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ING Direct
by Zombietheo
Money. Loads of lovely money. What's better than cashing out a grand in 2p's and rolling around in it?
sticking it in a bank account and letting that bad boy earn you interest.
It's not as much fun though.
Last year I was bored and was attracted to the high interest rates that were being offered, the ... advertising ploy worked well and they got me to sign up a direct debit to take £25 of my hard earned monies into one of their accounts a month. It's not a lot a month, i'm not loaded despite my awesome looking avatar picture but I've been really pleased with how much interest I've been getting compared to my ISA from Lloyds.
Being internet savvy, i've mostly been using the internet banking features to eye up my money - the website they use is easy enough to navigate around and the web key pad is a nice little security feature but be warned! the numbers aren't always in order and this may cause a log in problem. As it should be, it's very safe and very secure.
On the few occasions i've called them to reset the pin, it's been relatively painless with maybe a 10 minute wait and i've always gotten through to English people (like it makes much difference) - the new pin has always been sent out first class and has always turned up promptly.
Ultimately, i've not had any problems with ING direct - they've been pretty decent to my pittance so far and i'm glad. I've probably got another 500 years to go before i can start booking a holiday from the interest.
Never had a problem. Staff have been friendly. Good rates
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HSBC ISA
by amiehall
I opened an E-ISA with HSBC last year as I bank online with them already and thought it would be convenient for me to just transfer money between my accounts online. How wrong could I be.
It was really easy to set up. As I already bank with HSBC, I was able to apply wholly online. HSBC didn't accept a transfer into the ... account from another ISA but, as my savings balance is fairly low, this wasn't an issue for me.
My problems started when I wanted to use their internet banking facility to manage my funds. This was an E-ISA after-all. I was often unable to transfer funds between the accounts with error messages often displayed. Convenience was my main reason for setting up this account although the rate, at the time, was competitive.
Over time the rates slid, I often found it hard to find a direct notice telling me what interest rate I was being paid. The rate spiraled down and I closed my account. Closing the account was perhaps the easiest thing I ever tried to do with it. I simply placed a request online and my account was closed within 3 days.
I'm confused by my experiences with this product as I've since set up a standard online savings account with HSBC to keep rent money separate and have been able to transfer my money simply and easily throughout.
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Abbey National ISA
by goosey
Introduction:
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This will probably be one of the shortest reviews I will ever post, but if any one else, like myself, has a cash ISA with Abbey - now Santander and have until now, just let the interest accumulate without bothering too much about the actual rate of interest accrued each year, as long as it didn't ... drop through the floor. Check your statement very carefully.
I expect a bank to let me know if and when they make large changes in their interest rates - even on ISAs, but this is certainly not the case with Santander.
I received my annual ISA statement this morning and to my utter astonishment, discovered that the interest credited to my account was less than that of an ordinary savings account. In fact the rate had gone down from 3.5% to a mere 0.1% yes - 0.1%. but Santander had not informed me of this drastic drop in interest rate.
So I assumed that they had gotten the decimal point in the wrong place, and immediately phoned them. After listening to a selection of services Santander provide and a list of numbers to press, I eventually got through to speak to a very polite chap.
I voiced my grievance - politely, and it was then that he told me, (politely) that there was a recession on and it was up to account holders to check on the current interest rates for that particular ISA because the information is available at the Santander banks and on the internet and that I should have requested an upgrade from 0.1% interest rate to 2.75%
I was not best pleased with information, but got it upgraded all the same.
My advice to any one holding an ISA is to keep completely up to date with the changes. Do not take for granted that you will be warned of any enormous changes in interest rates on your ISA.
I cannot quite get to grips with the fact that I had to request an upgrade in rate, or why it was not done automatically!
The frightening aspect of this whole saga, is that my cash ISA would have continued accruing interest at the rate of 0.1%, had I not upgraded it today:-(
My impression of Santander cash ISA has dropped, along with its interest rates.
And yes, I am still miffed.
May 2011: Well, I am so pleased to be able to report, that since I grumbled to Santander about not giving me proper notice when their interest rates drop, they have, this year given me plenty of notice, so that I was able to arrange to transfer monies to an account of a higher rate of interest, without losing out. So now I feel it only right to increase the star rating for their overall service.
Feb 2013: The staff at our local branch of Santander have been exceptionally helpful in arranging appointments for me so that I never miss out now on the better ISA deals.
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