Highest Rate Isa

According to new research from Barclays, thousands of consumers will not enjoy the benefits of cash ISAs this tax year, failing to take advantage of high interest rates with up to seven times more than the current Bank of England base rate.

Surveys show that 56% of investors leave more than £ 4,000 sitting in a savings account with instant access and / or current account instead of making the most of their free allocation of tax savings.

The research monitored the intentions of consumers to add funds to ISAs during the current fiscal year and new, and compared these numbers against their current level of savings. She said:

• 71% of those who took part did not think they can afford to invest, despite the funds with other types of savings accounts, such as bonds or fixed rate instant access savings accounts.
  
  
• 13% are not sufficiently informed about the benefits ISA
  
  
• 11% were under the impression that all the ISAs were set to tie up their money
  
  
• 46% had ever had the ISA
  
  
• When asked, the average amount of time savings remained in an instant access account was 4 years

However, 37% of those who have or intend to open an ISA in the current tax year, have already opened an account, and another 7% intend to open. The average amount of cash they have or intend to pay into an ISA is about £ 2,500. The most popular reasons given when asked why they planned to invest in ISAs, with 77%, was that people want to maximize their tax free allowances, while 39% claimed they pay better interest rates than their other bank accounts . Regarding the new fiscal year - from April 6, just under a third of people said they will open one.

Head of savings Which4U - Sam Gooch said: "It is on to find that so many people lack the knowledge and understanding of the ISAs and will fail to take advantage of their free savings allowance of tax. They might be surprised to learn that there are several ISA with the same level of flexibility than instant access savings account, paying 2.75% with no withdrawal penalties, so they can access their savings in case of need. Making the most of your ISA allowance is strongly recommended, especially as the amount that can be invested each year has increased for all investors aged 50 +, and that applies to everyone in the new year tax. "

Regional figures show that investors in Yorkshire are more likely to fail, with 61% of consumers do not intend to open an ISA savings despite having over £ 4,800 in instant savings account current, while 8 in 10 said they can not afford to do so.

To make the most of your ISA allowance and earn the highest rate available on the market today, you should consider the fixed rate ISAs. The rate setting also sets the investment period, then you will leave your ISA until maturity. If that sounds like a plausible option, you can earn up to seven times higher than the base rate, with the RBS ISA paying 4% a year fixed period 3, the ability to transfer previous years ISA everywhere.