ISAs

When does the next ISA year start? 1st of April? (Stupid question)

6th April. The weeks leading up to it are a hellish time of year for anyone working in the business as loads of people leave it till last minute and then loads of people also do it as soon as possible. So you have the end of tax year and start of tax year rush back to back.
 
Interest rates are so low, I certainly wouldn't invest at all if I owed anything on my mortgage or cards, or anywhere else.

With surplus money I think you'd do better on buying Euros. But then again thats a (taxable) gamble!

Buy euros? Don't think so! Better off sticking your money in Norway or Sweden to be honest.

Re: the person who said interest rates will stay here 12-24 months. They won't. In fact, BoE will start hiking rates end of this year, so bear that in mind with fixed rate stuff, especially if it's multi-year.
 
From Money Saving Expert on Cash ISAs this week...

Alliance & Leicester 3.5%
Guaranteed to be 3% above base rate

The easy access Flexible Cash ISA from Alliance & Leicester and sister bank Santander pays 3.5% AER (min £1) and uniquely guarantees to be 3% above base rate for the first year. This means if UK interest rates rise, so will the rate you get.

While this is a mammoth best-buy, after a year the rate'll almost certainly plummet, so make sure you transfer to a new top provider then. The downsides here are: it's only for new ISA money; you can't transfer old cash ISAs into it.
 
Interesting! Im just reading the Cash ISA page on MSE (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers)

So, if you go with a variable rate (i.e. the Santander one at 2.75) this is obviously not fixed, but if interest rates go up, will this go up along side?

Im being completely naive on my ISA in the past, and I think I need to be a lot more proactive on it. Currently my ISA is with KRBS (1.02%)
 
Sounds good, though what happens when you don't want the money invested in something that has such a risk linked to it being that you cannot transfer from the S&S to a Cash ISA?
 
Sounds good, though what happens when you don't want the money invested in something that has such a risk linked to it being that you cannot transfer from the S&S to a Cash ISA?

You transfer it into a lower risk investment. An income bond based unit trust or the like.
 
Sounds good, though what happens when you don't want the money invested in something that has such a risk linked to it being that you cannot transfer from the S&S to a Cash ISA?

Switch to a no risk investment or take it out of the ISA.
 
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Interesting! Im just reading the Cash ISA page on MSE (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers)

So, if you go with a variable rate (i.e. the Santander one at 2.75) this is obviously not fixed, but if interest rates go up, will this go up along side?

Im being completely naive on my ISA in the past, and I think I need to be a lot more proactive on it. Currently my ISA is with KRBS (1.02%)
The Alliance and Leicester / Santandar one I mentioned will, yes. Other variable ISAs may or may not, it's at the discretion of the bank. The key is this one is fixed at the Bank of England base rate +3% so it goes up (and down) automatically.

Currently it's at 3.5% for a year but it's fixed at 3.0% above the BOE rate so if that goes to say, 2% this ISA will automatically pay 5%.

It is a stonking deal, however it's almost certainly guaranteed to revert to some really pants next year in the hope a huge chunk of people wont notice there'll be better deals around then. Banks do this with "normal" saving accounts from time to time. You have a savings account paying, say 2%. They then bring out the new "issue 9" version of the same account that pays 2.1% but at the same time drop the interest on th old one to .1%

They usually let you know but huge amounts of people just assume the glossy announcement is junk mail and so don't realise leaving their money sitting there getting a pants rate for ages. Especially where interest is paid yearly so you might not even notice savings that used to nett you £100 now net you £1 (or whatever).

Just make sure you check the deal after a year and move the cash elsewhere if you need to.
 
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