Cash ISA transfer for a pensioner

herbiecat_2

My mother in law just bought a mini Cash ISA with Halifax and has put in the full amount (£3600) in. She told us about it today and she said that she is getting only 5% interest. Are you aware of any better rates where she can transfer by going to a branch (she does not want us do do anything on the inernet for her). I thought that Abbey Direct Isa could do this, but I do not think they do unless you still have some money that you put in from your £3600 allowance. I hate it when banks are pushy with older people and rip them off!! Thank you very much for your help.

YorkshireBoy

herbiecat wrote: »

I hate it when banks are pushy with older people and rip them off!!

Why do you think she was ripped off? She presumably walked in to a Halifax branch and said she wanted a branch access ISA.

What did you expect them to say, "ours is only 5%...go somewhere else"?

There are several branch access ISA's paying more than this, and some of them accept transfers in (from the Halifax in this case). For example, Skipton pay 5.50%,

Use the search facility at http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/searches/savings.aspx to see what others are available in your area.

Baldur

herbiecat wrote: »

I thought that Abbey Direct Isa could do this, but I do not think they do unless you still have some money that you put in from your £3600 allowance.

Why do you think this? Abbey permit transfers into their Direct ISA, there's no need to pay in any additional funds - see their website: http://www.abbey-products.com/product/direct-isa-squirrel/

The Direct ISA can be opened at an Abbey branch, simply by completing their transfer form.

munk

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Why do you think she was ripped off? She presumably walked in to a Halifax branch and said she wanted a branch access ISA.

Fairly sure from having been around on these forums yourself that you know banks often prey on customers when they see a lump sum of money in their accounts. I would imagine they have a flag put on accounts where 'new money' has been introduced over a certain amount so that a friendly 'financial advice' call can be made on the customer (or the cstomer can be 'advised' next time they're in the branch) to see how better the money can be made to work for them (the bank, not the customer!).

Cynical perhaps, but I know from my mum's own experience that often banks will take advantage of customers to appropriate funds into a product that isn't that great for the customer. My mum once went into Lloyds bank to arrange to transfer some money out of her current account into another bank's saving account and ended up with an ISA - not what she'd wanted to do.

Of course if anyone ever questions this kind of thing, then at the end of the day the customer has signed something saying they agree to the t&c and the banks are covered. You just have to hope as a concerned relative that you can get the dodgy product purchase canceled before the cooling off period ends. If not it can be very costly - in this kind of ISA case it's not usually such a bad thing, but with other large sum financial investments it can be a really costly deal, almost bordering on criminality.

@OP - I don't know if Lloyds are still doing their 6.5% 1yr fixed rate ISA or not, but if they are and your MIL doesn't need the money for a year and importantly her balance will be £9000 including any transfers in, it's one of the best deals around right now. I think it might have ended just this weekend though, there have been rumours about on this forum. Have a search of this forum for 'lloyds fixed rate isa' and you should find plenty of hits to go on (or just visit lloyds site: http://www.lloydstsb.com/savings/fixed_rate_cash_isa.asp - looks like that page is still visible anyway so maybe the deal's still on).

Liz_the_Whizz

Why doesn't she go back into the Halifax and ask to transfer her ISA into one of their fixed-rate ISA Savers (3 yrs @ 6%, 4 years @ 6.2%). Transfer should be a lot quicker and easier than inter-bank/building society.