ISA guides

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are renowned for being the tax-free way to save up to £7,000 in a given financial year - and Halifax is one of the high-street banks to offer a well-known set of services which have proved extremely popular with customers.

Its mini cash ISA is its primary offering. Cash ISAs allow the customer to invest in Building Society deposits, UK and European authorised Bank deposits, cash unit trusts or National Savings while Mini ISAs allow customers to invest in just one of these components on an annual basis. (more…)

Nationwide has launched a new fixed rate ISA range.

The building society has announced the new range of fixed rate ISAS which can cover one, two or three years, offering a 5.3 per cent interest rate and can be opened with an investment of between £1 and £3,000.

Annual interest is paid on March 31st and customers are able to see monthly interest, at a rate of 5.15 per cent gross, placed into another account on the final day of each month and on maturity. (more…)

Legal & General is offering a rebate of its 2007 annual management charge to ISA customers who fulfil a certain set of stipulations.

Customers who make direct investments of at least £4,000 into one or more of its geographical index-tracking trusts within an ISA before the end of April are eligible for the rebate, provided that they do not cash in part or all of their investment and that they hold this investment in the same trust without switching to any eligible or non-eligible trust until the end of next year. (more…)

Next to come under our ISA spotlight is Barclays, which offers three primary kinds of ISA which all benefit savers in different ways depending on their outlook and requirements.

The bank describes its Mini Cash ISA as a kind of “umbrella”, sheltering the interest you earn on your savings from the predatory advances of the taxman. This investment lets you save up to £3,000 per annum without paying tax on the interest, and prides itself on the instant access a saver has to their money. It also has a tiered set of interest rates - meaning that the more somebody saves, the more they earn. (more…)

The public is still pushing for the government to increase the ISA limit to £10,000, according to the latest research from F&C Asset Management.

The figures showed that 70 per cent of the public believes that the government does not do enough to encourage them to save – and more than half want to ISA limit bumped up as a result.

This comes as a 3.1 per cent drop in net sales of fund-based ISAs was revealed for November by the Investment Management Association, although F&C said that its findings are not intended to coincide with this statistic. (more…)

Brits could lose £462 million in interest by delaying using their yearly ISA allowance, research carried out by Abbey suggests.

A typical ISA customer who fails to put the maximum £3,000 into a Cash Mini ISA between January 1st and April 5th could miss out on interest of some £38.54 – and when this is factored into the country’s 12 million ISA savers that means huge amount of money is going begging. (more…)

If you’re looking to invest your money through an ISA, the forest of options and figures to wade through could seem confusing or even intimidating – so here is a quick guide to what the various types of ISA entail and what they can do for you and your money.

The essence of an ISA is that it allows for investment with tax savings – effectively acting as an umbrella encompassing products which receive benevolent tax treatment. People over 18 can invest up to £7,000 annually (those between 16 and 18 see a limit of £3,000), with this limit set until 2009 amid plenty of clamour for it to be increased. Once you have invested the full amount you cannot put any more in that year, even if you withdraw a certain amount before the 12 months is out. (more…)

UK equity income and multi-manager products are likely to remain popular for investors when the new ISA season kicks in, according to a leading funds information provider.

Rob Fisher, head of FundsNetwork marketing, noted that diversity is the buzzword for investors this year, while the specialist sector looks likely to dominate proceedings in the near future. (more…)

Brits could rake in an extra £100 a year by switching ISA products, according to figures from F&C Investments.

Despite this, 57 per cent of us are not aware that we can switch to a different provider – even though a person switching a typical savings amount from a low-rated cash ISA into a stocks and shares ISA tracking the FTSE 100 would have seen their decision yield £300 before dividends last year on the capital growth of the investment. (more…)

Next Wednesday, January 31st, sees the deadline for discussion of the government’s proposed reforms – and there is considerable uncertainty about what will come to pass thereafter.

Peter Shipp, technical director at Pima, told Investment Week that a swift announcement after the deadline would benefit the industry. (more…)