If and when to transfer savings

robbo83

Hi all,

I currently have £3k in The Barclays Instant Access Tax Haven ISA, which as far as I can tell will drop to 5.5% come april.

Ive read and seen that Kaupthing Edge will offer one of the best rates over a long period of time, and so ideally would like to throw another £3K in there.

My questions...

Am I right I cant have both accounts in the same year?
Would I benefit, is it even possible, to transfer the money from Barclays into Kaupthing now, then in april put the other 3k in there?

Many thanks

Paul_Herring

robbo83 wrote: »

Am I right I cant have both accounts in the same year?

Nope, you're wrong. Moving cash does not count as a 'contribution' for the purposes of the limits. You can have as many accounts as you can open; you may only contribute to one of them however.

Would I benefit, I]in moving now instead of later[/I

Possibly, possibly not - depends on the interest rates. On £3k any difference is likely to be measured in pence.

is it even possible, to transfer the money from Barclays into Kaupthing now, then in april put the other 3k in there?

Yes. But note that the limit in April is £3,600, not £3,000 as it has been.

robbo83

Cheers for the reponse Paul, so technically theres nothing stoppong me opening and transfering the current £3000 into Kaupthing Edge, on the basis that Im not contibuting anything more to the 07/08 year.
Then come April I can actually put a further £3600 into that same Kaupthing Edge account and that would count for the contribution for the 08/09 year?

Thanks again

10_66

robbo83 wrote: »

Cheers for the reponse Paul, so technically theres nothing stoppong me opening and transfering the current £3000 into Kaupthing Edge, on the basis that Im not contibuting anything more to the 07/08 year.
Then come April I can actually put a further £3600 into that same Kaupthing Edge account and that would count for the contribution for the 08/09 year?

Thanks again

Apologies if I'm missing something here, but do Kaupthing have an ISA on offer? Are you getting their savings account confused with an ISA. Sorry if I've mis-read your post.

robbo83

Hi 10_66,

Nope thats clearly my newbie-ness showing! The Kaupthing is only a savings account, Im guessing the two share no common ground?

10_66

ISA's allow you to earn tax free interest. If you're a tax payer, then any interest earned on the Kaupthing savings account will have tax deducted from it.

I’m assuming you have a Tax Beater ISA (Tax Haven is this year’s) if your interest rate is going to drop to 5.5% in April. You can transfer this, at any time, to benefit from a better rate of interest (as long as you choose a provider that permits transfers in). You can open a Tax Haven in the new tax year (as you have already contributed your maximum for this tax year). If you felt that you would like to guard against rate reductions in the coming year, you could open a fixed rate ISA (Nationwide have one @ 6.15%). This, however, doesn’t have instant access and there are penalties if you withdraw from it during the fixed term.

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/savings/bestbuys/default.aspx

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/Savings/Default.asp?p=0

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=401374