Interest on ISAs

[Vague_Boy]

It doesn't half make your mortgage cheap.

 

Savers are subsidising borrowers in order to allow people to keep selling/buying the same pile of bricks for ever increasing sums of cash.

 

This is the UK's idea of an economy.

 

Meanwhile, in proper countries like Germany and China, they make things that people want to buy.

 

Hence the following headlines:

 

U.K. Has Worst October Deficit Since 2009 in Blow to Osborne

 

German Economy Gets Boost From Consumers and Exports

 

Enjoy your cheap mortgages, I only hope your children don't mind how you screwed over their future for short-term gain.

[Kidorry]

Really hard to get anything worth while cash ISA wise. I got a 2% one from Yorkshire bank at the start of the tax year but 2% was around the very top end without locking away for 3 year + (The Yorkshire bank one was a 40 days notice one so very good compared to the others).

 

I have not looked recently but Santander offered 3% on a current account (interest paid on a max 20000) if certain direct debits were setup (123 current account).

 

I'm a fairly new saver but when I first got a started ING was paying around 6%, those were the days. What was the max apr interest on savings you remember?

30 odd years ago our first current plus account was 14%,now it is nil.Soon ISAs will be the same.Good old Nat West.

[tzijlstra]

Wealthy people don't keep their money in cash. Why not consider using a Fund supermarket to open a stocks and shares ISA? You should be able to beat 5% pa, quite easily.

 

Fidelity have a good range of funds, from pretty safe ones that might yield you 4- 6%, to more risky ones that might get you three times as much.

 

We didn't keep it in cash, we kept it in interest giving ISAs that were nearly on par with our mortgage when we took them out but gave us a way to access the cash in case of emergency (or car purchase).

 

We have several managed share funds and they all bombed significantly during the banking crisis, not keen on going that way again, although they are slowly recovering now, we are still behind on the majority.

 

Vague_boy is quite right, the UK is building yet another false economy by discouraging sensible money management.

[ricgem2002]

so how you think we can make this better then tim

[LeMaquis]

We have a number of ISAs with NatWest, all are a similar value, all started off gaining around 1-2 % interest. Now though we only get .25%...

 

Not impressed, if this is Marc Carney's plan of getting money into the economy....

 

Interest rates have been at their current level since March 2009 so you can hardly blame Carney. The rate is fixed by a committee anyway. Jacking interest rates up at the moment would have a bad effect on the economy too.

 

If all you have to moan about is the interest rate you get on your ISAs you have little to complain about.

[tzijlstra]

so how you think we can make this better then tim

 

Don't know Ricgem, but it is going to come back and bite the country in the backside if all we are doing is borrowing to grow the economy (again).

 

Interest rates have been at their current level since March 2009 so you can hardly blame Carney. The rate is fixed by a committee anyway. Jacking interest rates up at the moment would have a bad effect on the economy too.

 

If all you have to moan about is the interest rate you get on your ISAs you have little to complain about.

 

True LeMaquis, on both points. I think we'll just have to buy a few properties and milk them for all we can get

[Cyclone]

We have a number of ISAs with NatWest, all are a similar value, all started off gaining around 1-2 % interest. Now though we only get .25%...

 

Not impressed, if this is Marc Carney's plan of getting money into the economy (getting people borrowing on cheap interest, force savers to waste their savings through low interest) than we will be in dire straits within a few years, again... for the same reasons...

 

What do you do with your ISA and low interest? hang in there in hope of better years, or tempted to invest elsewhere?

 

Transfer old ISAs to new deals every year. It won't be amazing interest, but it will be much better than leaving them just sat there.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2015 at 10:19 ----------

 

I've got an ISA but I've also put some money into peer to peer lending which gives a much better return. Have a look at Zopa and Funding Circle.

 

It won't be too much longer before Zopa can be included in an ISA wrapper, meaning you don't have to pay tax on the return (which for me is just over 5% APR when averaged over the last 3 years).

 

Paying down the mortgage is almost certainly a long term winner if it's an option, and someone else mentioned regular saver accounts. Look for ones with special offers. HSBC had an offer not long ago, pay in £300 as a lump sum and they'll give you £10 a month. Making the effective interest rate huge (but only if you don't pay in more, so the real benefit is still quite small).

 

The offer isn't there anymore, but you can still get 6% if you're an existing advance customer.

 

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/savings-accounts/regular-savings-accounts

Edited November 22, 2015 by Cyclone

[spilldig]

Really hard to get anything worth while cash ISA wise. I got a 2% one from Yorkshire bank at the start of the tax year but 2% was around the very top end without locking away for 3 year + (The Yorkshire bank one was a 40 days notice one so very good compared to the others).

 

I have not looked recently but Santander offered 3% on a current account (interest paid on a max 20000) if certain direct debits were setup (123 current account).

 

I'm a fairly new saver but when I first got a started ING was paying around 6%, those were the days. What was the max apr interest on savings you remember?

 

Santander also charge a hefty amount each month for that account.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2015 at 11:28 ----------

 

 

 

We have a number of ISAs with NatWest, all are a similar value, all started off gaining around 1-2 % interest. Now though we only get .25%...

 

Not impressed, if this is Marc Carney's plan of getting money into the economy (getting people borrowing on cheap interest, force savers to waste their savings through low interest) than we will be in dire straits within a few years, again... for the same reasons...

 

What do you do with your ISA and low interest? hang in there in hope of better years, or tempted to invest elsewhere?

 

Believe me tzijlstra, no one has banged on about rubbish interest rates more than me, but what I found puzzling was that when interest rates were around 5% and inflation was around 10% no one seemed to be grumbling about it but me, and now when inflation is zero people complain when they get .25% , to sum up people didn't seem to grumble when they were 5% worse off but grumble now when they are .25% better off.

Edited November 22, 2015 by spilldig

[scania]

Transfer old ISAs to new deals every year. It won't be amazing interest, but it will be much better than leaving them just sat there.

 

---------- Post added 22-11-2015 at 10:19 ----------

 

 

It won't be too much longer before Zopa can be included in an ISA wrapper, meaning you don't have to pay tax on the return (which for me is just over 5% APR when averaged over the last 3 years).

 

Paying down the mortgage is almost certainly a long term winner if it's an option, and someone else mentioned regular saver accounts. Look for ones with special offers. HSBC had an offer not long ago, pay in £300 as a lump sum and they'll give you £10 a month. Making the effective interest rate huge (but only if you don't pay in more, so the real benefit is still quite small).

 

The offer isn't there anymore, but you can still get 6% if you're an existing advance customer.

 

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/savings-accounts/regular-savings-accounts

 

As much as this pains me, Cyclone is spot on. The reduction of a mortgage with any cash you have that you are willing to save, or at least not need to spend, can save you thousands of pounds in interest repayments. At the moment, the time has never been better to attack your biggest asset, because that can easily become a huge debt should the rates increase. As for other posters sour grapes, they probably have an overpriced mortgage and very little spare cash to work with. Its not Carneys doing, its a think tank of executives who probably know a bit more than your average Joe.