Spotlight: Nationwide four-year fixed-rate ISA

Agree to fix your cash ISA rate for four years and you'll get tax-free interest of 4.25 per cent. You won't find many other ISAs paying such a high rate at the moment, only Halifax offers the same rate among ISAs that allow cash to be transferred in from existing ISAs. The minimum investment is £1. Fixing your rate for four years...- 27/03/2010, Spend & Save

Money Insider: Darling's ISA tax break gives you just 76p

There was little room for manoeuvre in the Chancellor's final Budget before the election, with cutting the £178bn deficit understandably his top priority. Savers may have been clinging to the hope he would look kindly on them as they struggle to find a half-decent return on bank or building society deposits. While there was no pre-election giveaway, M...- 27/03/2010, Spend & Save

Questions Of Cash: 'Nationwide held on to my ISA for six months'

Q. A couple of years ago you helped with a large debt from O2 Ireland. As a result of your help, O2 Ireland stopped making demands for an old disputed mobile phone bill. But now my mother in County Cork has received a demand from debt collectors for €1,180.34 (£1,060), addressed to me. MR, London. A. The result was not completely satisf...- 27/03/2010, Spend & Save

David Prosser: Savers miss out on the market's rise

Outlook: There are all sorts of reasons why the stock market continues to test the highs that were last seen in June 2008, but it is safe to say that demand from private investors in the UK is not one of them. With around 10 days to go until the end of the tax year – when investors will lose their 2010-11 individual savings account (Isa) allo- 26/03/2010, Business Comment

Savings: Automatic increase in ISA threshold will benefit millions

For the first time since ISAs were introduced in 1999, the maximum amount of money that can be paid in is to rise automatically each year. The Chancellor had already announced an increase from 6 April in the amount that can be saved in an ISA each tax year from £7,200 to £10,200 – half of which can be held in cash– but his move to - 25/03/2010, Spend & Save

Make the most of your tax-free allowances before time runs out

Only two weeks remain before the doors of the tax year slam shut and the chance to rescue a sizeable chunk of your savings from the taxman slips away. You'll be hard pressed to find a UK high street that isn't plastered with posters advertising yet another individual savings account (ISA). But rather than rushing to beat the deadline, it is important to c- 21/03/2010, Spend & Save

Go green with your ISA cash

More investors than ever are turning to ethical investment for their annual ISA allowance, according to the Co-operative. Its research shows that 13 per cent of investors are likely to go green with their allowance this tax year, which is a massive leap over the current 1 per cent of the funds under management market that is held in ethical investments. - 20/03/2010, Spend & Save

Pick the right fund when you invest tax-free

The countdown has begun. There are now just over two weeks to go before the door slams shut on yet another ISA season, so investors' thoughts are naturally turning to which funds have the best chances of delivering decent returns over the coming year. Will global emerging markets continue to lead the way? Does the recent rally in UK equities have any cha...- 20/03/2010, Spend & Save

You’ve three weeks to make the most of tax free savings

For a long time now, there has been little to get excited about over cash savings even when they are given the added sweetener of being protected from tax in an Individual Savings Accounts. But with ISA deadline day just three weeks away and banks still keen to boost their deposits, there is renewed competition for your cash. "The variable rate deal fr...- 14/03/2010, Spend & Save

Ben Yearsley: How can you reduce the Treasury's take?

With less than two months to the probable election date, the outcome is still up for debate. The polls indicate a hung parliament, but a majority result remains a possibility. One thing is certain, though: this country is in a pickle. A budget deficit of 13 per cent of GDP has to be paid for somehow, and there is only so much extra borrowing the gilt mark- 13/03/2010, Spend & Save

Money Insider: Barclays weighs in with another decent ISA deal

With a little over three weeks of the current tax year remaining, the new ISA deals are coming thick and fast, although most are offering returns that hardly warrant a mention. The best of the tax-free savings accounts to appear on the shelves this week came from Barclays in the form of its Golden ISA 2, paying a healthy 3.1 per cent AER. This is the ...- 13/03/2010, Spend & Save

Ruby's Spoon, By Anna Lawrence Pietroni

Anna Lawrence Pietroni's debut novel takes place in the summer of 1933 in a small industrial town in the Black Country. Cradle Cross and its canal-bound environs provide a realistic backdrop to the florid melodrama of this tale about "three women, one witch, one mermaid and one missing". The 13-year-old Ruby lives with her grandmother. Her mother is dead Is...- 12/03/2010, Reviews

Isa and May, By Margaret Forster

The narrator of this curious novel has an unusual name. Her parents, James and Jean, have called her Isamay, after her paternal grandmother, Isabel, and Jean's mother May. Isabel, or Isa, lives in some splendour, with Mrs Roberts to clean for her and the obliging Elspeth to bake the cakes that accompany afternoon tea. She also has a gardener on call. May,- 05/03/2010, Reviews

Wealth check: 'I'd like to buy my first home, but is it wise?'

The patient Daniel Goodall, 28, is eager to buy his first home, but wonders whether property prices have further to fall before he takes the plunge. He works as a natural search analyst for a digital marketing company in London, earning around £30,000 a year. "I'd like to buy my first home with my girlfriend but wonder if the economi...- 28/02/2010, Spend & Save

Spotlight: Santander's 3.5% cash ISA

Santander and Alliance & Leicester is guaranteeing a minimum rate of 3.5 per cent on its new Flexible cash ISA. It pays 3 per cent above base rate for the first 12 months while allowing penalty-free instant access. The minimum amount you need to put in is just £1. Interest in an ISA is paid tax-free. What happens after a yea...- 27/02/2010, Spend & Save