Mini cash ISA question.

Luis

OK, bear with me, as I do not really get this ISA thing.

I have an ISA with Barclays, which I have had for about 3 or 4 years. This year, I have put £800 in it.

Question:

Can I open an ISA with (for example) Halifax and put £2200 in it - or am I not allowed to have 2 ISAs on the go at the same time?

Does it make sense to have 2?

Can I transfer the Barclays ISA to the new one, or does that count as 2 x £800 ISA deposits for this year?

I ask, as I am about to have £20k to invest, and I am looking to max out my ISA this year, and again in April 2006 in order to take advantage of the tax free bit.

Can anyone help me with my above questions, ad does anyone have any bright ideas as to how to keep the remaining £12k safe? ( I am a low risk kind of gal)

Thanks.

jimclark1967

You can't just open another one and put £2,200 in it as you can only have current year subscriptions in one account at any one time.

You can, however, transfer the £800 to a new ISA THEN put another £2,200 in to the new account to take you up to the allowance for this year.

As for the other £12,000 if you want to keep it completely safe then follow Martin's Savings Fountain guidelines in the Savings section of the site. It'll be a case of putting it in a 5% paying account and filtering some through higher interest regular savings accounts - all explained in the article :beer:

JC

YorkshireBoy

You'd need to have more than £18,000 in the Barclay's ISA to match the Halifax rate. Have you considered moving all your previous years ISA's in one go to (for example) Halifax? This is what we did last month when we moved ours from IF to Halifax.

Whatever you do, don't close your ISA(s). Speak to your new provider about transferring it/them.