Cash Isa's

Well, Frank, if I find that I've somehow overlooked a spare £5,640 lying around in my bank account, I'll take your advice!

if I put it in my sip instead I get a tax refund!

I thought Gransnetters would be rushing to take this advice.

Some of us are wwwwwwwway ahead of you Frank.

Yeah, because we're all so rich!

I suspect that at least some of us have advisors who let us know these things Frank.
We're not all gaga you know!

There you are Ana. You are saying you are rich now.

Frank

Surely anyone with any sense and the available cash would have paid it into a cash ISA last April in order to benefit from a year's interest. I can't imagine many Gransnetters are daft enough to have £11,280 tucked under the mattress waiting for someone to tell them to put it into a cash ISA either side 6 April.

All done so no need to worry on our behalf.

Hi glammanana

Don't forget to be waiting outside the door of the bank / building society 15 minutes before opening time on April 6th when the new tax year starts to open yur next ISA.
Its is a Saturday so I think they will be busy that day.

Frank

All seen to anyway, and I would not dream of queuing outside a bank, or even going into a town on a Saturday!

Hi Ariadne

If you do not open the account until the Monday you will lose 2 days interest.

Frank

What about stocks and shares ISAs Hunter? And then of course there are the GCs ISAs. Let's not forget moving our savings from accounts where the interest rates have dropped. Have we paid off our mortgages? What about giving away £3k a year to save on IHT? I could go on and on boring you but don't really think it is up to us to patronise others and tell them what to do

I can manage without that, I think. But my financial consultant has everything worked out. (three cheers for Theseus)

Hunter it can all be done online, ahead of time, as I'm sure you know

It is not always a good idea to take out your ISA at the beginning of the tax year as the ISA market often gets more competetive at this time of year. It may also not be such a good idea to take on a 5 year fix as interest rates might well rise during that time and you could be stuck on a low rate. The pundits are currently suggesting that 2 years only fix might be sensible.

I can't even remember the last time I actually went into a bank or building society I'm sure with many others I do the whole thing online , no queuing or filling in forms. I usually wait till the end of February and see what new 'deals' are being advertised then decide where I'm going to put 'new' money and where I'm going to transfer old ISA . I would plump for a 2yr fix too 5yrs is a bit of a risk.

That should be the end of March not Feb..

I do not bother with them - it just makes life too complicated having bits of money in different pots. We did the maths and decided that the gain was so small that it was not worth the hassle. We are buying hassle-free life with the money we lose - worth every penny! We have so little to play around with anyway.

As long as we can eat and pay the bills and have the occasional holiday I just let it all wash by and gaze at our beautiful view. I have never been into all this financial shenanigans. And having lots of money has never been our priority.

I remember when we paid our mortgage off (after down-sizing) we had an accountant then who kept telling us not to pay it off because of the tax advantages - we just said that the peace of mind of knowing the house was ours meant more to us.

The only thing I do is to change the savings account where our money is every year so as to take advantage of the first year bonus rate. We haven't even done that this year as the interest rate is so miniscule that it barely covers the loss of interest having the money floating about in the ether while making the swap.

Maybe it's crazy - but it suits us.

Gosh Mishap I envy you paying off your motgage so long ago! It must be about 25 - 30 years since there was a tax advantage to having a mortgage. There still is in The Netherlands.

Thanks for the heads up Frank.
Absent you made me think. It was hard work lifting the mattress but I managed using the clothes prop (give me a lever and I'll move the world) and I've counted out the £11,280 and am off to the bank now.
Any advice on what to do with the rest?

Buy a lighter mattress?

Totall agree ment with Movedalot and and then with mishap. I,loathe stocks and shares Isas and would prefer to spend on keeping the house in good nick for when I downsize and making sure I don't look too shabby so that the DGCs won't be ashamed of me and of course taking the odd holiday which will have the DDs reeling with shock (I mean Tibet or Bhutan not nudist camps)