How to Find the Best Cash ISAs 2014/15

You’ll have a decision to make come April. Until then you can continue paying into your current ISA at will ; but doing so from 6 th April 2014, start of the new tax year, will mean you can’t then pay in elsewhere.

In short, you could deny yourself the best ISA rates 2014 has to offer.

This means the run up to the new 2014/15 tax year is a perfect opportunity to shop around. In fact, even if you later decide to stick with your existing account you should stop contributing to it until you’ve undertaken a best ISA rates 2014/15 comparison.

Remember, just because you found the best cash isa 2013-14 had to offer, that doesn’t mean it will still be the right account this year. Here’s how to compare ISA rates 2014/15:

What type of account?

The cash in cash ISA only indicates that you get paid interest on a cash deposit — as opposed to buying ISA investments to generate returns. However there are still different types of account within the cash ISA bracket.

This means your first steps toward finding the best ISA 2014/15 should be to decide which type of ISA account meets your needs:

• Fixed vs variable interest describes whether the interest your money will earn can be influenced by the national interest base rate
• Fixed term means you must hold the account for a set amount of time and you won’t be able to access your money without penalty
• Instant access allows you to deposit more money or make a withdrawal at any stage and without incurring loss-of-interest penalties
• Transfer accounts let you transfer balances in from existing ISAs you hold elsewhere; this can be handy for meeting any opening balance criteria

What’s your budget?

Once you’ve decided on the type of account you want, you can narrow down the available options by filtering out any you can’t afford. If you have Ј500 to invest then there’s no point looking at the best ISA 2014 whose headline interest is only payable on balances over Ј1,000.

ISAs which allow transfers in will let you beef up your account by importing an ISA balance from elsewhere — otherwise your maximum opening balance (and the cash ISA limit 2014/15) is Ј15,000.

If you want to save regularly and within the cash ISA allowance 2014/15 HMRC limit, your maximum monthly deposit would be Ј1250 over the course of the year.

How to find the best cash ISA rates 2014/15

You should only start looking at rates when you have found which of the accounts match both your budget and your account requirements. After all, there’s no sense in listing the best cash ISA 2014 rates only to find out that you aren’t eligible.

For this reason there’s no way to label one individual ISA as the best; instead you need to find which account will work best for you. That could mean the best fixed rate ISA 2014/15 or the best instant access, 3-year or 5-year account.

Once you’ve prioritised what you need, simply compare rates from accounts that match up to find the best ISAs for 2014/15.