had a look on moneysaving expert, only slightly confused.. apart from the access, am i as well just looking for the one with the highest interest? want to get my max allowance in before April..!

any advice gratefully received

If its cash then yes. Look for the highest and put your allowance in.
Make sure you look every year as deals change.

Was just thinking about this – if you have a flexible/offset mortgage you would be probably better putting it against the mortgage as you are effectively cutting the amount you pay and not being taxed on your gains isn’t applicable as you are just reducing your loses.

I get a better return on savings than my mortgage costs me.

if you have a flexible/offset mortgage you would be probably better putting it against the mortgage

I do this and my provider allows me to create an ISA “pot” which means any money in there is offset but builds up inside an ISA wrapper. So when I pay my mortgage off in a few years time and have say £30k in my cash ISA “pot” I can simply transfer the whole lot.
Downside is I dont get any interest on it.

The interest rate is likely to plummet at the end of the year so try and find one with some kind of rate guarantee or just keep an eye on it and move it pretty much every year

As @nick says the interest rate isn’t guaranteed, high now -> low later.

I’ve never seen the point of cash ISAs (from the savers perspective) particularly now interest rates are so low, how much tax are you expecting to save ? From the banks/building societies perspective they are great.

@surfer, I don’t understand how this helps you, either it’s an offset mortgage in which case you are saving interest on you mortgage (which is going to be at a rate much higher than savings rate and it’s tax free) or it’s not.

FWIW I work in finance and have an offset mortgage, all savings go to offset the mortgage.

@surfer, I don’t understand how this helps you, either it’s an offset mortgage in which case you are saving interest on you mortgage (which is going to be at a rate much higher than savings rate and it’s tax free) or it’s not.@surfer, I don’t understand how this helps you, either it’s an offset mortgage in which case you are saving interest on you mortgage (which is going to be at a rate much higher than savings rate and it’s tax free) or it’s not.

I think he’s saying that the money is ringfenced as ISA money, so that if he so chooses he can transfer it into another ISA (cash or S+S) at some point in the future. Until he does so it’s offsetting.

I’ve never seen the point of cash ISAs (from the savers perspective) particularly now interest rates are so low

Interest rates will go up and you can only put so much away a year. Once they go up you’ll have a reasonable stash earning some interest. We looked at off-setting but the other features made it less appealing. I’m a long way from a financial expert but for me it’s a way of putting some cash away rather than a pension which isn’t very efficient as I’m self employed.

These ISA a/cs some into their own for the better off later in life, having a few decades worth of ISAs generating tax free interest would be very noticeable then – plus there’s the whole compound thing to get excited about. Personally I have a mix of Unit Trust ISAs, savings and an offset mortgage account and a SIPP to mix things up as seems best.

I think he’s saying that the money is ringfenced as ISA money, so that if he so chooses he can transfer it into another ISA (cash or S+S) at some point in the future. Until he does so it’s offsetting.

This