no subject

[taimatsu]

Right. I am getting ORGANISED. Does anyone have advice on savings accounts? I rather want a Natwest one, simply because they are the people I have my current account with and I want to be able to do easy online transfer things on the one website. But there is a huge list of plans I could go for and I don't know what's best.

Here's what I need:
I'll have a small starting balance, maybe £50 tops.
I want Internet access to it, no question; branch/phone/cashcard access would be good too.
I want fairly instant access to the money, since it's there in case of emergencies and things.

Here's the list of their accounts. It looks like First Reserve ould be it, or an ISA, but I know nothing about ISAs and would need advice before getting one.

Anyone any thoughts?

More ramblings about the future to come. Ï

Comments

Natwest ISA's

[sexy-sophia.livejournal.com]

I have a current account, a credit card and a mini cash ISA with Natwest. I would recommend you get an mini cash ISA for the following reasons:

1. Your savings are tax free, so the interest put on your account is one of the highest.
2. You have the option of getting a cash card for your ISA. (I didn't cause I thought it might stop me from spending so much money!)
3. Even if you don't have a cash card, you can walk into a branch and draw money/transfer from it immediately.
4. You can start an ISA off with a small deposit, not sure how small, but 50 quid is fine I'm sure.

Natwest has an internet banking service, with which you can access all your Natwest accounts online and transfer money easily between all of them.

However, you are only able to put certain amounts into ISAs in a year, I think the limit for a mini cash ISA at Natwest is 3,000. But you can open up to 2 mini ISAs and one maxi ISA (not sure what a maxi ISA involves, but I know you can put more money into it than you can into a mini). Best to check up on that bit - depends how much you plan to put in.

Hope that all helps, best of luck!

[syeniess.livejournal.com]

NAtwest cash ISAs are pretty good - comes with cash card, so can also do phone banking and afaik internet banking too. Good rate of interest, so even if there's only a little bit of money in there to start with, interest is paid monthly so it soon increases. Downside is that you can only pay in £3000 in one tax year.

That's about all I know about ISAs - but they are rather better than the first reserve as I recall, since the Natwest ISA does also have instant access, and from what I recall from working for them, you lose intrest CHRONICALLY withdrawing money instantly from the First Reserve - it's really more of a savings and don't touch without a month's notice account, that one :)

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

Cash ISA definitely looks like the better option, as it's got much better interest rates & this one has instant access, internet, and a minimum investment of only £1 so it seems to meet your needs. A cash ISA really just works like a tax-efficient savings account. As it's cash there's no danger of losing your money (like there would be with a share ISA), so I'm not sure what advice you'd need.

As mentioned above, ISAs do have a maximum £3000 investment in a year, but I'd say even if you're likely to get up above that, it's worth starting with the ISA & then putting additional money somewhere else.