Abbey vs A&L ISAs

moozer_2

Hi,

Does anyone know if there's a difference between the Abbey and A&L 6.25% ISAs? I've quickly (very quickly mind so happy to be corrected) scanned the t&c's and note that A&L have a 180days loss of interest if I were to transfer out. I think Abbey's is 30 days.

Would be grateful to see what you think.

Thanks

tipsychick

If you mean the A&L Direct ISA Issue 4, then that doesn't have any penalties for transferring out as far as I'm aware. Not sure where you got 180 days but it might be for one of their other ISAs.

A&L's is 6.25% variable, with a 1% bonus paid until 31/5/09, so just remember to look around for something else before the date is up.

I chose A&L over Abbey in the end because of the 30 days' loss of interest on transferring out of Abbey.

If you have a bit of a hunt around there are lots of little threads on this board on each of them. Here's one with a bit more meat on it:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=842247

I know it's subjective but in my experience, A&L's online/telephone banking is pretty good and Abbey's isn't!

Canny_mal

tipsychick wrote: »

I chose A&L over Abbey in the end because of the 30 days' loss of interest on transferring out of Abbey.

I wasn't aware that Abbey impose a 30 day loss of interest on transferring out. Can you point me to the page on their website that mentions this?

tipsychick

I've just had a look and I can't see it now .

I think the one I was looking at was Abbey's Direct ISA Issue 2, which indeed does seem to be penalty free!

I might have confused the withdrawal penalties with those for the Choices ISA. See para 8 and 9:

http://www.abbey.com/csgs/Satellite?c=GSDetalleProducto&cid=1157695656134&idParent=1157695655413&pagename=Abbey%2FGSDetalleProducto%2FGS_DetProducto

Sorry. In mitigation, why do they make it so confusing with various Issues, etc?!

moozer_2

Hi!

Thanks for your replies... I must have read the T&Cs to quickly!

The info on A&L is at http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/savings/SA8887.pdf (section 30.24) but reading it now it seems to apply to the fixed rate ISA. The wording is a little ambiguous for me.

Likewise for the Abbey account - I was looking at the same section as you tipsychick - and getting confused.

Sorry to muddle everyone :-(