If you have savings but are keeping them in a regular account rather than an ISA, you may be missing out on a lot of benefits and in turn giving more of your money to the taxman than necessary.

You can put up to £3,600 tax free into your ISA each year running from April to April. This limit was increased to £5,100 in October 2009 for anybody who is over fifty years old and will soon be made the same for everybody in April 2010.

You are able to switch your ISA around as long as your account’s rules allow transfers- not all of them do.

Cash ISA rates change frequently and the chances are that the great deal you found a few years ago is no longer one of the best deals anymore.

Just like ordinary savings accounts, there are different types of cash ISAs available- easy access, fixed rate and regular savings- meaning there is bound to be one that is suitable for your needs.

The security of our banks was once never questioned but then the credit crunch and recession hit. The question every saver is guaranteed to want to get an answer to is, ‘is my money safe?” The answer is quite easy, as long as your money is in a UK regulated bank or building society it is protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FCOS). The first £50,000 per person is guaranteed under this agreement.

Only in exceptional circumstances, i.e. you have done very well in your saving will your ISA balance exceed 50,000 pounds, so its unlikely to be a problem.
For people with very large amounts of savings (for example a house sale) this could lead to lots of accounts, even if you’ve too much to stick to the £50,000 limit for each account.

For more advice on Cash ISA accounts visit moneysupermarket.com where we compare providers so you don’t have to.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 7:55 am and is filed under tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.