[Closed] Recommend me an isa or similar

Standard response - forget saving and blow it on coke and hookers!

Depends on what you want the money for.

Cash ISAs are paying awful rates at the moment. If you want it kept as cash then you're better off using one of the interest paying current accounts and parking the money there.

Stocks and shares ISAs, well, you could lose your money, or you could get a decent return. If the stock market gets so bad that you lose all the money in a tracker ISA then there'll be bigger problems in the country than you losing £6k in savings.

If you want to ultimately keep it for your kids then there are children's savings accounts paying 6% I believe.

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Martin Lewis is about to go into ISA's on Five Live now

Help to buy isa at Halifax and Santander is 4%, but you are limited to £200 per month plus £1000 on opening the account.

When those recently announced "lifetime" ISA accounts start next year, you can move your htb ISA money over and it has a higher limit of £4200 per year.

Not sure if you can have either of the above with another ISA account.

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I've got some in a cash ISA with virgin which makes very little (1.4% I think) but is safely sitting there is case I need it, some in shares through Fundsmith inside an ISA. This has done way better by a huge margin. Just about to put a few more quid in with Fundsmith today before the deadline. Obviously there is a risk here.

I think with the recent tax changes there is very little benefit in a cash ISA at the moment.

The only useful thing about cash ISAs is that you can keep them year on year so the tax free bit keeps going. If this isn't needed then just use a normal a/c, such as Santander 123, and keep the interest tax free.

Just looked at the Halifax ISA rates and they are pretty poor. Even the headline rate is bad and it reverts to 0.25% after a year so if you forget to move it you'll be losing out. Also if you already have some in there look for a new ISA that will let you transfer the balance.

Thanks for the help

I love the idea of coke and hookers but after discussions with the wife i'm not entirely sure its something i can invest in - so aahm oot! - which is a real shame.

I had been thinking about just putting it into a a santander account as my existing halifax isa has been at .25% for the last year. I have done nothing with it and just left it there but i think i i might open an isa with fundsmith.

If you go on HL you can research funds and their performances without opening an account.

BillMC - what is HL please?

And hunterst - shame, my ISA is similarly low earning and looked after by the wife!

I too have been thinking about Fundsmith also though.

HL = Hargreaves Lansdown, another shares option, has a similar fund to Fundsmith or a few other options.

The wife's cash ISA will drop from the headline rate to 0.5% this month so we have just applied to transfer it to Virgin. You need to keep on top of it although its only one a year so not a big effort.

Been pretty happy with my Fundsmith account so far, 'lost' £250 in the first couple of weeks but 'up' £700 since Jan. Not real numbers as its a long term thing but interesting to keep an eye on. Might change my mind if it all goes wrong but I think its a good option as part of a range of savings.

www.moneysavingexpert.com

How about Peer to Peer lending? Not tax free and higher risk (though not that big if you spread as they all encourage you to do and far lower than stocks and shares) but the % returns can be impressive.

Regarding the latest tax changes; from Wednesday the new Personal Savings Allowance comes into effect meaning that if you are a basic rate tax payer you can earn up to £1000 tax free every year (£500 for higher rate payers). Martin Lewis' current recommendation (for cash savings) is a Santander 123 account (3% interest on balances between £3000 and £20000) and cash back on household bills - which comfortably out-performs all the current cash ISAs - unless you qualify for a help-to-buy or lifetime ISA.

My cash ISA with NatWest has dropped to 0.25%. Not much incentive to be responsible and save money!

@curious yellow: We opened up a children's saving account in a similar rate as you suggest... Few months on we get a letter to say it has dropped to 0.0x%! Really doesn't seem like there is a *good* savings option with the banks nowadays

Realised today than I contributed the full ISA amount to two different providers in the tax year just gone, oops! Hopefully will be simple/quick to resolve 😳

Does your mortgage, if you have one, have an overpayment reserve and draw down facility? I have decided to go down that route for the next year or two rather than putting more money into cash ISAs paying SFA.

Have some fun with it and shove it in Peer to Peer lending. I am getting 12% on The Money thing.
I own loads of Door mirrors for supercars 😯

[quote=keppoch]How about Peer to Peer lending? Not tax free and higher risk

I think I recall reading that some P2P products will be ISA-compatible from this year..

Ah, [url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/isas/12139902/First-ever-peer-to-peer-Isa-offers-up-to-6pc-returns.html ]link[/url]..

@DanW

Did you use the Halifax one? Details are here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free#best

It's a regular saver, but you can drip feed the money to maximise your interest I reckon. They're all only for 12 months though. So probably best to do it for a year, then move it to a junior ISA.

Stocks and shares ISA for your children maybe a good move too. I've got one with 3 funds in it for the little one. They're funds with the FTSE 100, a global fund, and a tech stocks fund. If the little one is going to be addicted to Instagram.

This way, if the UK/World economy improves there'll be some return, ditto on if the child develops an Instagram addiction!

It wasn't the Halifax but the small print seems to have the same end result quite quickly- small max pay in allowed per year and rate reduced to 0.5% after one year.

Edit, you pretty much said the same on your edit 🙂

Do the options you mentioned have any particular benefit of doing in the little ones name or are they much the same as an adult going the same route

If you mean whether you can use it to get a better rate of interest for money for your use, then I don't know the answer to that. Looks like you also need to reclaim the tax on the interest.