The sun is finally shining - and we know the last thing you want to do is trawl through ISA rates.
But stay strong. Because if you do get into the habit of opening an ISA at the start of the new tax year, you could end up hundreds of pounds richer.
We asked Virgin Money to show us what happens in cold hard cash.
Imagine you save £1,000 into a cash ISA with a rate of 2.35% for 10 years. This is how much you get if you save on 6 April, the start of the tax year:
Save on the first day of the tax year
£11,388.04
And this is what you get if you save on 5 April, the last day of the tax year:
Save on the last day of the tax year
£11,129.27
That’s a £258.77 difference - enough to cover a city break, or a tablet.
It pays to be punctual: Extra earned by saving on the first day of the tax year
Virgin Money, Tilney Bestinvest
Over the longer term, a will help you grow your money more. So being on the ball is even more important:
We asked ISA provider Tilney Bestinvest what happens if you’re punctual about investing.
Imagine you used to invest £1,000 in the FTSE All Share (a stock exchange index representing UK companies) for 10 years.
If you invested every year on 6 April, this is what you would have:
Save on the first day of the tax year
£15,492
And this is what you would get if you invested on 5 April, the last day of the tax year:
Save on the last day of the tax year
£14,699
That’s a £793 difference - enough to cover a month’s rent, or buy a second-hand car.
Different savers prefer different accounts - you can find out
To mark the new tax year, we've collected the best rates on fixed rate ISAs. You can see them here:
You can find out .