Virgin Cash ISAs - Just like a deposit account, but you don't pay tax

'ISA' stands for Individual Savings Account. They are the Government's way of encouraging you to save by giving you a tax incentive.

Unlike bank or building society deposit accounts, unit trusts or similar investments, you do not have to pay any additional income or capital gains tax on the money you make.

You can use your ISA to invest in stocks and shares, or simply as a risk-free savings account where your interest is tax-free. Or you can do both. You do not even have to tell the taxman about your ISAs on your annual tax return.

For this tax year your annual savings ISA allowance is £7,200, or £10,200 if you were born on or before 5 April 1960. You can:

• Invest up to £7,200 (£10,200 if you are 50 or over this tax year) all in a Stocks & Shares ISA
• Or invest up to £3,600 (£5,100 if you are 50 or over this tax year) in a Cash ISA with the rest in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

This higher allowance will apply for everyone from 6 April 2010.

ISAs are a great way to make the most of your savings, because of the tax incentives on offer.

At the very least a Cash ISA should give you a better return than you would get from your bank or building society savings account, because your interest comes tax-free.

Also, if you are:

• looking for a potentially higher return than a bank deposit account can offer
• prepared to accept more investment risk and invest for a few years

That is when ISAs like our FTSE All-Share Tracker ISA and Climate Change ISA really come into their own. Over longer time spans few other investments can match the stock market for potential returns. It remains the No.1 place for investors looking to grow their money.

If you are not comfortable at the thought of investing in the stock market, you might want to consider our Bond and Gilt ISA instead. It should give you a higher return than a building society savings account, without significantly increasing your risk.

To see the Simplifed Prospectus for the investment funds in a Virgin ISA click on the link below. (NB. There is no Simplified Prospectus for the cash part of an ISA.)

ISA Simplified Prospectus

You'll need to have Adobe Reader to see this.

Alternatively, you can call 08456 10 20 20 or email info@virginmoney.com to have a copy of the Simplified Prospectus sent to you.

For this tax year your annual savings ISA allowance is £7,200, or £10,200 if you were born on or before 5 April 1960. You can:

• Invest up to £7,200 (£10,200 if you are 50 or over this tax year) all in a Stocks & Shares ISA
• Or invest up to £3,600 (£5,100 if you are 50 or over this tax year) in a Cash ISA with the rest in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

This higher allowance will apply for everyone from 6 April 2010.

You can also transfer cash ISA investments from this or previous tax years into a Stocks & Shares ISA without affecting your current tax year limit.

Both the FTSE All-Share Tracker ISA and the Bond and Gilt ISA have an annual management charge of 1% a year.

There are no other charges, and no charges at all on our Cash ISA.

The Virgin Climate Change ISA has an annual management fee of 1.75%. There may also be a 20% performance related fee, which we only earn if we outperform agreed benchmarks.

Yes, whether it's an ISA from a previous tax year or one you're paying into this tax year, you can transfer it to Virgin.

If you're interested in transferring an ISA to us, click here or call us on 08456 10 20 20.

Our current cash interest rate is 0.1% AER/tax free*.

If you want to invest more than £3,600 in cash (or more than £5,100 if you were born on or before 5 April 1960), you can also open a Virgin Deposit Account and get the same interest rate.

The Virgin Cash ISA is a deposit account opened in your name with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

Our previous interest rate of 0.25% AER/tax free* applied from 2 March 2009 to 20 March 2009.

* Tax free means that the interest is exempt from UK income tax provided all ISA conditions are met. AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate and illustrates what the interest rate would be if the interest is paid and compounded on an annual basis. As our interest is paid annually, the rate is the same as the Annual Equivalent Rate.

Your money earns interest daily and we credit it to your ISA account once a year, on 5 April, or on the day you close your ISA.

We send you a six monthly statement every February and August, but you can also check the value of your ISA over the phone or internet any time.