Hi group,
I've got a bit of cash I am comfortable with banking away for a rainy day. Can anyone suggest a good place to set up my cash ISA with?
I currently bank with Natwest & Egg but am willing to open current accounts elsewhere if their ISA offers a higher interest. Egg gives me about 5-5.5% gross interest (they don't offer ISAs)
Thanks, skate xx
In message , sk8terg1rl writes
One suggestion: National Savings Direct ISA. No need to open a current account and you can withdraw cash, either online or by phone, which is transferred back into your nominated bank account:-
Their rate is 0.55% over BoE Base Rate (currently 5.8%), which is guaranteed until 5 April 2008:-
They say a preposition is not a good word to end a sentence with, even though Churchill reckoned that was something up with which he was not prepared to put. But (and I know a conjunction shouldn't really start a sentence) "with" sounds wrong when used with "place", and I feel you should have either used "at", or else replaced "place" with "shower" or "outfit". :-)
National Savings
Can I open an account now in anticipation of 6th April? I've already used my allowance for this year, but don't want to lose the chance of hopping onto the rate guarantee offered by NS&I. I'm sure they're going to close that account to new applicants in the near future. All the other best rate accounts all have strings attached, like having to open a current account (A&L).
Follow ups set to uk.shower and uk.outfit.
In message , news.ntlworld.com writes
The given link says "Anyone can open a Direct ISA as long as they are over 16 and resident in the UK for tax purposes. You must open your Direct ISA by phone or online, with a minimum initial investment of £1,000 paid by debit card in your own name."
Yes, but if he/she has already invested 3,000 in a cash ISA this tax year, they won't be able to invest any more until 6th April - which means they can't open a Direct ISA until then, since this requires an initial investment of at least 1,000.
Hi again everyone, thanks for your suggestions :-).
The National Savings Direct ISA looks good, but what do you all think about Alliance & Leicester's Premier ISA?
Premier ISA
The catch is that you must deposit £500 per month into a Premier Current Account with 1.50% AER (variable) on balances up to £2,500,
0.10% AER (variable) on balances over £2,500.skate xx
After promising so much for one year, they take your legs off with a dramatic (1.25%) cut in the interest rate. I doubt very much that National Savings will make anything like the same cut, but I emphasise that is my speculation.
I think that you will need to read up carefully about getting access to
your money; e.g., are there any penalties for early withdrawal, or long
notice periods? They are probably hoping to gain from people's inertia
in not moving the cash out of their ISA after the first year.
They require you to operate a parallel current account with them at a minimum monthly net income. In other words the whole object, for people on modest incomes, is to try to prise them away from their existing bankers.
I think it might make practical sense if you intend to use it as your main current account and, in effect, discount the interest entirely.
It then rather depends upon what you think of their banking services and what other charges the current account might attract. Again, they are probably hoping to profit from people's inertia and make a net gain
of new current account customers who will be slow to change to another bank.
Summary: Look carefully at the T's & C's, because the headline interes t rate is only part of the story.
In message , Roger Mills writes
Er, yes. The poi nt was wether the OP could 'open' the account with a nil balance in order to be sure that he got the benefit of the special offer. My post shows that he cant.
But could she *apply* *now* to open it on Day One of the new tax year? The point being to avoid losing out on interest rate differentials for however long it takes to process the application. One could open a temporary non-ISA account and set things up so that at the stroke of midnight on 5th/6th April, the funds are automatically moved to a new ISA.
I would expect so, but he/she would only be accepted if the offer was still available on that day.
Yes, but the new ISA would still have to be offered on the same terms as that for which were applied for.
Why?
Why?
Save a change in the law, restricting the terms under which ISAs can be started, there is no reason why a binding agreement cannot be entered into *today* under a specific set of T&Cs with the stipulation that it shall come into effect on a future date but under terms agreed now.
That is to say if the T&Cs change between now and the date of coming into effect, the original T&Cs would prevail.
Given a level playing field when it comes to negotiating terms, perhaps.
But an individual against NS&I - forget it!
The aim is to get the paperwork processed beforehand, so that the investment can run from day one of the new tax year. I don't see why you should not be able to apply now to open an ISA on 6th April. They could cash your cheque and put it in a non-ISA account meanwhile, so that they would know they had cleared funds available to transfer into the ISA on day one, and get all the paperwork processed *before* they actually "open" the ISA.
If you honestly think they'd be *that* helpful, to enable you to get more interest than you otherwise would (assuming that the current deal ends before the end of the tax year) you must have more faith than I have!
In message , Ronald Raygun writes
Because my understanding of the T&Cs was that the account needs to be opened with dosh from day one.
That doesn't necessarily preclude one being opened with dosh *before* day one. Or, to be more precise, for the opening *on* day one to be arranged before day one, having put the dosh up front so that by day one it will certainly be available.
I agree, but my reading was that the 'opening' and the 'doshing' were to be contemporaneous.
The ancient theory was that an accounting relationship only began when there was a financial relationship, i.e. a debtor/creditor relationship. An 'account' is hardly an 'account' when there is nothing in it.
And so they can be. Opening is in theory an instantaneous operation but in practice the processing takes a few days, and if there is a flood of applications, then the form and cheque can sit in a queue for several days before my first-mentioned lot of days even begins.
What's more obvious than to time-shift the processing of the applications, putting the dosh cheques into a temporary holding account, so that the opening *can* happen instantaneously on day one?
I have an account which has had nothing in it for about 10 years, and they keep sending me statements every few months. I really ought to ask them to close it, but I guess they love sending null statements so much, that I suspect they would refuse.
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