with ING which I contributed to this year and they are offering 3% minium and guarantee to pay the average of the top 3 ISAs from 6 April. I have an ISA with Standard Life as well and I want to combine them all so will need to transfer in to one account. My problem is that I am not sure which would be better, stick with Nationwide or with ING and hope their rate goes up like they say or move somewhere else. Are interest rates likely to go down after 6 April so its better to move everything now?

Lokolo_2

ceejayblue wrote: »

Nationwide are offering 3.1% and acccept transfers in, including from their own existing ISAs, which I have. Also I have an ISA with ING which I contributed to this year and they are offering 3% minium and guarantee to pay the average of the top 3 ISAs from 6 April. I have an ISA with Standard Life as well and I want to combine them all so will need to transfer in to one account. My problem is that I am not sure which would be better, stick with Nationwide or with ING and hope their rate goes up like they say or move somewhere else. Are interest rates likely to go down after 6 April so its better to move everything now?

Well most people seem to think that the best paying ISA's will be withdrawn before the next tax year so it may be an idea to transfer now. However nothing is certain so it could go either way!

koala2106

Hi, I have a Cash ISA which I'm in the process of transfering o Halifax and has my full allowance for this year.

I would like to try and take advantage of Santanders offer which traks the baserate (how long can they keep it at 0.5%) but after reading a few things here it seems that these rates will be withdrawn before the new tax year.

My question is, can I open the Santander account now to take advantage of the rate and then start depositing money on 6th April?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance :T

Spiggle

koala2106 wrote: »

Hi, I have a Cash ISA which I'm in the process of transfering o Halifax and has my full allowance for this year.

I would like to try and take advantage of Santanders offer which traks the baserate (how long can they keep it at 0.5%) but after reading a few things here it seems that these rates will be withdrawn before the new tax year.

My question is, can I open the Santander account now to take advantage of the rate and then start depositing money on 6th April?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance :T

I opened the A&L now Santander ISA last year before the end of the tax year and didn't put anything in until after 6th April. I don't know whether they will be stricter now though.

HTH,
Spigs

madprof_2

I am looking to transfer away from Santander, which I took out just over a year ago, and into Halifax.
I'm aware there is a risk the Halifax rate could drop as well as rise - this may be paranoid but is there any chance Halifax could be suckering people in and dropping the rate over the course of the year for existing customers while jacking it up for new ones?

rb10

madprof wrote: »

I am looking to transfer away from Santander, which I took out just over a year ago, and into Halifax.
I'm aware there is a risk the Halifax rate could drop as well as rise - this may be paranoid but is there any chance Halifax could be suckering people in and dropping the rate over the course of the year for existing customers while jacking it up for new ones?

That's certainly possible.

But it wouldn't fit with their past form - this is their 4th ISA Direct Reward, and they've never dropped the rate on any of their previous ones. Even when new customers could only access a lower rate, the existing customers were kept at their original (higher) rate.

Besides, their ISA Promise states that all ISAs will be available to everyone, whether a new customer or not. So if they did give a higher rate to new customers, you could easily switch to that too.