Full ISA Guide Discussion Area

Lieutenant_Thrift

Hi,

This is my first post here. Dilemma I have is I have used up my Cash ISA allowance (Halifax fixed rate 3% btw, standing to make £108 next year) and have enough to use up the remaining £3600 of my shares ISA allowance.

In accordance with the advice given on this site, I have my remaining money with ING Direct savings at 2.75%. Question is: would putting £3600 of it in a shares ISA earn more in a year than the £99.15 predicted by the savings calculator on their site?

I'm totally new to investing. I did ask for advice at the Halifax but they mentioned up front there would be fees and the smiley advisor went on to tell me this is a good time to invest as the market it low at the moment and a big profits are to be made when it goes up and that she personally is stuffing evening thing she can into her £7200 shares allowance. She did a test with me on my reactions to the investment rising or falling and I came out assessed as a 'medium' investor as opposed to a cautious or adventurous one. (She also tried to sell me personal injury insurance even although it was not remotely connected to what I had asked to see her about or anything that I had raised in the conversation, I saw her notes had headings 'selling point one', 'selling point two' and so on)

Anyway, I've read the article about discount brokers and am not sure where to begin. Am I correct in thinking that in light of recent political developements, it is an educated guess that come election time in May or June of next year, one can expect a favourable stock market reaction to the near inevitable tory victory? Is there anything tipped to invest in? How would I got about doing it? Am I correct in thinking that the discount brokers will not provide any advice whatsoever? If it turns out investing will garner significantly more than £108 over the year, would it be worth turning my cash ISA into shares?

Thanks for your help with this rookie questions.

Lt. Thift.

opinions4u

Lieutenant_Thrift wrote: »

This is my first post here. Dilemma I have is I have used up my Cash ISA allowance (Halifax fixed rate 3% btw, standing to make £108 next year) and have enough to use up the remaining £3600 of my shares ISA allowance.

A decent enough choice. Keep an eye on ISA rates though. If competitors move upward towards the 4% mark you may wish to consider transferring to a different provider.

In accordance with the advice given on this site, I have my remaining money with ING Direct savings at 2.75%. Question is: would putting £3600 of it in a shares ISA earn more in a year than the £99.15 predicted by the savings calculator on their site?

It depends totally on what the shares (or other investments) within the ISA do. If they go down you could end up with less than you started. If they go up, you will make a tax free profit. The value will go down and up throughout the period invested.

I'm totally new to investing. I did ask for advice at the Halifax but they mentioned up front there would be fees

You will find fees/management charges within every stocks and shares ISA.

and the smiley advisor went on to tell me this is a good time to invest as the market it low at the moment and a big profits are to be made when it goes up

She may well be right. Words like "if", "potential" and "understand the risks involved" should also be used.

and that she personally is stuffing evening thing she can into her £7200 shares allowance.

Good luck to her. But then her circumstances may be different to yours so it doesn't mean you should do the same.

She did a test with me on my reactions to the investment rising or falling and I came out assessed as a 'medium' investor as opposed to a cautious or adventurous one.

Are you prepared to lose money in the chase for higher returns than 2.75% at ING?

(She also tried to sell me personal injury insurance even although it was not remotely connected to what I had asked to see her about or anything that I had raised in the conversation, I saw her notes had headings 'selling point one', 'selling point two' and so on)

I'd prefer legal insurance myself. Helps me to sue the !!! off anybody who caused me the personal injury :rotfl:.

Anyway, I've read the article about discount brokers and am not sure where to begin. Am I correct in thinking that in light of recent political developements, it is an educated guess that come election time in May or June of next year, one can expect a favourable stock market reaction to the near inevitable tory victory?

It may already be priced in. Markets tend to be reasonably forward lokking in their pricing. Why else would the FTSE have increased by 30%+ in the last couple of months when the economy continues to contract?

Is there anything tipped to invest in? How would I got about doing it? Am I correct in thinking that the discount brokers will not provide any advice whatsoever? If it turns out investing will garner significantly more than £108 over the year, would it be worth turning my cash ISA into shares?

If you invested today and the market lost its recent 30% gain, how would you feel about giving up both your £108 of interest and also seeing £1,080 of your £3,600 disappear down the toilet?

It really is the ultimate question.

- What are you saving for?
- How long do you want to save for?
- How worried are you about losing your capital?

You might be better dripfeeding £50 a month or so in to a stocks and shares ISA rather than risking a chunk of your capital.

mrsimes

Hi,

I'm really confused!

Last year I opened an Egg ISA and over the year I filled it up to £3600. That money is happily sitting in the account and I don't want to touch that for now.

Last month I checked out what ISA's are available this year and I opened a Natwest ISA, which I've started to deposit money into.

I logged into my Egg ISA earlier today and notice that they've allocated me another allowance of £3600 for this tax year. I've not deposited into this, in fact I didn't even expect them to automatically do this, but as a result, I could potentially save into the Natwest ISA AND the Egg ISA.

Provided I don't do anything with the Egg ISA, is this ok? Or do I need to contact Egg and cancel this new allowance they've given me for this tax year?

Many thanks for your help.

Simon

RayWolfe

No, you need not do anything. When you applied, the application would have said "for this and future years". This saves you having to do new applications if you wanted to stay with them. You chose not to and that's fine. Just remember that you can't put money into the Egg ISA even though it might suggest you can..

mrsimes

Brilliant. Thanks for clarifying.

Simon

Andrew_Spence

This is my first post - please tell me if I can just ask a question?
I and my wife bought £14,000 worth of ISA's through Lloyds bank in 2000.They were accumulation accounts where interest earned would be put in the accounts. The only change to the number of shares we own was as a result of tax refunds, which purchased shares or parts of a share. I do not know if these 'profits' were added to the share values as none of the statements explain this. The total value of our ISA's now is £13814. I know that there have been losses in this period, but if the profitable years have been added, how has the total reduced over 9 years? What should I do?

RayWolfe

If you have accumulation units, the value increases by the amount of the dividends. That does not mean that the value (including dividends) cannot be less than the price you paid originally.
The price of investments have been very volatile this decade and banks do not usually run the best funds.

Andrew_Spence

Thank you for that reply. I understand that the dividends added to the share values are added to the share price, and losses deducted, so you have the same number of shares, but the value is ajusted all the time and I assume that charges and fees and anything else in the small print can be deducted from the share value so it is impossible to calculate anything. All I know is that it appears that Scottish Widows is one of the worst performing ISA's over the past 9 years. Now, assuming they let me take my cash out, where shall I put it, get interest on it, but I may want to spend some at , say, a weeks notice?

judywilliams52

I have an ISA with A & L with £3700 in it. Can I transfer all of this to another provider for a better rate of interest? And if I do that does that mean that my allowance for the year has been used up? I am confused. I want to continue saving but don't want to leave my money in A & L with a dire interest rate.

Lokolo

judywilliams52 wrote: »

I have an ISA with A & L with £3700 in it. Can I transfer all of this to another provider for a better rate of interest? And if I do that does that mean that my allowance for the year has been used up? I am confused. I want to continue saving but don't want to leave my money in A & L with a dire interest rate.

You can transfer. Find a new provider, find the ISA which allows transfers in. Open up the ISA with £0. Fill in an ISA transfer form. They then do the rest.

Transferring doesn't count as using allowance (as long as you do it the method above)