Rates Dropping - what do i do?

Curbside

Hello all and thankyou for the time you take to read and / or reply to my post.

I am concerned by the way rates are dropping and have money scattered around. my plan was to wait until July then put it all in one account. currently i have £3000 in an ISA with HSBC, £2000 sitting on a HSBC online access account (which i noticed is getting less interest then inflation) and i have a regular savers due in July (£3000 plus interest of about £200) and i will have another £2000 to add to it.

am i better off switching my money i have now (£5000) in to one better account then adding to when the other money becomes available, and if so what are the account people recommend??

thanks for your help,

Curbside

chesky369

what savings rates are you getting and is your ISA this year or last?

spalding

If you isa is last year you would prob be best to fid an isa that accepts transfer in, move that money across and put your addition allowance (3600) into this isa, then look at the top paying savings accounts for the rest

Curbside

chesky369 wrote: »

what savings rates are you getting and is your ISA this year or last?

last years ISA

ok rates are -
regular savers account - 8%
online savers - 5.50%
ISA - 4.65%

Baldur

Curbside wrote: »

last years ISA

ok rates are -
regular savers account - 8%
online savers - 5.50%
ISA - 4.65%

Transferring the ISA & adding this year's £3,600 allowance could earn you up to around 6.25% tax free see here

Curbside

http://www.abbey-products.com/product/super-isa-squirrel/

what do people think of the Abbey 10% cash isa???

Baldur

Curbside wrote: »

http://www.abbey-products.com/product/super-isa-squirrel/

what do people think of the Abbey 10% cash isa???

Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole, personally - given the requirement to pay the same amount into the 'Guaranteed Growth Plan'...

Careful_ly

I think you are expecting more interest on your regular saver than you will actually get. £250 per month @ 8% is approx £130 without tax, and £104 after basic tax. Just wanted to make you aware of this so you are not too disappointed and upset when the interest is added.

Curbside

so atm the best bet (correct me if im wrong) is to:
set up an ISA with Abbey at 6.25% switch the 3000 sitting in lasts year ISA there and put the £2000 in my online savers in this years.
Then when i get my other £2000(in july) put £1600 into this years ISA so its at the max.
That leaves me with £3000 pay out from my regular savers, plus all annual interests (around £200) and £400 left over from the £2000 that i get paid in July. So keep that and in July(when these get sent back to me) look at the highest rate savers account then???

thanks,


curbside

Baldur

Curbside wrote: »

so atm the best bet (correct me if im wrong) is to:
set up an ISA with Abbey at 6.25% switch the 3000 sitting in lasts year ISA there and put the £2000 in my online savers in this years.
Then when i get my other £2000(in july) put £1600 into this years ISA so its at the max.
That leaves me with £3000 pay out from my regular savers, plus all annual interests (around £200) and £400 left over from the £2000 that i get paid in July. So keep that and in July(when these get sent back to me) look at the highest rate savers account then???

Whether wi Abbey or anyone else is up to to you - remember that the Abbey 6.25% is a variable rate and will drop to at least 4.5% in 13 months time if you have less than £9,000 in it - there are other ISAs on offer with similar rates which are more transparent, e.g. Alliance & Leicester's offering.

In July, you would have the option of topping up this year's ISA (up to a maximum of £3,600 total) with some of the proceeds of your regular savings account.

PBA

Baldur wrote: »

Whether wi Abbey or anyone else is up to to you - remember that the Abbey 6.25% is a variable rate and will drop to at least 4.5% in 13 months time if you have less than £9,000 in it - there are other ISAs on offer with similar rates which are more transparent, e.g. Alliance & Leicester's offering.

How do you figure A&L is better than Abbey? A&L is 6.25% inc bonus until 31.5.09. Abbey is 6.25% inc bonus for 1st 13 months. Surely that makes them almost identical?