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ISA / Savings Accounts
littlemissy
Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
Well, basically, I have a bit of money stowed away in a very old account. I want to put it into a savings account and add to it each month. I am under the impression that ISAs give the best rate of interest (is this correct?).
I basically want to put my money into an account that will give me the best amount of interest and, probably, set up a DD so I can transfer money to it once a month. Is this possible with an ISA? It would probably be about £100-150 a month that I deposit.
What banks give good rates of interest and are good to bank with? Who should I entrust with my hard earned cash? Are there any that I should avoid at all costs? My current account and our joint savings account is with RBS, but I don't want to go with them for this if I can get a better deal elsewhere.
Is an ISA even the best way to go with this?
All advice would be appreciated
I basically want to put my money into an account that will give me the best amount of interest and, probably, set up a DD so I can transfer money to it once a month. Is this possible with an ISA? It would probably be about £100-150 a month that I deposit.
What banks give good rates of interest and are good to bank with? Who should I entrust with my hard earned cash? Are there any that I should avoid at all costs? My current account and our joint savings account is with RBS, but I don't want to go with them for this if I can get a better deal elsewhere.
Is an ISA even the best way to go with this?
All advice would be appreciated
0
Comments
I eventually went with ING direct, who have a very good interest rate. They are an online thing only, and I know you can set up direct debits to pay in a certain amount every month.
It might be worth looking at http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/ and inputting your individual needs to see if you can find the best deal for you.
I'm not bothered about instant access - I'm wanting this as a savings account for the future (when we have kids, decide to move house again etc etc).
I had a look at moneysupermarket, but, tbh, I found it all quite confusing
Jeez, I am awful with financial stuff
My ISA gives me just over 5% :yes: I'm with Halifax.
Not critising, but 5% isn't great for an ISA, i think i get 5.65% and i know mine isn't one of the highest earning ones.
I think theres a few around 6.5% around, but of course it depends excatly what you're looking for in regards to having a branch near by etc...
(One thing to watch out for would be introductory bonuses, places offering ISAs at 6.5% but that including the 3month bonus of 1.5% before offering 5% for example)
I don't think you can set up a DD with an ISA, would it be possible for you to savings account with a decent interest rate, perhaps 4.5% to use for your general savings and setting up DDs, then have an ISA for your longer term savings, since ideally you don't want to draw money out of those (most places don't penalise you for doing so, but it is still counted against your maximum investment of 3k a year)
Alliance & Leicester (never used them) have a saving account at 6% which you can tie to you regular saving account which is 12% (which needs to be withdrawn after a year) so would only be beneficial for the first 6 months of deposits you make, since the interest accrued on the latter 6 months would be earning less in interest than it would in a normal savings account (sorry hard to get your head around especially with me trying to explain! but have a quick look on their site for details, although they won't point out that anything deposited in the final 6 months would be better off in many other savings accounts!)
But as for anything money related, have a good look around to make sure it will meet you needs, and then ask GWST the money genius around these parts
Arr yeah sorry of course, i was thinking she meant pay bills via DDs from her ISA, which i was under the impression you was unable to do (but not certain about that anyway)
Am going away for the weekend but next week I think I shall have a wee playabout. The amount that I am looking to put away each month and the lump sum that I am initially investing means that an ISA will probably be the best bet.
Is there any bank, in people's experience, that I should avoid like wildfire?
Personally though, I would highly recommend Nationwide, obviously make sure what they are offering is suitable for you, but whenever i've had to ring them for advice, or about a problem they have answered my query quickly and been most polite, they've only ever made one small mistake and as soon as it was brought to their attention apologised and quickly sorted it out for me. So a big :thumb: from me to them.
My girlfriend has horror stories regarding HSBC though, whenever she rings their help line she is on hold for several minutes, transfered a number of times and then is put through to somebody she can't understand, who as soon as she gives her account details to says they will not speak to her because on one occassion she quoted the wrong postcode.
She has been in the branch several times about this and they just tell her to ring the helpline, which she does to be told they refuse to talk to her!!!
And people claim you recieve two types of service from banks, 1. A "we dont really care all that much" if you have no money going in and are in debt or 2. "Yes Sir, No Sir, three bags full Sir" type of service if you have money going in and little being took out.
In which case she would fall in to the second, and is still treated like shit!!
Needless to say she's moving banks soon, but i'm sure many people have had great experiences with HSBC and would recommend them as fondly as I would Nationwide.
But then I wouldn't recommend Natwest either really as they are the most incompetent special people I have ever met. After being referred to their wonderfull phone service twice they asked me if I would like them to ring up my local branch to make them sort out my account problem and kick their ass.
So banks..... bad..... try and get the DD set up and never walk into the evil branch ever again!
However, AFAIK if the money you already have saved is more then £3000 and its not either another ISA or TESSA type account, I dont think you can transfer more then £3000 pounds in when you open the account. If you not sure ask at the bank. And if you need time to sort money out, most providers only need a £10 depoist to open the account.
I know a lot of people who've had issues with Lloyds TSB, although my mum never has, so as has been said there's always going to be some people who have terror stories about every bank.
Personally I wouldn't worry about setting up an account with any of them and would go for the best interest rates around. Be sure to check whether or not the RBS (or anywhere else you may have some money) have any special accounts for people who are already customers...sometimes you can get special interest rates for loyalty.
ING are probably who I'll be openning an ISA with though in a few months unless the market changes drastically.