The Site Best Isa

An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a financial product available to residents in the United Kingdom. It is designed for the purpose of investment and savings with a favourable tax status. ISAs were introduced on 6 April 1999, replacing the earlier Personal Equity Plans (PEPs) and Tax-Exempt Special Savings Accounts (TESSAs), which continued to exist only for money already invested in them and for interplan transfers. ISAs were explicitly designed to appeal to a broader range of the population than these earlier products, which were sometimes claimed to be exclusively for the benefit of the middle classes. However, they have been criticised as confusing. Other channels for tax-privileged savings exist that also pre-date ISAs, notably the National Savings and Investments, which is a state owned bank offering a range of non-ISA tax free accounts (in addition to its own ISAs.)