ISA rules
Author
Discussion

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Finally in a position to start saving. I thought I understood ISAs but on application for a Cash ISA I have the following and not entirely sure what it means.
I'll ring them tomorrow but until then can anyone clarify?



Application for a new Cash ISA

Tell Us About Any Of Your Other ISA Holdings
Have you already opened an ISA in this tax year?

Yes

You have indicated that you have already opened an ISA in the current tax year. You can only open this ISA by transferring your current years ISA subscription, in full, as an opening balance.
If you would like, you can also transfer other ISA holdings you have opened in previous TAX years as part of your opening balance.

Please indicate below the type of ISA holdings you wish to transfer to us:
Cash ISA holdings only
Stocks & Shares ISA holdings only
A combination of Cash and Stocks & Shares ISA holdings



It's the 'You can only open this ISA by transferring your current years ISA subscription, in full, as an opening balance' that's confusing.
I do not wish to transfer any other holdings. It's solely the years subscription that concerns me,


I've just opened a S&S ISA with a different provider and stuck a nominal £20 cash in to cover charges. It shows £19980 remaining.
I also have a LISA with this provider and they do total the contributions across the S&S and the LISA which is helpful.
Appreciate having a cash one elsewhere I'd need to manage it but should be well within the 20k.

Thanks.

Smurfsarepeopletoo

975 posts

81 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Technically, you can only contribute to one ISA a year, so If you put 20K into an ISA with Halifax yesterday, then you cant put any more money into any ISA until next year, the main caveat to this is splitting your 20K between 2 types of ISA's, so you could put 10K in a S&S ISA, and 10K in a Cash ISA.

You can transfer either all, or just this years subscriptions to another ISA, but you would then only be able to contribute to that ISA.

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Yes, I'm looking to contribute to 3 types of ISA.

This year I have only subscribed £20.00 so far.

First two are opened and set up with the same provider.

On opening the third with another provider, issue is raised about transferring subscription (limit I assume) as posted above.

timberman

1,404 posts

239 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all

If you're not currently paying into a cash Isa for this tax year then you'll be fine

You can have as many Isa's as you like but you're only allowed to pay into 1 of each type of Isa each tax year so that's

Cash Isa

S&S Isa

Lisa

IFIsa

You are currently limited to a max investment per year of £20k across all Isa's and Lisa's are limited to a max of £4k per year

as long as you haven't already paid into a cash Isa this tax year then you are perfectly fine to open one now and pay into it along side your Lisa and S&S Isa,

If you have already paid into a cash Isa this tax year then your options are to wait till next April before you open another or transfer the entire Isa you have already opened into the new Isa

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Yes that's how I understood it.
Will see if they agree tomorrow.

Panamax

8,535 posts

58 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
For practical purposes forget cash ISA, unless you're already exceeding your "tax free interest" allowance and are desperate to avoid any downside risk.

You should consider a Stocks and Shares ISA, most conveniently achieved by buying units in a low cost global equities fund through a low cost provider.

If that means nothing to you, don't worry. Loads of people on here will be able to offer easy suggestions.

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
I was considering a standard saver account but that puts me on or around my £500 limit for this year.

I figured better to use an ISA whilst I have spare allowance. Gateway bank 4.2% fixed but an arse ache to apply for!

timberman

1,404 posts

239 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Rick101 said:
Yes that's how I understood it.
Will see if they agree tomorrow.
Don't be surprised if the person you talk to tells you different

I went through this a few years ago and the person I spoke to on the phone at my current provider at the time didn't seem to have a clue and gave me incorrect information, which then caused me to unnecessarily cancel the new Isa I was trying to open,

this led me to do my own research to make sure I didn't end up in a similar situation in the future.

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Yeah thought I'd just answer 'No' and been through the application process but there is a further warning on the final page about opening ANY other ISA so I cancelled it and will ring them tomorrow.

Worst case I go elsewhere, no big deal.

Ta all.

FreeLitres

6,123 posts

201 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Rick101 said:
I've just opened a S&S ISA with a different provider and stuck a nominal £20 cash in to cover charges. It shows £19980 remaining.
Just a note to say providers assume you only have their ISA when they show those indicative "remaining" numbers. They don't know how much you have already paid into other ISAs that year so take the number with a pinch of salt and keep your own records.

Jiebo

1,084 posts

120 months

Monday 17th April 2023
quotequote all
Panamax said:
For practical purposes forget cash ISA, unless you're already exceeding your "tax free interest" allowance and are desperate to avoid any downside risk.

You should consider a Stocks and Shares ISA, most conveniently achieved by buying units in a low cost global equities fund through a low cost provider.

If that means nothing to you, don't worry. Loads of people on here will be able to offer easy suggestions.
Downside risk of S&S is a pretty poor deal when cash ISAs that return 4-4.5% risk free, while global trackers might do 7%, while also could fall and lock your cash away for years while it recovers.

S&S are great long term only, think 10 years. When rates were 0.1%, yes worth the gamble for medium term, but now? Nope.

deja.vu

456 posts

40 months

Tuesday 18th April 2023
quotequote all
Smurfsarepeopletoo said:
Technically, you can only contribute to one ISA a year, so If you put 20K into an ISA with Halifax yesterday, then you cant put any more money into any ISA until next year, the main caveat to this is splitting your 20K between 2 types of ISA's, so you could put 10K in a S&S ISA, and 10K in a Cash ISA.

You can transfer either all, or just this years subscriptions to another ISA, but you would then only be able to contribute to that ISA.
Doesn’t your statement contradict itself?
Technically you can pay into multiple ISA’s but just not the same type.

Rick101

Original Poster:

7,154 posts

174 months

Tuesday 18th April 2023
quotequote all
Cheers all.

Aware I need to manage my own totals but no concern for hitting the limit. I wish!
Sacked off waiting to speak to Gatehouse and went with Virgin money for a 2 year at 4.26%. Very easy to set up. All done in five min.


Panamax

8,535 posts

58 months

Tuesday 18th April 2023
quotequote all
Rick101 said:
I've just opened a S&S ISA with a different provider and stuck a nominal £20 cash in to cover charges.
It's worth mentioning the big ISA providers enable you to pay their platform charges from outside the ISA which, over time, further enhances the benefit from tax-free cumulation of your investments.

(For what it's worth, this applies to SIPP pension accounts as well.)