Virign Climate Change ISA - The ISA that aims to grow your money, but doesn't forget the planet

'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 allowance to invest in a Stocks and Shares ISA, or in a Cash ISA 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 £10,680. You can:

• Invest up to £10,680 all in a Stocks & Shares ISA
• Or invest up to £5,340 in a Cash ISA with the rest in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

To see our range of cash savings accounts please visit our savings website.

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. To see our range of cash savings accounts please visit our savings website.

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.

ISA Simplified Prospectus

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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 £10,680. You can:

• Invest up to £10,680 all in a Stocks & Shares ISA
• Or invest up to £5,340 in a Cash ISA with the rest in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

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

Annual ISA limits are increased in line with inflation each year.

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.

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.

Your savings will be covered by the FSCS for up to £50,000 per person. Information about the scheme can be found in the product terms and conditions and on the FSCS website www.fscs.org.uk.

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.

Yes, as long as you’re a UK resident aged 18 or over.

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 at least five years

That is when stock market investments like the Virgin Climate Change ISA really come into their own. Over longer time spans few other investments can match them for potential returns. They remain the No.1 place for investors looking to grow their money.

If you are looking for an investment that can benefit the planet as well as yourself, the Virgin Climate Change ISA could be the perfect choice for you.

It is worth remembering though, that stocks and shares are not a good place to put cash you might need in a hurry. While you can withdraw your money any time, share prices go up and down on a daily basis so you could invest today and get back less tomorrow. Also longer stock market downturns (often called ‘bear markets’) can sometimes mean you have to wait a few years to see a decent return. It is not risk-free like a deposit account and there are no guarantees about your returns.

The Climate Change ISA probably is not right for you if you are:

• likely to need your money back in a hurry – be prepared to invest for several years.
• hoping to make quick return – short term stock market investors stand a much higher risk of losing money than making it.
• afraid of risk – and could not bear to see your savings fall in value.

If you think this ISA might not be right for you, ask us about our less volatile Bond and Gilt ISA. Or, to see our range of cash savings accounts please visit our savings website.

The initial minimum lump sum payment is £500, then you can invest lump sums of £100 or more after that.

If you prefer to set up regular monthly savings, the minimum monthly amount is £50. Once you have set up your regular savings direct debit, the £500 initial investment is waived and you can pay in lump sums of £100 or more whenever you like.

If you had invested £3,000 on 18 January 2008 in the Virgin Climate Change Fund, it would have decreased in value to £1,985 after charges on 30 September 2011 - a total loss of -33.8%.

Annual returns look like this:

Source: Morningstar Workstation 30.09.08 to 30.09.11, calculation based on figures in £’s, on a bid to bid basis, net of basic rate tax with income reinvested. As the Virgin Climate Change Fund only launched on 18 January 2008, performance data does not exist for five complete 12 month periods.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance and the value of investments can go down as well as up.

Performance fees are there to incentivise fund managers to give you better returns. Often fund managers charge several higher fees for their expertise, whether they deliver superior returns or not. With the Virgin Climate Change Fund there is no initial fee, no bid-offer spread, a single annual management charge to cover our business expenses, and a performance-linked fee which only applies if we out-perform our stated benchmarks. We think this is fair. We only earn a bonus if we perform.

We do. We have got over £1.8 billion of our customers’ money invested in index tracking funds and our tracker fund has increased in value by 146% since its launch in March 1995. An index tracking fund gives a great foundation to any investor’s portfolio. They are a low-cost, straightforward way to invest in a wide range of shares. The wider the range of shares you can invest in, the more you spread your risk. That is why we chose the FTSE All-Share Index for our tracker fund. It is also why we have based the Virgin Climate Change Fund on a broad range of shares from European and global markets, building in diversification across the widest possible range of regions and industry sectors. While higher risk than our tracker fund, it has the potential for more upside.

Source: Morningstar Workstation, 30.09.06 to 30.09.11, calculation based on figures in £’s, on a bid to bid basis, net of basic rate tax with income reinvested.

Please remember, past performance isn’t a guide to the future, and with all stock market investments the value of your savings and the income you get from them can fall as well as rise, so you may not get back the amount you invested.

On its own, or as a complement to an existing tracker fund, the Virgin Climate Change Fund offers a way to diversify risk with the potential for above average returns, while helping the planet into the bargain.

Research shows the majority of non-index tracking funds struggle to beat the stock market with any degree of consistency. Active fees are only worth paying if you are confident the fund manager has the ability to consistently out-perform stock markets. If you can find a wide-based actively managed fund with a genuine expectation of better than average market returns, they are a great way to diversify your investment portfolio.

Founded over 15 years ago, GLG are one of the largest investment fund managers in Europe, managing over US$23 billion worth of investments across approximately 68 funds.

They typically manage investments for wealthy individuals, families and businesses. Access to their specialist, high-performing funds is not normally available to anyone outside the ultra high net worth bracket. In a UK first, we are teaming up with them to make their expertise available to every investor in the UK.

Sir Richard Branson is a passionate advocate of ethical and environmental ways of doing business. He gives a lead to over 200 Virgin businesses worldwide, and has drawn up a code of conduct to which Virgin companies, our partners and suppliers subscribe.

Sir Richard has personally launched many environmental initiatives, including proposals to cut aviation emissions at Virgin Atlantic and other airlines. He recently launched a new company, Virgin Fuels, which will invest $400 million over the next three years in renewable energy initiatives. Virgin Fuels will invest in technologies producing environmentally-friendly fuels like ethanol, plus wind and wave power. He has also pledged $3 billion to help combat global warming.

At Virgin Money specifically, our brochures, mailers and marketing materials are printed on paper from sustainable and recycled sources that only use energy-efficient and eco-friendly paper mills and transport. Plus our Norwich-based offices were recently renovated with more energy efficient materials, and we recycle everything from paper, cardboard, plastic cups and bottles, to mobile phones and printer cartridges.