Is the cash Isa finally bouncing back – and is it still worth having?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Put on your party hats, it's Isa season! After years in the doldrums could we have a proper Isa battle on our hands in 2019?

Santander and Coventry Building Society have launched two best-buy easy-access tax-free deals, and that appears to have put some wind in the sails of This is Money assistant editor Lee Boyce.

Editor Simon Lambert and host Georgie Frost – along with Lee – talk all things Isas: whether they are worth it, the options and importantly, are the new top rates a potential catalyst for more competition?

Elsewhere, we take a look at new fintech firm Dozens, offering a five per cent return spotted after a recent London Transport advertising blitz.

There is a victory for This is Money readers, as Virgin Money refunds credit card customers stung by charges after unwittingly setting minimum payments rather than paying the full balance when changing card.

Simon runs the rule over a 95% interest-only mortgage launched by Newbury Building Society.

Finally, we talk about our latest Freedom of Information request to find out just how many motorists actually get fined for idling engines to defrost windscreens.

Enjoy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money in partnership with NS&I. I'm your host Georgie Frost and alongside editor Simon Lamb at night today is Assistant Editor Lee Boyce.
0:09.8	And coming up after years in the doldrums have we finally got a proper Isa battle on our hands this year.
0:15.3	We talk about the 95% interest-only mortgage, a victory for virgin money customers and the threats of fines to help the environment that appear to be just that threats.
0:26.6	Don't forget, you can stay up to date with all the latest breaking money news, just go to this ismoney.com.uk or download the app.
0:32.6	This is Money brought to you in partnership with NS&I premium bonds. Now you can start saving from just
0:39.2	25 pounds, millions of tax-free prizes every month. Now, Lee, Simon, I remember the excitement
0:45.9	of Issa season. We've been doing this podcast for quite a few years now and ruddy-faced
0:51.0	you'd come in, Lee, with the thrill of this time of year.
0:55.4	But it's been quiet of late.
0:57.2	I think that's fair enough to say.
0:58.8	But less than 24 hours after Santander announced its new 1.5% easy access cash ICA Coventry Building Society,
1:06.5	up the ante with its own version and it's open to everyone.
1:10.7	So will others follow suit?
1:12.5	And Lee is Issa season back? Your cheeks are looking a bit roosh and maybe.
1:17.2	Issa, Isa, baby. Well, look, these are some signs, Georgie, that we've actually finally got a mini battle on our hands.
1:25.7	And whether that means in the next few weeks that we see more
1:28.2	providers slowly come back into the tax-free market remains to be seen now the reason why
1:33.4	I've got excited about this let's take us back on a little history you know back in time
1:38.3	between March and May every year banks building societies they used to scramble over each other
1:43.7	to get the best buy rates
1:45.6	out there for savers as people look to fill their pots before the april fifth tax deadline and
1:51.6	when the new tax year began to try and entice savers in to start early and put money in early what was the
	...

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