Northern Rock Adds ISA Video Guide to New Savings Website

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, England, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Northern Rock has enhanced its interactive new savings website with an animated video guide to help savers steer their way through the ISA maze.

To coincide with the beginning of the new tax year, when the individual tax-free* Cash ISA subscription limit increased to 5,340 pounds Sterling for this tax year, Northern Rock has now added the informative four minute guide to its recently revamped savings and investment website.

The guide is designed to help customers make the most of their money in an accessible way, by highlighting the benefits of tax-free* savings accounts and telling them exactly how a Northern Rock Cash ISA works.

The colourful Cash ISA video guide, which is also available via the bank's YouTube channel, covers key questions such as 'What is an ISA?', 'How does a Cash ISA work?' and, 'Are you able to transfer your existing ISA?'.

Northern Rock offers a range of Cash ISAs, all with competitive rates, including online products such as E-ISAs and Fixed Rate accounts as well as instant-access and variable rate products. All Northern Rock ISA products allow transfers in from other ISA providers and none of Northern Rock's Cash ISAs have any bonus rates attached.

Andy Tate, customer and commercial director at Northern Rock said: "This video guide adds a new dimension to what is already a highly interactive tool.

"The savings website was developed with the aim of improving the process of evaluating and applying for a savings product for our customers, and this new guide enhances this further by getting important and sometimes complex information across about ISAs in a straightforward and enjoyable way.

"We know that our customers prefer catch-free ISA products to those with short term bonuses, as it saves them having to move their funds at the end of a given period. So we've designed our ISA range to be as simple and straightforward as possible.

"Our research has shown that four in ten people who have an ISA earn less than 1% interest, and one in ten people earn less than 0.1%, so we also hope this guide will point people to the fact that Northern Rock provides a competitive choice of tax-free* options to make their money work harder for them, whatever they are saving for."

Further detail about Northern Rock's range of ISA products is available on the new website, which is populated with useful advice and information for different savings customer groups, financial planning information and at-a-glance guides to help people choose between different types of savings account.

The site also includes a range of interactive tools such as a jargon buster and budget planner to help take the complexity out of selecting the right savings product for the customer's own individual circumstances, and a product calculator for each of Northern Rock's products, including its Cash ISAs, to help work out the estimated return on investment.

Notes to Editors:

*The tax-free rate is the contractual rate of interest payable where interest is exempt from income tax.

About Northern Rock:

Northern Rock plc is a retail savings and residential mortgages bank, authorised by the FSA as a deposit taker and mortgage lender from 1 January 2010. It holds and services around 16 billion pounds Sterling of savings balances and 12 billion pounds Sterling of mortgage accounts. It offers new savings and mortgage products.

PR contact:
Jule Wilson
Northern Rock House
Gosforth
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE3 4PL
0191 279 4676
www.northernrock.co.uk

SOURCE Northern Rock