Cash Isas Transfer discussion

cartie

I phoned first direct to ask about transfering an Isa to them and they said I couldnt do it because Id already taken one out this year with them.
This is an existing Isa not a new one so I thought I could transfer it to anyone with a better rate. Please advise

isasmurf

First Direct have their own conditions above the basic standards set. I believe the first e-ISA )the one that was paying 6.25%) had a clause in it that said you can only transfer current year subscriptions into it during the bonus period. If this is the one you have try again in a few days when the bonus expires - although why you would want to given the rate drops to something like 4%.

The second e-ISA (the one paying 5.5% until Feb) has a maximum limit of £10,000. I don't believe there are restrictions other than that on transfers in.

It may be just the customer service operator not knowing the rules properly. You could try again with a different operator and if you get the same answer ask them if this is one of their conditions, or if it is a HMRC condition. If they say the latter, then they are wrong as you can open an ISA and transfer existing ISA into that or different ISAs in the same year.

cjn_2

I've only scanned this thread so apologies if these points have already been raised. I have 15k in an HSBC Mini Cash ISA, and recently they've dropped rates from 5.25% to 4.75%. I'm looking to transfer over to the Halifax Direct ISA (5%er). Two questions:

1. I've used up £2,500 of my £3,000 annual allowance. Will I still be allowed to put the extra £500 in AFTER transfer, or should I do this before I switch?

2. The Halifax account gives 5% on balances over £1. First Direct aside, can I do better than the 5% given the size of my balance?

Milarky

cjn wrote:

1. I've used up £2,500 of my £3,000 annual allowance. Will I still be allowed to put the extra £500 in AFTER transfer, or should I do this before I switch?

AFAIK, you can only subscribe to ONE mini cash ISA in any one tax year, and can only transfer a current year's subscription in whole. Suppose you had just transferred the £2500 from this year [but not the rest]. You would then have a contradiction in that the ISA which you had subscribed to was no longer the home of the subscription. Could then you pay £500 into HSBC? I doubt it. Could you pay £500 into Halifax, then? I would doubt it also. So I don't know the answer to your question, but I'd guess it would be 100% 'safe' to pay the HSBC first and then do the transfer request - which can be at almost the same time, of course.

On ISA transfer times
BTW, I wanted to flag up here that it has just taken 8 days lost interest [7 days closure to opening dates] to move from First Direct to Beverley Building Society [And for comparison, the date difference was 9 days between Nationwide and First Direct back in March.]

I've have a theory that they must get the cheque in the post the next day or so, but don't actually 'pay in' until they have 'cleared' - another 3 working days.

isasmurf

When you transfer current years subscriptions your One ISA per year allowance is also transferred. So you will be able to subscribe the extra £500 to your Halifax ISA.

klausvk

This may be of some use to people transfering cash ISAs

I recently transferred a cash ISA from C&G (which had worsened in rate) to Yorkshire BS 30 day notice ISA which paid a better rate.

After taking the money from C&G, Yorkshire BS then asked for proof of ID and said they wouldn't open the cash ISA until it had been sent. They sent a reply paid envelope for this.

I spoke to someone on the phone at Yorkshire and said I didn't think it was appropriate to send my passport this way, but they refused to pay recorded delivery.

I decided to send recorded anyway and wrote a letter complaining, enclosing a receipt for 90p and also requesting that my interest was back-dated to the day they made the transfer

Within a week I received a cheque for £5 (£4.10 profit - excellent!) and confirmation that they would backdate the interest.

If you were to have similar problems I would recommend sticking to your guns and demanding compensation!

purplestar133

Hi, just wondering with all this talk of transferring ISAs, if you transfer your ISA, for instance, a few times a year, does it discredit your record in any way?

Will you be disadvantaged when you apply for accounts or credit elsewhere in the future because it might give the impression you are disloyal/unreliable?

Also, I'm thinking of changing from Britannia (which I've only recently joined when the rate was 4.7% and I've just found out completely by chance that it's dropped to 4.45%) to the Halifax Direct Saver for a better rate. What do other 'MoneySavers' think about this? Would you advise it as I've read quite a bit of uncomplementary tales about them on the forum...

Thanks for your time everyone.

lipidicman

Unreliable in what way? Since any institution would be crazy to turn down deposits you are not 'scored' to open a savings account and I can't see this causing a problem

My Halifax transfer was 'smooth as'. They backdated the interest to the day it left the other account and after the initial request it all happened by itself. I am a big fan of Halifax online banking so having the ISA there too is great.

p.s. I already had the ISA opened. I dont know how easy it is to open and transfer 'in one'

purplestar133

The difficulty is that I don't already have a Halifax account. So to pay in I would have to open a current account, for example, pay into that and then phone up to transfer the money into the direct saver ISA. And obviously the reverse applies for taking money out. If I transferred money in from my existing current account it would take 5 days to go through. So I'm wondering if it's all worth it for the sake of 0.55%....

lipidicman

You don't need a Halifax current account (I don't). You may need a feeder account like an instant savings account.