Q. What happens to my savings if my bank goes bust?

MPs have been expressing their dismay that so few people are aware of the compensation scheme for UK based savings, which they believe could help to restore public faith in savings accounts.

A recent poll has shown that MPs would prefer it if financial bodies were required to tell consumers about the Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection when selling relevant products and services.

To some degree, it’s in banks’ best interests to make sure that consumers feel at ease about the security of their savings – unless the bank is Passport protected or the customer has a large volume of savings at their disposal.

But as Secure Savings and Compensation is one of our favourite subjects – exemplified by an editorial, a savings guide, and a healthy proportion of the main saving account page – we are glad to oblige in spreading the word again.

A. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme

TBC

Security for credit card payments is becoming ever more important as organised fraud continues to grow, both in the UK and across the world.

And yet, the exponential growth of e-commerce means that online businesses cannot expect to compete without a competent, all-encompassing and secure online payment processing system, such as Failsafe Payments, which allows payments to be made with local and international cards.

Last month, 36 sites selling credit card and bank account details were taken down as part of a major worldwide operation across three continents – the result of two years of investigative work, the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency said.

The Financial Services Authority also announced recently that it would be contacting over 76,000 people by email or letter to inform them that they were vulnerable to fraud after their names were found on lists recovered from companies suspected to be dealing in fraudulent shares.

The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) reports that it has recovered 75,000 counterfeit credit cards and over 330,000 compromised card numbers since it began 10 years ago.

It is not only security that becomes an issue, however, but reliability as well. Australians, also seeing a recent increase in fraud opportunism, have found themselves increasingly frustrated by connectivity failures that have left popular payment systems unusable for hours at a time during peak periods.

The implementation of a reliable secure online payment processing system, then, has become a necessity at a time when consumers are have greater expectations of reliability and have become more astute to the risks of online transactions.

Ensure that your choice of payment system makes, rather than breaks, your business.

It looks – and sounds – like a publication that exists purely to hit notoriety in the ‘Missing Words’ round of Have I Got News For You.

For all that, and its bookish layout, Ombudsman News is a surprisingly interesting read.

The recent decline in living standards, the high-publicised banking malpractices, and the ongoing technological changes that make financial management a more intricate affair, have all contributed to a surge in the number of complaints passed on to the world’s biggest arbitrator, which already employs close to 2,000 people.

And the Ombudsman News bulletin features plenty of complaint case studies, along with investigative details, the final resolution and the adjudicators’ reasoning.

Sidings

It’s evident enough that the Ombudsfolk do not always side with the consumer. Undoubtedly, they take a firm stance with banks and businesses, though often for poor communication rather than malpractice, and orders for small compensation payments are frequent.

It is an interesting insight into the process of how banks deal with issues and complaints. Recent BBC series The Tube, a behind-the-scenes view of the London Underground network, changed perspectives for many commuters who had often found themselves vexed without ever really grasping the difficulties at large.

Similarly, the transparency into the complaints, investigations and resolutions here works to broaden perspectives into the difficulties faced by such a complex financial system with its near infinite amount of potential problems.

And perhaps we are all-too-eager, as I suggested recently, to absolve responsibility for our actions.

An example that caught the eye: a father transferring money to his daughter at university entered the wrong details, and then lodged a complaint against his bank, even after it had managed to recall his money and correct his error. The Ombudsman ruled against his claim for ‘significant inconvenience’ – which itself is ironic when we consider how much more inconvenienced the bank ended up from both the customer’s mistake and then his subsequent insistance on damages.

Issue 101, released over the pressure-pad threshold of the new tax-year and new ISA season, highlighted a good number of complaints from consumers who had left it until the last minute to make transfer decisions, and were irritated that banks had not executed their demands on time.

The Ombudsman service ruled against a client who, after struggling to receive help from a bank over an ISA transfer, attempted to perform this herself, despite on-screen warnings that the tax-free status of the funds was being compromised.

Get Smart

The Ombudsman service insists that the bulletin acts as more than a simple periodical of cases and results. It is also designed to help businesses prevent future problems by allowing them to learn from previous situations where a problem has arisen.

Similarly, it gives insight into the approach a business should take to resolving problems, as well as the guilt-edged ignominy of allowing consumers to learn from others’ mistakes.

Equally, the recent edition has plenty of comments from adjudicators on the way that organisations handle complaints, highlighting defensive attitudes and circumvention, which often inflames small matters into full-blown disputes. One noted the following:

I’ve seen cases where a business actually agreed with the customer that it hadn’t handled things well. But rather than just saying sorry, it retrenched into a long complicated explanations and justifications that ended up sounding defensive.

There are also cases, well documented in recent news, of banks and credit card providers falsely rejecting compensation claims.

A case-study in the recent edition shows that a consumer’s claim made to her credit card provider under section 75 had been wrongly rejected. It is fairly clear to the naked eye that this clause of the consumer credit law is complex and oblique – something that institutions can use to their advantage.

Truth Will Out

Clearly, when rules are flouted and valid complaints are not upheld, there are important uses for such a colossal arbitration scheme. Equally, however, this free service continues to be overburdened, not least by those who chance their arm with a complaint in the hope of bullying their way out of their own mistakes.

Anyone reading this bulletin might think twice before assuming that their claims have automatic purchase.

Common sense rarely seems to prevail nowadays. Thankfully, despite its arduous processes, the top of the complaints chain – when we finally get there – might be the closest we get to it.

(The following article is a guest post on behalf of James Redden and the thoughts and views expressed may not reflect those of Which4U or its employees.)

Have those flea-bitten meerkats really convinced you that everything is, “Simples”?

Imagine yourself laid on a warm, sun drenched beach. Laid on your left is the object of your desires. Stood on your right is an ATM. With every second that you stare at it, another bunch of £50 notes is vomited out into the money bag sat underneath it.

Dreams are bliss. For everything else there’s…. well, you get the idea. I’m not going to try and rip apart the credit card companies as they have a place. Instead we’re going to take a tongue-in-cheek look at some of the ways the big money lenders hook you and reel you in.

The Sexy Credit Card

You can dress it up in a posing pouch or stockings and suspenders but it’s still a credit card with an eye watering APR. That point doesn’t seem to have been lost on many advertising pro’s who continue to appeal to our sexual urges. How many adverts have you seen where sex is the driving force behind the credit card you own?

From bikini-clad beauties fondling your flexible friend to stunning yet sophisticated ladies stalked by an army of adoring males. The trick still works. Have you ever fallen for it?

Greedy Little Piggies

Greed is good, apparently. No amount of garnish and tasty side servings are going to slap your hunger in the face and the card companies know it. Want to jet off to an idyllic retreat? How about financing part of your new car using your card? So tempting, yet so destructive.

Greed is definitely good… for the lenders but not for you. Take the doctors advice and keep away from heart-stopping ‘credit cholesterol’.

Did A Ladyboy Sell You A Credit Card?

What’s the first thing that’s springs to mind when you hear a body builder talking in a high pitched voice? Steroid-pumped Olympic ladies shot-putting team, or identity theft? I tend to side with the first option but Citibank’s credit card commercial did an amazing job of preying on your privacy fears.

Beware butch women bearing false tidings (and other things)!

“It’s just confusing.” Alan Partridge.

Neutered Dragons On The Rampage

When it comes to plugging a credit card, having a famous face doing the footwork is a powerful weapon. Cue some wooden acting from Peter Jones of Dragons’ Den fame for MoneySuperMarket.com. Were you rolling in the aisles at the site of his escapades? No, neither were we! Humour works, but in this case Peter, you score nil points!

Did you notice Peter’s house of cards quite literally falling apart at the end of this advert? Hmm. An omen, maybe?

Funking School Kids

Cute kids come up trumps every time. Mastercard produced a now famous advert featuring a group of kids getting down to the tunes of ‘We Want The Funk’ (minus the pimp mobile, Uzi’s and drugs)! Child actors in weepy Disney movies are one thing but using them to encourage debt… Everyone has their price, I suppose.

Can we get the phrase, “My finances are funked!” into the urban dictionary?

Flushed Away Like A Giant Log

Ever fancied jumping out of the bed and immersing yourself on a water flume powered orgy of credit card funded spending – whilst naked? If your kinks extend this far then you just became the number one target for Barclay card. Personally, I like to get dressed and take the bus into town but that might seem a little boring for some.

Maybe me it’s me but the water slide looks more like a slippery slope, and you know where that’s headed, right?

For Everything Else You Can Emigrate

You know how it goes: for everything else there’s Mastercard. You can’t afford to pay your rent or fill your car with fuel. You children are missing out on meals because you’re broke. Don’t panic. Mastercard will save the day. If only….

The harsh reality is that your worries are being trivialised. You’re more likely to be thinking along the lines of, “for everything else I can always do a bunk to Australia and leave my debts behind!”

My name is James and I wrote this post for Which4U.co.uk. I know some of the points I’ve highlighted might seem a bit cheeky but it’s just a bit of fun. When you’ve got some spare time, I really think you should come and visit my blog for some more money saving tips with a twist.

Even in the world of literary theory, semantics is a thorny field. Transpose that to an uncomfortable argument about where to attribute blame for the onset of the financial crisis, and we’re all on tenterhooks.

Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King made an unlikely admission this week that the Bank, under his stewardship, should have done more “to prevent the disaster”.

“Our banking and financial system overextended itself”, he observed, in a speech for the BBC Today Programme Lecture.

He even turned to the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes to demonstrate the fundamental ineffectiveness of contingency loans dished out by central banks – a thought that most would prefer not to visualize.

Solution and Absolution

But there is a rather vacuous absolution of responsibility in the Governor’s speech. We made the warnings, he says. We lost the power to regulate banks in 1997. Our remaining power to preach wasn’t penetrative enough. It’s an odd apologia.

Interestingly, Sir Mervyn infers that the UK saw no boom in the early 2000s – if that is what the temporal mechanics of recession are to be measured by.

“Recessions were supposed to follow booms and high inflation, not periods of steady and sustainable growth with low inflation,” he said.

Although inflation was under control, fragilities were building in the banking system. On all sides there was a failure of imagination to appreciate the scale of the fragilities and their potential consequences. No-one could quite bring themselves to believe that in our modern financial system the biggest banks in the world could fall over. But they did.

To Sir Mervyn, then, a boom is only to be categorised by surging growth and uncontrollable inflation; to which end, a recession was to be expected only as a consequence of these conditions.

“We focussed on the need to bring inflation down. But conquering inflation was not enough to ensure stability”, he admitted.

Put simply, it wasn’t recognised that a system of dependence had emerged with the capability of undermining the financial system with even greater severity.

And the effects are still resonant. Today, RBS is making slow progress after it was bailed out with over £45 billion of taxpayers’ money back in 2008. Next week, it is expected to pay back the remainder of the £75 billion that it owes through the credit guarantee scheme, though the bank’s share price remains a distant shadow compared to its peak back in 2007.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research believes that growth will remain at zero for 2012, against 3.7% growth internationally. While we’ve all been hit, the UK economy remains more battered than most.

With the benefit of hindsight, we should have shouted from the rooftops that a system had been built in which banks were too important to fail… And in the crisis, we tried, but should have tried harder, to persuade everyone of the need to recapitalise the banks sooner and by more. We should have preached that the lessons of history were being forgotten.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Don’t blame me, when you and I thought alike, the thought-bubble utters, between the lines. “We should have preached…” In effect, what jurisdiction did we have?.

Ruffling Feathers

So, is it incompetence, or the claims of impotence, that has prompted MPs from all parties to call for an urgent investigation into the Bank of England’s role?

David Ruffley, Senior Tory MP for Bury St. Edmunds and Treasury Select Committee, member, said that an investigation could not come soon enough, while accusing the Governor of being amongst those “suspected of being asleep on the job”.

John Mann, a Labour representative, affixed Sir Mervyn’s role to the Bank’s mistakes.

There certainly should be an inquiry into the Bank’s mistakes and it is a shame that Sir Mervyn has rebuffed the proposal in the past,’ he added. ‘We need to know where the Bank failed, and why. We also need to look at his role, because he was a big part of the problem.

Mr Ruffley crossed swords with the Governor last November, at a joint committee meeting on the Draft Financial Services Bill, when he lambasted the Bank’s perceived lack of accountability and transparency.

He tested the Governor with the proposition that neither the Treasury Select Committee nor a Lords Committee had the same level of access to the Bank of England’s decisions that accountants had had into the Financial Service Authority’s decisions made in the aftermath of RBS’s collapse.

He then tested the level of the Governor’s authority with respect to the availability of minutes from the Court relating to the financial crisis.

You don’t think the Court would take cognizance of what the Governor of the Bank of England says? I am putting you on the spot here, Governor, for one very simple reason. I am taking you at your own word. You are saying you want the Bank, a very important institution of this country, to be accountable to Parliament, and we applaud that, but on the first test where we say, “Make available the detailed minutes and we, the Treasury Select Committee, will look at them in camera”, you are telling me you will not suggest to the Court that this is a good idea?

[SOURCE, p. 15. Note the caveats for the legitimacy of quotations therein.]

Not them, but Us

So, how does the beleaguered Governor, due to step down in 2012, survive the current onslaught?

Help may be at hand from those ready to deflect the blame back onto undisciplined consumers.

Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond MP, has said that British households which borrowed too much money must accept responsibility for their role in the current economic troubles. Banks were not solely responsible for the crisis, he identifies, as they had to lend to someone.

Mr Hammond suggested that the shelving of responsibility was developing into a giant circle. Those who took out loans and mortgages and spent on credit cards were consenting adults, he said, some of whom were looking to pass on the blame to others.

He told the Daily Telegraph:

People say to me, ‘It was the banks’. I say, ‘hang on, the banks had to lend to someone’.

People feel in a sense that someone else is responsible for the decisions they made. Of course, if banks don’t offer credit, people can’t take it.

But there were two consenting adults in all these transactions, a borrower and a lender, and they may both have made wrong calls.

Some people are unwilling to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own choices.

Where does the buck stop? Does sole responsibility lie with the Bank of England, or are we all equally culpable?

Equally, are we just as culpable of passing the blame around, until there’s nowhere left for it to go?

Keith McDonald
Which4U Editor

Even in the 1800s the form of credit was used, coins and plates were credited with a fixed amount of money as payment, this then grew into a form of credit card early in the 1900s.

The beginning of the credit card

In the early 1900s large corporations and some other smaller companies started issuing their own cards, these cards could only be used at the place where they were sold or they had very limited amount of locations were they could be used. Early credit cards where used to create customer loyalty and better customer service, however they are today used for convenience as well.

The first bank released card was called ‘Charge it’ it was introduced in 1946 by John Biggins, a banker for Flatbush national bank of Brooklyn. This new card meant merchants could deposit sales slip into the bank and then the bank would bill the customer who used the card. Soon after the first bank credit card appeared in New York’s Franklin National Bank for loan customers, however this card could also only be used by the bank account holder’s.

The Diners club card was the next big step for credit cards, according to Diners club international a businessman named Frank McNamara was entertaining a group of dinner guests in a new York restaurant, when he discovered he had lost his wallet luckily the restaurant owner knew him so he agreed to let him pay next time they met. This led to Frank McNamara devising the idea to create a card to prove the holder’s identity and ability to pay.

Plastic cards

By 1951, the Diners club card had 20,000 members. 10 years later it was replaced with plastic. Diners Club Card were made on credit, but it was technically a charge card, meaning the bill still had to be paid at the end of every month.

According to the archive, American Express formed in 1850 and specialized in deliveries as a competitor to the U.S Postal Service, money orders and traveller’s checks, which they invented in 1891. American Express had even discussed creating a travel charge card as early as 1946, however it was not until the success of the Diners club card that things got put in to motion.

In 1958 the company joined the market with their own product, a charge card for travel and entertainment expenses. By 1959 American Express released its first plastic card instead of the normal cardboard or celluloid.

Just 8 years later in 1967 Barclays Bank in Enfield, Middlesex revealed the first cash machine, at first they were designed to receive hole-punched vouchers of £10.00, which were purchased by the customer from the bank and used in the dispenser when needed.

Credit Cards 2012

Jumping 45 years into the future from the first cash machine, things have changed customers can now withdraw substantial amounts of cash usually only limited by there banks daily allowance to stop fraudsters cleaning credit card accounts in one go. There is also reported to be as many as 2.2 million cash machines worldwide which is around 1 for every 3000 people.

Credit cards are all now made with plastic and as computer technology has grown credit card security has with it, cards now featuring magnetic strips and chips to identify the owner are now common place.

Blue vs. Red. It’s difficult not to see political allegory at play. And yet, the titanic struggle between the two banking giants, Nationwide and Santander, is no less relevant nor signficant for a nation of consumers desperately trying to consolidate their finances.

Banks often face a barrage of criticism for lack of loyalty to their customers. Yet they also face a grilling for offering products solely to existing customers.

There’s no easy win in this situation, but it has persuaded banks to think more carefully about how their products work together. There are no better exponents of this than Santander and Nationwide.

[Read more at Which4U]

Energy companies will be required to inform customers of their best tariff available which could save up to £100 per year for each household.

All energy suppliers will be required to inform people of the best deals available to them and then offer it to them should they request it.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg suggested that as much as seven in ten people fail to get the correct deal and end up paying more than they need to.

Tariff confusion

The majority of households in the UK have not had the chance to switch gas and electricity, because they simply haven’t even given it a thought, in fact many households haven’t switched in more than 2 years, we believe that the huge amount of tariffs and different packages energy suppliers offer leave people feeling confused and deflated.

From this autumn, energy suppliers might have to simplify tariff information and then tell consumers of their cheapest packages for them, this comes at good time since customers seen a rise of around 15%-18% in gas bills in the autumn, as well as a sharp rise in electricity, which has been blamed on a rise in the wholesale cost of energy.

You still need to do your research

The companies taking part in this new move are British Gas, E.On, Npower, Scottish and Southern Energy, EDF and Scottish power, these will have to inform their customers of the best deal each year.

The deal is only going to apply to tariff’s offered by the customers current supplier, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you no longer need to do your research, because you still need to “shop around” to get the cheapest deal with another energy provider.

Consumer focus group welcomed the idea and suggested that as customers start to come of their fixed term contracts instead of going back on a standard rate deal they can enjoy the best deal on offer, of course the people using price comparison websites have enjoyed this for a long time, and they will continue to be able to get the best deals from the whole range of energy suppliers available.

More still needed

This is a great step towards lower energy prices but for those who are witty and already did their research into the market, there is no real benefit here.

Britain needs to loosen its dependency on imported gas and start creating plans to support home-grown supplies, before any real price cuts are seen, and at the moment this seems a little optimistic because support for home grown energy deposits like nuclear power and fracking have very little support within the population.

The best way to save money on energy would be to compare the entire market to find the best tariffs by energy firms and to install energy saving measures like wall insulation, water efficient shower, low watt bulbs and to make sure everything is turned off at night.

How do you save money on your energy bill?

 Have your bills been increased?

Please let us know in the comments below, we would love to hear from you.

It’s April, and snowing. I’m heading up North tonight, where, even more incredulously, it’s not.

But a storm of sorts is brewing – in the advertising world – and with my roots still firmly set in the North-East, it’s invariably made its way to my attention.

Select the image for its full glory. [Contains mild swearing]

Take a bow, Newcastle Brown. It’s difficult not to smirk or laugh out loud. It’s a brilliant and clever piece of marketing.

It’s reactionary. It’s good banter – conversational, cheeky, controversial, but not quite crossing the line. It synchronises beautifully with local identity and sensibility – especially given the Gallic flavour of many of Stella’s recent television ads.

It’s not difficult to imagine this gaining some notoriety across the region’s pubs, clubs, offices, and beyond. The millions who enjoy a good cultural stereotype will collectively join in a warm chuckle with the Novocastrians over an advert that is fundamentally successful.

Furthering brand success in a slow economy and competitive climate is tough. As a price-comparison website for credit cards, savings accounts, mortgages, insurance, etc, we face some mighty competitors that dominate the marketplace and have a vast number of repeat customers.

An illustrious brand history, bucket-loads of cash, celebrity endorsement, exposure and gimmicks are all seemingly must-haves these days.

Sometimes, if these aren’t to hand, all that’s left is to explain why your company is a good choice – a Dragon’s Den pitch, if you will – and crave the reader’s patience.

Soul Authority

If something ain’t broke, we don’t tend to fix it. That is to say, if we are satisfied with a product or service the first time, there’s a high probability that we will use it again.

And if you land on Which4U for the first time and think about pursuing one of our listed products, you may well find yourself asking yourself the questions “why should I pursue your products?” and “why am I not doing this on Feel Epic instead?”

That’s a natural prerogative, because branding and advertising instils brand authority inside us as the natural order of selection for the goods and services we need.

It’s easy to assume that our larger competitors command sole authority in this marketplace. If you please, we beg to differ.

We would also expect regular users of competing sites to ask:

“Which4U? What do you do that’s different?”

Inspired by Newcastle Brown – surprisingly hard to say – I dare to argue that we reside within the sole industry where a lack of gimmicks is a most encouraging difference.

Television advertising has certainly done its job in recent years, but hasn’t the humour worn thin by now?

Which4U = No meerkats. No glass-shattering operettas. No irritating faces (yet). No sky-high profits just through helping customers find cheaper deals.

What else do we do differently?

• We are hands-on with our content, and answer queries and comments promptly.
• We accept guest material, and are always pleased to receive enquiries.
• We employ a research-based approach to our thinking, even if it differs sometimes from mainstream and media voices.
• We’re proud to identify with a local community, and to support training through apprenticeships.

Understandably, Which4U will not be at the top of most people’s consciousness when it comes to price comparison.

But make no mistake: we’re just as good as the others at what we do.

Give us a try today and find out for yourself.

Keith McDonald
Which4U Editor

The fascinating war waged between ISA providers is set to come to an end as the tax year draws to a close.

Ahead of the Thursday 23:59 deadline, what can savers do in this final week to ensure that they maximise any of their remaining tax-free allowance for this tax year?

New Cash ISAs

Savers are only able to pay into one cash ISA in any tax year. Those who have not already paid into an ISA during this tax year have a small window of opportunity to open a new ISA.

The heavy administrative demands mean that different institutions are operating different deadlines for their products. For Which4U’s ISA listings, the deadline information is as follows:

Cheshire BS: DirectSave Cash ISA [3.50%] / 18-month Fixed-Rate [4.00%]

Market-leading rate. Accessible to new customers. Extended bonus. No transfers.

The deadline for new applications is today (2nd April). Funds paid into the account by cheque to be received by 5th April.

Nationwide: e-ISA [3.10%]

Strong performing. Extended bonus. Transfers. Current account holders.

Deadline for online applications is today (2nd April). Funds must be entered before midnight on Thursday. Branch-based ISAs are available to apply for in person until Thursday.

Principality: e-ISA [3.10%]

Strong bonus rate. Fully accessible.

The deadline for funding new ISAs by cheque has already passed.
It is still possible to open this account and fast-track payments to arrive by April 5th.

Barclays: Loyalty Saver Cash ISA [3.05%]

Strong standard rate [Longevity]. No transfers. Existing customers.

Existing customers: online applications close at 23:00 on Thursday.
New customers: open an account in-branch until close of working hours on Thursday.

Natwest: e-ISA [3.00% - 3.50%]

Competitive rates. Big rates for high deposits [above £10,000 and £30,000].

The NatWest website is advising new customers that it is unlikely that their ISA will be open in time for the end of the tax year.

Halifax: ISA Saver [3.00%] / Fixed-Rate ISAs [3.50% - 4.50%]

Decent bonus rate. Prize-draw entry. Market-leading fixed-rate bonds.

Online applications must be funded before midnight on Thursday.
Branch applications will be received until 7pm on Thursday.

With some institutions ready to close off applications for ISAs in this tax year by the end of today, it is now or never for the best-rate products within this tax year. Apply now through Which4U.

Cash In and Transfer

Any unused annual allowance does not carry over to the next tax year. Those with an existing ISA might consider opting for security and topping this up instead.

This will ensure that  savings are secured in the tax-free environment for this tax year, and they can always be transferred to a better performing ISA at a later date.

The Ombudsman reports that there are many cases at this time of year when banks, overrun with demand, fail to execute new ISAs in time. Leaving the decision to open a new ISA until the last minute often causes savers to lose their annual entitlement.

Cue a number of irate complaints. And if the institution has not made errors in its administrative processes, the Ombudsman will not always side with consumers.

Even though savers can only pay into one cash ISA in any given tax year, transferring ISA funds from previous years do not count as ‘paying in’, and therefore do not contribute towards the yearly ISA allowance.

We’ll be commenting more on ISA transfers in the near future, though the recent Which4U Guide to Transferring Cash ISAs should be a useful starting point.

For those on the brink of a decision: by all means, apply for your ISA if you’re confident that all the funds that you wish to deposit into a tax-free environment can be safety stowed into time.

As a plan B: though not all providers will offer the new rates into the next tax year, you can always secure your funds into an existing ISA over the next few days, safe in the knowledge that it can be transferred at your leisure with no risk to your new cash ISA allowance.