isa from years ago can i use it

[petemurphy]

hi,

i took out a cash isa with lloyds by the looks of it in 09. I had no idea what i was doing at the time and tbh until recently.

It has £20 in(!) and says i have 20k left remaining allowance. the max i have had in it is £5,200.

question is is can I still use this or do you have to have had the full allowance in at the time?

can it be converted to a share isa if so?

ie i have some shares in a trading account that i really want in an isa but ive maxed out this years one so can i use this old lloyds one somehow?

Thanks!

[emicen]

Short answer, no.

You would need to wait until next tax year.

[Stevil]

It's my understanding that you can have any number of ISAs open but you can only pay into one (of each, S&S and cash) in any given tax year, so since you've maxed out one S&S ISA you couldn't convert the old one to a S&S ISA and pay into it, but provided you've not paid into a cash ISA at all this year then you could pay into it as-is. Not sure why anyone would want to right now given the cash savings rates but you've clearly taken that part into account given the question about converting it.

[Zoon]

You can use the remaining allowance on the cash isa but not convert it to s&s isa.

[petemurphy]

dam thanks all

[shtu]

tbh, if it's as old as you say the interest rate on it will be next to nothing, typically better to open a new one and transfer the old one across