Moneyfacts.co.uk mini cash ISA survey
Rachel Thrussell, Head of Savings at Moneyfacts.co.uk – the money search engine, comments on this year’s findings: “This year’s moneyfacts.co.uk mini cash ISA survey shows the projected value of £3,000 over the tax year 2007 to 2008. Assuming that the full investment of £3,000 was made on 6 April 2007, no withdrawals were made and all interest was compounded during the tax year, the survey has yielded some very interesting results.“Alliance & Leicester (£3250.58) and Abbey (£3245.42) took the top two places, however to qualify for the impressive rates on offer, you had to open a Premier current account with A& L and invest an amount equal to your cash ISA in a Guaranteed Growth Plan with Abbey.
“For those looking for a straightforward no frills cash ISA, Barclays (£3204.23) came out on top with its Tax Beater account, but you needed to be quick to snap this one up, as it was withdrawn on 11 May 2007. Barclays has continued its strategy of offering a competitive tax free savings account this year, with its Tax Haven ISA paying 6.31% gross, or 6.50% AER when you take into account the monthly interest. If last year is anything to go by, this deal may not be on the shelves for long.”
Interesting stats from this year’s survey include:
36 of the top 50 Cash ISAs were offered by building societies
Four of the top 10 variable rate ISAs (without strings attached) are in the Moneyfacts’ most consistent ISA best buy tables moneyfacts.co.uk/savings/bestbuys/consistent-mini-cash-isa-18.aspx , namely:
National Savings & Investments
Kent Reliance BS
Tipton & Coseley BS
Yorkshire BS
The difference in interest earned on £3K between the most and least competitive ISAs – both from Alliance and Leicester by the way, amounted to £129.20.
The average interest return on a £3K cash ISA for the current tax year amounted to £164.51.
In three of the previous four years Northern Rock (£3182.04) took the wooden spoon, but last year it bucked the trend with its fixed rate ISA and came in 8th out of 158 accounts surveyed.