Would you rely on your bank’s Isa advice?

I see from one of the links that Which? has worked it out: it says “In September 2015 the CPI was -0.1% so the ISA limit for 2016-17 is likely to remain frozen at £15,240”. So no certainty yet, and it would be irresponsible for an ISA-provider to venture a definitive answer to such a question.

Useful figures here:
gov.uk/government/publications/tax-and-tax-credit-rates-and-thresholds-for-2016-17/tax-and-tax-credit-rates-and-thresholds-for-2016-17
ISA unchanged.

1) Transferring into a new ISA depends on the bank etc. Some allow it some don’t. But if they regularly pay into one they may be better off looking to see if they could use a regular saver account instead, as they pay higher interest.
2) see 1) depends on the bank /product etc.
3) As long as any money doesn’t leave the respective ISA wrapper.
4) As the budget might change it, its hard to say. probably wont be less the current allowance which is around £15,250.
5) Not sure, but I doubt it
6) 1st £1000 if interest is tax free for a normal tax payer, or £500 for a higher rate tax payer.

Thanks Patrick, No probs about the delay. Not the usual high standards I set for myself, and sadly for everyone else on the planet. But I guess I’m better than all the high street banks. Which isn’t much comfort.

You got away with No. 4 Patrick – the Chancellor very nearly uplifted the limit but deferred it to 2017 when it will be £20,000 a year [I noticed the BBC website didn’t qualify it by mentioning the implementation date leaving readers to believe they can stash more of their cash in an ISA wrapper in three weeks’ time]. No wonder people get confused . . .

Is there a single one of the eleven test institutions [i.e. ignoring First Direct] that doesn’t have a detailed booklet about their ISA’s on display in the branch office or the banking hall?

It would be interesting to know how the responses to telephone enquiries compared with information given at the counter – I would expect call-centre staff to be clicking on an ISA screen as they dealt with the enquiry and finding a prepared script to answer each question. Counter staff should also have a similar facility but being under observation they might be less prepared to access it and are tempted to deal with each question off the top of their head.

I wonder whether there were any questions they all got right, and any they all got wrong or didn’t know.

I think the final, rather vague, question would floor most people. I presume it’s about the changes in the tax treatment of savings interest [abolishing w.e.f. 06/04/16 income tax on the first £1,000 for people taxed at the 20% basic rate]. This will virtually blow cash ISA’s out of the water.

Well its novel to think that nobody would pronounce it ISA unless they were spelt Isa. Isa mistake made more likely by your standard?

I would argue that for those who deal with jargon routinely this is a lazy shorthand but perhaps not that helpful to the majority who may for a time believe there are two products. The Economist is helpful and respected:
” If an abbreviation can be pronounced (eg, EFTA, NATO, UNESCO), it does not generally require the definite article.”

economist.com/style-guide/abbreviations

It has been a long time since I trained Bank staff on product knowledge but I would not expect or train all staff to the detail required for the ISA queries you put. You train those who have the ability to learn and a restricted number as this is a product where the Govt. meddles which means training is not easily scheduled. Keeping all staff up to speed on any complex product is now probably impossible as most branches are de-staffed and a specialist is called in for the majority of complex stuff.

Reading Conversations we know that people find it very difficult to do mundane stuff like opening Accounts or adding signatures , or powers of Attorney being recorded.

Banks are not what they were in so many ways so my expectation is that at only a very simple level would they be reliable. Taking average staff out of their comfort zone would be very easy.