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0 View comments Work out how much your cash Isa will be worth if you deposit a lump sum before the end of the tax year. Facts: Savers can deposit up to £5,640 in a cash Isa before 6 April 2013. They then get a refreshed allowance of for the new tax year beginning on 6 April - the limit will rise with inflation. The difference between the top rates can be marked - especially on bigger pots. Savers can transfer previous years' Isa nest eggs to a new account for a better return. Fixed term accounts usually have hefty penalties on early exit. Bear these in mind before you act. Use our calculator below to see just how much you could earn. function update(){ calculateLumpsum(); } function calculateLumpsum(){ var lumpsumTotal = 0; var totalInterest = 0; var numYears = document.getElementById('numYearsLump').value; var interestRate = document.getElementById('interestRateLump').value; var initialDeposit = document.getElementById('initialDepo

33 shares 7 View comments 'The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest' - so said Albert Einstein. That's some claim but once you see how returns build on returns each year it's easy to see why he was so impressed. The official mid-point guidance for annual stock market returns is 6 per cent. Try adding that in and see at what age you might be able to save £1million. Money saver tool: See how you can spend less to save more function update(){ var numYears = 'N/A'; var numPeriodsPerYear = 12; var interestRate = document.getElementById('interestRate').value; var depositAmount = document.getElementById('monthlyDeposit').value; var totalBalance = 1000000; var currentAge = document.getElementById('currentAge').value; var ageMillion = 0; // validate input if (!isValidNum(numYears)){ numYears = 0; } if (!isValidNum(numPeriodsPerYear)){ numPeriodsPerYear = 0; } if (!isValidNum(interestRate)){ interestRate

8 View comments Foreign legion: Holland's ING is one of several overseas banks that together have more than 1.5 million customers in Britain The turmoil in European markets this month has rocked other banking names. As Financial Mail reported last week, Kent County Council stopped using Santander UK to deposit its funds over concerns of a banking crisis in Spain. The council has since had talks with Santander and says it has been reassured that the bank is ‘rock solid’.   More... SAVINGS COMPENSATION & PROTECTION: A comprehensive list of bank ownership and licences Santander, which took over Abbey National, says its UK businesses are ring-fenced from the parent company in Spain. It dismisses any concerns that a crisis in Madrid could trigger problems for its British customers. A spokesman says: ‘Santander UK is completely autonomous from its Spanish parent company, raising its own funding to lend to consumers and companies in the UK. ‘This structure acts as

10 View comments Confident: Runner Laura Blackwood is happy to save with Dutch bank ING Direct The tumbling value of the euro is threatening the likely compensation level for more than 1.5 million savers who, often unknowingly, invest with banks covered by European rather than UK deposit protection schemes. This has sparked fresh warnings for savers to spread their deposits. Continental schemes set the maximum level of protection in euros, even for British depositors. Banks in this category that have savers in Britain include ING Direct and ethical bank Triodos, which are both covered by Dutch compensation arrangements, and the Bank of Cyprus UK, a member of the Cypriot Deposit Protection Scheme. All have been widely promoted in Britain and have occasionally offered best-buy rates. There is no suggestion that any of these banks is in any financial difficulty. But in the worst case, a meltdown in the eurozone could leave their UK savers exposed. Meanwhile, the falling val

55 View comments Banks will be required to display notices in branch and on websites that tell customers how much of their savings are protected if the bank goes bust, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said today. The plans - outlined in December - will also apply to building societies and credit unions. They will see stickers and posters displayed prominently in branches to draw attention to savings protection limits. UK savers' deposits are protected up to £85,000 under the savings safety net - the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Foreign banks with branches in the UK which are not covered by the scheme will need to make this clear while stating which national scheme is providing protection. The FSCS, which protects consumers when financial institutions go bust, said the plans are a ‘step in the right direction,’ but is urging firms to go beyond the FSA’s minimum requirements.  Cash lock: Each bank will need to spell out to customers more clear

4 View comments Savings with Bank of Cyprus UK will from midnight tonight fall under the full protection of British regulatory authorities. Safer savings: UK savers with Bank of Cyprus are now protected by their home compensation scheme This means the bank will participate, along with almost all other British financial institutions, in the London-based Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This promises to protect savers by up to £85,000 if a bank or building society goes bust. Until today, Bank of Cyprus, which has operated in Britain for more than 50 years and has about 50,000 savers, has been protected under the equivalent Cypriot scheme. This  has offered slightly less compensation but, worryingly, if savers needed to claim they would depend ultimately on the solvency of the Cypriot banking system and government. The economy is struggling in Cyprus and is closely linked to that of Greece. Fears have mounted in recent weeks that it, too, could be forced to leave  t

5 View comments Backing: Sylvia Waycot, savings expert at independent data compiler Moneyfacts Many providers boosted savings rates last week in good news for cash-strapped savers. Co-operative Bank launched a one-year phone, post and branch-based bond paying 3.5 per cent for deposits of £1,000 or more. Sylvia Waycot, savings expert at independent data compiler Moneyfacts, says: ‘This bond sits with the best-buys over one year and should prove popular.’ Online provider Governor Money and Britannia, part of the Co-operative Banking Group, are also paying 3.5 per cent on one-year bonds. Progressive Building Society has reissued its five-year bond at 4.2 per cent. The minimum deposit is £500 and the account can be operated by post or in branches. But the rate is beaten by others in the market. State Bank of India is paying 4.5 per cent over five-years on its branch and postal bond, for example. Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, both part of National Australia Bank, are p

9 View comments The way you spread out your savings is crucial in terms of protection and compensation, but it is also an extremely complex system that is difficult to navigate. Our banking correspondent Lee Boyce keeps you updated... The UK's level of savings compensation was raised to £85,000 in January 2011 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The limit is doubled for joint accounts to £170,000. However, you only receive this £85,000 coverage once under each bank or building society's 'compensation licence'. Each bank usually has its own licence. Therefore it is best to spread your savings over as many savings institutions as possible - never holding more than £85,000 in each. Yet a series of mergers, takeovers, joint ventures and subsidiaries has created an impenetrable web for savers to negotiate. Below, we reveal who owns who to make sure you don't unwittingly bank savings twice with the same institution. However, the issue of

8 View comments The Government’s desperate measures to kick-start the economy by letting banks have ‘cheap’ money are already resulting in lower interest rates for savers. And this week, as the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee meets to discuss cutting the base rate, returns could fall even further.The money markets are betting the next move in the base rate will be down, not up, with a cut to 0.25 per cent at some point. Cuts have been discussed at recent meetings, so it is possible that the benchmark rate could fall as early as Thursday. Regardless of what is decided, other factors mean the income that savers can earn from their deposits is under pressure. Harmony: Tony McNiff, with partner Sue Logan, manages several deposits through one account so that he can keep track of any changes in rates One is the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme launched last month. This will make available to banks and building societies up to £80 billion of cheap loans. Th

0 View comments More than 95,000 savers with more than £453 million in old cash Isas with National Savings & Investments (NS&I) will see their rate jump by 1.75 percentage points. The Government-sponsored institution will move everyone from its old Cash Isa and T-Isa accounts, which pay 0.5 per cent, into its newer Direct Isa at 2.25 per cent. The switch takes place on May 25. The transfer means £180 more tax-free interest a year for those with the average £10,366 balance in the T-Isa (the old Tessa-Only Isa, which launched more than ten years ago). The average £4,732 in the old Cash Isa, closed to new savers since 2009, gains £83 a year. Direct Isa, which you run over the telephone or internet, is among the top-paying easy-access Isa accounts available. From April 6, the minimum investment will fall from £1,000 to £1.   More... SAVINGS FINDER: get the best deal Check out our independent Isa savings tables In further changes from NS&I, you won’t be ab

12 shares 21 View comments   We update this guide as events shift.  Save the shortcut in your favourites: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/safe-savings The savings safety net Ring-fenced: Santander says that 'money raised in Britain stays in Britain' All UK savers have the first £85,000 of cash protected in the event of their bank or building society going bust from the 1 January 2011. The limit is applied 'per individual, per bank'. That means joint account customers can get up to £170,000 refunded if their bank fails. You MUST follow these rules to the letter for full protection. DON'T MISS... Comprehensive tables covering banks' savings compensation licences Recent key events - The great EU bank robbery crisis - British taxpayers to bail out victims of raid on Cyprus accounts (March 2013) - Bank of Cyprus: 'Bailout won't affect our UK customers' - Savers with cash in Bank of Cyprus UK now fall under FSCS (June 2012) - Q&A: How

4 View comments Enough is enough. It is time the financial regulator stopped foreign banks operating here without signing up to our savings protection scheme and being subject to the full rigours of UK regulation. It’s a demand we have made before and will continue to make until action is taken. Last week, the new financial regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, was forced to step in to safeguard the  £270 million of deposits held by UK savers in failed Cyprus bank Laiki. Without the regulator’s intervention, they could have lost up to 60 per cent of their cash over 100,000 euros as part of the larger Cypriot bailout. Demand: The Prudential Regulation Authority was forced to step in to safeguard the £270 million of deposits held by UK savers in failed Cyprus bank Laiki Laiki operated in the UK without subscribing to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme which guarantees protection up to £85,000 per depositor if a bank fails. Nor did Laiki have to submit i

0 View comments   Tesco has more than doubled the number of stores offering its Polish food range in the past year to cater for the influx of workers. A taste of home: Maggi Maciejcek shopping for Polish food in Tesco store in Hammersmith. Its store in Hammersmith, west London is one of more than 500 offering Polish produce. Tesco has 248 stores in Poland and gets regular customer feedback in the UK and Poland. Poles are now the biggest group of foreign nationals in Britain compared with 13th in 2004. The number of people flying between the UK and Poland has hit 385,000 a month – an almost tenfold increase in the past four years. 'The demand for Polish delicacies has been overwhelming right across Britain and we have doubled our range in the past six months,' says a Tesco spokeswoman. Products include pulpety (meatballs), Tyskie beer and confectionery brands such as Gorzka and Akuku. Sainsbury's has introduced 81 lines in the past 15 months, includi

0 View comments   An Anglo-Polish website to encourage the Polish community in Britain to share their skills was launched last week. It offers help to settle into the UK, contacts in the world of work and datebases about jobs, housing and local events. Polot.co.uk is urging Poles to share their skills. It also offers Polish language articles on a range of topics. The website's editor, Julia Kaczmarek said: 'Poles are a very capable bunch. In the UK, a country full of opportunities, they (the Polish population) can get closer to achieving their goals and show what they have to offer.' The website will donate 5% of the company's net profit to help disadvantaged Poles in the UK.

0 View comments   Mobile phone groups have been quick to recognise the potential of Polish and other expat communities. Phone home: Special sim cards can reduce the cost of calls O2 has not only launched a 'Your Country Pay & Go service designed to offer cheap international calls, it sponsored Polska Rocks, a music festival at the O2 Dome's Indigo venue. 'We invited 2,000 of our customers to the event which got extremely good feedback,' a spokeswoman said. O2 rolled out marketing material in Polish and sold the sim cards which will fit any unlocked GSM phone for £4.99 at 50 Polish convenience stores around the country. For £10 a month customers receive 50 free international minutes or for £30 they get 200 international minutes to any international phone or mobile. After that, rates to most of Europe are 7p a minute to landlines and 30p to a mobile. Vodafone is the network behind Lebara, another sim card only service that charges 4p a minute to

0 View comments   When Beatrice Bartlay moved to England she planned to stay for just a few months to improve her English. You're hired: Beatrice Bartlay runs a10-strong recruitment firm up for a coveted award Five years later she employs ten people in her recruitment company, is firmly established in London and has recently been nominated for a business award. Beatrice is typical of the enterprising Poles who began their invasion of the UK when Poland joined the European Union in 2004. Since then more than 600,000 have officially come to Britain, with some estimates suggesting the figure is nearer am. And these new arrivals are not just working behind bars and mending broken boilers — they are running their own companies. About 40,000 Polish-owned businesses were set up in Britain in 2007 alone. And despite worsening economic conditions, many Poles are still keen to become their own bosses in Britain. Beatrice, 41, moved from Wroclaw in south-west Poland in

0 View comments   Temperatures may be rising as we get to spring but Scotland's recent cold weather had been helping a Polish bakery expand in Edinburgh. Recipe for success: Sebastian Galewski's bakery employs four people 'Cold weather means people want nice warm bread,' says Sebastian Galewski who set up The Polish Baking Company in the Scottish capital last May. The bakery supplies Polish bread and doughnuts, all made from Polish recipes, to 75 local restaurants, hotels and takeaways. Clients also include Polish delicatessens and shops catering for Edinburgh's East European migrant community. 'We import all the ingredients including Polish flour,' explains Galewski.'We have also brought over Polish bread mixers and Polish baking ovens.' The recipes come courtesy of Galewski's Uncle Joszaf who runs a bakery in the family's hometown of Lodz. 'I am really pleased with the number of clients we have secured in our first

0 View comments   To those in the money-transfer business it is known as 'the Polish Corridor', an invisible but super-efficient route that sends tens of millions of pounds a year from Britain to Poland. Sent back: The cash sent home from the UK has created the Polish Corridor At the British end will be either a married man or a young worker of either sex. At the Polish end will be a wife and children or retired parents. There are several ways to send the cash – money transmission firms, pre-payment cards, informal cash transfers and straightforward bank accounts. Research for Financial Mail by NatWest suggests the amount involved could have risen from about £500 million in 2006 to almost £1 billion last year. Dominic Thorncroft, chairman of the UK Money Transmitters' Association, says: 'There are not as many Polish money transfer companies as you might have thought. Many seem quite satisfied with Western Union and similar services, or with ordinary b

0 View comments   The boss of one of Britain's biggest Child Trust Fund providers has called on Polish families living here to make sure they claim payments they are entitled to. Use it or lose it: Poles are urged to use a child trust fund if they are entitled to David White, chief executive of the Children's Mutual, said: 'With the cost of living being high in the UK, it is important that Polish families settling here are aware of the opportunities open to them.' The CTF was launched on April 6 2005, to start long term savings habits for children, and every child born after September 1, 2002 is entitled to a £250 voucher from the Government. Eligible children in families with a household income less than £14,495 for 2007/08 receive a an extra payment of £250 into their CTF account. At the age of seven all eligible children will receive a further payment of £250 into their CTF account, again with children in lower income families again receiving an ad

0 View comments   For Arleta Gorecka it was love at first when she arrived in Britain from Poland ten years ago. Green fingered: Practical Pawel and Arleta Gorajek have their own garden and home design business It wasn't meant to be. She had simply planned to stop off on a world tour. But Arleta, now 34, who had a degree in agriculture, started a garden design business. Shortly after she fell in love again - this time with Pawel Gorajek, now 27, who became her business partner and, in 2005, her husband. They are now working hard to establish and expand their home improvement and garden design company in and around London. Like about a third of the Poles who arrive in Britain, they are here for the long term. But the impoved Polish economy and strength of the zloty is luring back many who came to to earn money for their family back in Poland and others who came to improve their English and improve their skills. Despite the recent outward flow, Poles are the s

0 View comments   Gdy Arleta Gorecka przyjechała z Polski do Wielkiej Brytanii dziesięć lat temu, zakochała się od pierwszego wejrzenia. Nie tak to planowała. Miał to być po prostu przystanek w podróży po świecie. Arleta and Pawel Gorajek Ale 34-letnia dziś Arleta, absolwentka Akademii Rolniczej, założyła firmę projektującą ogrody. Niedługo potem zakochała się znowu – tym razem w Pawle Gorajek, dziś 27-letnim, który został jej partnerem w firmie, a w 2005 roku jej mężem. Wspólnie ciężko teraz pracują nad umacnianiem i rozwojem swojej firmy zajmującej się ulepszaniem domów oraz projektowaniem ogrodów w Londynie i okolicy. Jak mniej więcej jedna trzecia Polaków w Wielkiej Brytanii, zostali tu na dłużej. Ale coraz mocniejsza polska gospodarka i siła złotego kusi do powrotu tych, którzy przyjechali tu, aby utrzymywać swoje rodziny w Polsce, a także tych, którzy w Anglii doskonalili angielski i swoje umiejętności. Mimo aktualnej tendencji do powrotu, Polacy są najwię

0 View comments   As it emerges that most Poles who arrive in Britain decide to return home within a few years, Financial Mail talks to those who have put down roots by starting their own businesses and explores what services — from networking to banking — are now on offer to help entrepreneurs. In this special report you will find stories about those who have taken to life in the UK in different places, with diverse careers but with one common feature - a desire to get ahead. From a successful businesswoman running her own recruitment firm, to an enterprising couple who renovate gardens and homes and even a Polish bakery in Scotland, it is possible to see the commitment and drive Poles in Britain have shown. The report also reflects the way in which UK firms have adapted to newcomers, offering them a taste of home or the ability to get in touch and send back money. It is these measures that show British firms in their true innovative light. You will also find a w

1 View comments Fixed rate bonds continue to languish with the rest of the savings market in the wake of Funding for Lending, but Shawbrook Bank has today issued three market-leading products. The bank has announced new rates for its one, two and three year-fixed rate bonds, as well two new notice savings accounts. It is now topping the charts with a 2.10 per cent gross AER (1.68 per cent net) rate on its one-year bond, which rises to 2.45 per cent gross (1.96 net) and 2.50 per cent gross (2 net) with the two and three year deals respectively. You can deposit any amount from £5,000 up to a maximum of £2million. Make it stretch: Savings rates have been decimated by the cheap cash now available to banks through the Funding for Lending scheme. James Blower, director of savings, said: 'The launch of these products is part of our commitment to UK savers at what is a challenging time for the savings market. 'In 2013 we'll be developing our savings offer for indiv

8 View comments Savers have barely a fortnight to make use of their cash Isa allowance for this tax year — or miss out on hundreds of pounds in interest. Despite drastic rate drops by banks and building societies during the past 12 months, it is still worth taking advantage of the tax break by moving to the best-paying accounts. Those who don’t bother to dig out a better deal when bonus rates on their cash Isa expire could miss out on as much as £124 this tax year if they had invested the maximum allowed, calculations by price comparison site Money-supermarket suggest. And if you don’t use this year’s allowance, you lose it. The cash Isa remains one of the most popular ways to save for Britons keen to put something away for the future. Savvy saver: Despite drastic rate drops by banks and building societies during the past 12 months, it is still worth taking advantage of the tax break In the 2011/2012 tax year, £37.7 billion was saved into these accounts. You have unti