Barclays customers who applied for the Tax Haven Cash ISA have received apologies from the bank following significant delays before their accounts were opened.
An apology is all they are going to receive though it appears as Barclays has stated it will not pay the interest that investors would have accrued if the accounts had been opened on time. It seems that a particularly heavy demand for the ISA created a number of administration difficulties for Barclays leading to delays in accepting applications and opening the accounts.
Assuming the person applying for the Barclays ISA had invested the maximum allowed of GBP3,600, they would have lost around GBP9 in interest so far. This in one way is not a vast amount of money, but the underlying principle is of much greater importance. Multiplied by the number of people taking out this particular Tax Haven Cash ISA it also becomes a much larger sum.
Compare rates on ISAs from Barclays and many others at Moneygossip.co.uk
The Nationwide Building Society has just launched a new range of investment bonds, with interest rates of up to 6.8 percent per year.
There are a couple of e-bonds, sold online only and only available to those who have, or are taking out, a Nationwide Building Society FlexAccount. A loyalty bond is also in the set of newly launched products, this on offer to customers of at least three years standing.
The savings director of the Nationwide Building Society felt that the rates being offered on these investment bonds were some of the best on the market and was expecting demand to be high.
Although we are always told that saving should be one of the first things we do the latest survey results from the Nationwide Building Society show that only a quarter of us are ranking it highly.
The main reason for this at the moment has to be the cost of living, which is changing the focus of the population towards covering the rising costs of bills rather than saving. This is supported by an aspect of the Nationwide Building Society study that showed how over 60 percent of people felt they were not saving enough.
In real terms this is the time when people should save even harder than usual. Looking at an uncertain future consumers really need to be building up a resource they can call upon should they face unexpected costs. The Nationwide Building Society, along with most other financial institutions, suggests having enough cash to manage for around three months.
