Located in Wallsend and founded in 2009, Aldermore is an award-winning bank that offers simple financial products and solutions to meet the needs of homeowners, landlords, savers and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). In March 2018, Aldermore officially became part of FirstRand Group, one of South Africa’s largest financial services institutions.
Topics
Cash ISA
Aldermore’s Cash ISA is a savings account where all of the interest earned is tax free and doesn’t form part of your Personal Savings Allowance. The ISA allowance for the 2020/2021 tax year is £20,000. Aldermore’s Cash ISAs are flexible which means you can withdraw money from the current tax year or previous tax years if you need to. You can replace the money you’ve withdrawn without the replacement counting towards your annual ISA subscription limit, providing you replace the funds in the same tax year you withdraw them. Aldermore has two variants of its Cash ISA:
The Fixed Rate Cash ISA
This ISA is suitable if you have a lump sum to deposit or transfer and won’t want to add more money further down the line. It gives a guaranteed interest rate for the term, but you accept that there will be a deduction of interest if you need access to your money during the term. It has a fixed rate of interest up to 0.75% AER tax-free.
The Notice Cash ISA
This ISA is suitable if you want to be able to transfer in other ISAs whenever you like and add more money up to the ISA allowance. You might need access to your money, but won’t need it instantly. It has a variable rate of interest of 0.55% AER tax-free.
Other Services
Aldermore offer a range of personal savings accounts and mortgage products for both individuals and businesses.
Aldermore Reviews and Ratings
Online reviews for Aldermore are quite mixed, although they score much better on Trust Pilot, where customers are happy with the customer service levels and the ease and convenience of the banking process. Others have complained about applications getting lost, and the ‘shocking terribly slow ponderous’ service they have received.
Trustpilot – 4.7/5 (based on 1,599 reviews)
Reviews.io – 1.26/5 (based on 35 reviews)
Pros
- A part of FirstRand Group, one of South Africa’s largest financial services institutions
- Multiple award-winning: Best Fixed Rate Business Savings 2020, Best Cash ISA Provider 2020
- Competitive rates not artificially inflated by bonuses or introductory offers
- Fast and easy set-up in minutes
- 14 day cooling off period
- Easily transfer ISAs from other providers
- Your money is protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme
- Online free signup
Cons
- Cash ISAs only
- Stocks and Shares, Lifetime ISAs or other ISA products not available
- Some poor customer reviews
- Instances of applications getting lost
- Instances of slow customer service
Website: Aldermore Bank