is this right?

whiterose11

hey guys just wanted to check my thinking below is right,
i have a barclays isa that is payinga pitaful rate. :rolleyes: i havent used it since about july last year as my ema stopped then as i had left college. i got a student account so the isa has been laying empty for months and months lost the card that goes with the pitalful current account i had with barclays as well.

now my understanding is i cant open another isa untill april. but do i have to close down the other isa first (dont know if i can be bothered with the hassel of trying to close the account down when i dont know any of the details as its been a dead account for so long). if i dont need to close it down is there any harm with these accounts just staying open with nothing in them?

thanks for all your help
bex

Primrose

If you close your ISA with any any money still in it you will permanently lose the tax free concession on that tax year's allowance. You can transfer it to any other new provider by asking them to provide you with a transfer form. They will then organise the transfer from your existing provider and you shouldn't need to have any further involvement until you transferred ISA is set up. (I know Kent Reliance do transfers. Their current interest rate is 3.01% and I think you can probably download a transfer form from their website.) You can open up a new Cash ISA every tax year and every tax year's ISA is a separate entity so they can all be with different providers and this year's ISA doesn't necessarily have to have any connection with next years ISA. You can put in up to £3600 in each year's cash ISA, but once you've withdrawn the money from that year's savings, you can't replace it.

alastair_h

As per above - look at transferring to an ISA paying a better rate (ie that accept "transfers in", see links below for a few ideas):-
Make sure you transfer correctly don't withdraw funds or they will loose tax free status.

http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/money/savings/11/isa-trasfers.aspx you should still be able to get up to 3.5% for variable.
or
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=401374

If you can afford to tie the money up for a year and fix the rate with a fixed rate ISA then perhaps something like Julian Hodge Bank at 4% may get you about the best deal going at present (BM 1YFRISA rate dropped / being withdrawn):-
http://www.julianhodgebank.com/personal/savings_isas.asp this is still 4% for 1 Y FRISA.

Just noticed Halifax have one for 4.1%
http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/money/savings/3/fixed-rates-isa.aspx