I S A Questions

For a cash ISA, go to your local bank or building society. However, from the questions you have asked you might be well advised to talk to an independent adviser. You should start by reading

In general nothing is guaranteed (although cash ISAs shouldn't go down in value). I suppose there may be some cash ISAs that guarantee a rate for a year, just as there are taxable cash investments that do.

The public policy behind ISAs is such that it is expected that you will keep the money in an ISA for a long time. Taking it out of after a year would waste a lot of the tax advantages. Some ISAs may only allow investment for a limited period, but they will continue to exist after that period, or be moved to another ISA product from the same company.

The financial press?

I believe that, technically, an ISA is just a tax free wrapper around other investments, with some limitations on the choice of investment. I suspect a few people here take advantage of that, although most people would just use a pre-packaged one. You still need an approved manager, even if you control the content of the ISA.

For the gory details, from the manager's perspective, see