Cash ISA Interest Rates

[bitter-sweet]

I am sure that many of our members have an Abbey National (or similar) Cash ISA account. I have had such an account for a number of years and it has always paid a competitive rate of interest. When I checked in January 2009, I was advised that Abbey National had dropped the interest to 2.9% on their Series No.1 Cash ISA’s - low but not unreasonable.

When I checked yesterday I was advised that their Series No.1 Cash ISA’s now give a return of only 0.3%. This change was made without receiving any formal notice (other than adverts in the national press).

When I complained at what I considered to be “sharp practice”, I was advised to contact their Savings Dept (Tel 0845 6000 181). The Savings Department immediately said I could change to a Series No.3 Cash ISA giving a return of 3.0%. This change took about 20 seconds to complete.

So that with one telephone call I increased the return on my ISA’s by a factor of 10 – I thought our members should be made aware of the above situation as I suspect that this type of “sharp practice” is probably common to most Building Societies – perhaps you should check yours.

[Mike Street]

I am delighted that we are starting to use this facility to "pass on" practical information to other members - let us have some more of the same.