My daughter has received a cheque for £3795.36.

catelizabeth22

She doesn't have a bank account but would like to invest it in an ISA. As the Cash ISA limit is £3600, would she be able to pay the £3795.36 in and then get a refund of the £195.36? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

RayWolfe

It is unlikely that an ISA provider will accept a cheque from a third party as an ISA payment.

PinkPig

It seems really unlikely that an ISA provider would not only accept a cheque from a third party but also agree to give you change. Why can't she open a bank account? She must be at least 16 to open an ISA so she'll need one soon enough anyway.

opinions4u

ChristineKelly wrote: »

She doesn't have a bank account but would like to invest it in an ISA. As the Cash ISA limit is £3600, would she be able to pay the £3795.36 in and then get a refund of the £195.36?

No bank will do this.

Why not open a bank account (either a 'normal' savings account of a card/current account) with the £195.36 and pay the £3,600 in to the ISA.

That way she has a day to day account for things and a separate tax free savings account. She will find it very hard to get through life without some sort of bank account.

Question: Does she pay tax? If not, she may be able to get higher rates than an ISA.

Jennifer_Jane

How old is your daughter Christine? She has to be 16 minimum to be able to get an ISA anyway.

Jen
x

rb10

I'd have thought that any ISA provider would accept a cheque from anyone who wants to give them the money, whether it's from a third party or not. Halifax allow this, and I'd be very surprised if other banks didn't as well.

I don't think you could get a 'refund' of £195.36, so she'd need to open another account (e.g. current account). She could then either

1) Pay the cheque in to the other account, and then transfer £3600 across to the ISA once the money is available, or
2) If both accounts are with the same bank, you can split cheques between two different accounts, so she hands over the one cheque, and £3600 of it is credited to one account (in this case the ISA), and the remaining £195.36 to the other account.

cattie

Whenever I've opened a cash ISA the cheque has always had to come from my account or transfered from an existing account of mine.

If she doesn't want to open a bank account, why doesn't she just open a savings acccount & transfer the money over?

RayWolfe

rb10 wrote: »

I'd have thought that any ISA provider would accept a cheque from anyone who wants to give them the money, whether it's from a third party or not.

I don't think you really know, so it's a bit unhelpful for you to issue your thoughts as knowledge.

opinions4u

RayWolfe wrote: »

I don't think you really know, so it's a bit unhelpful for you to issue your thoughts as knowledge.

He did contextualise it with an "I'd have thought" Ray.

Was your "It is unlikely that an ISA provider will accept a cheque from a third party as an ISA payment." a thought or knowledge? If it's knowledge please expand on it.

At the end of the day an ISA is a savings account with a tax wrapper. You can pay a cheque drawn on a third party (but payable to the account holder) in to any existing savings account.

Some direct providers may demand a personal cheque for an initial deposit as part of their account opening money laundering procedures for new customers.

But I would certainly expect a high street savings provider to accept a third party cheque, as long as the payee is correct!

rb10

RayWolfe wrote: »

I don't think you really know, so it's a bit unhelpful for you to issue your thoughts as knowledge.

I do know for absolutely 100% that Halifax will accept cheques into an ISA drawn on any account you like. All that matters is that the payee is correct. And so, working from that, it is surely a fair assumption that other high street banks will operate in the same way. But as Opinions4U said, I did only say 'I'd have thought...'.

It could be said that it's unhelpful to issue your thoughts as knowledge:

RayWolfe wrote: »

It is unlikely that an ISA provider will accept a cheque from a third party as an ISA payment.

This is clearly wrong, as whether or not all ISA providers allow it, there is at least one that does.

RayWolfe

OK, maybe I'm even more grumpy than usual this morning. Sorry RB10.
My experience with ISA providers is that you open with one of your own cheques as a means of preventing the abuse of the "Individual" Savings Account. It also covers one of the money laundering requirements in that the holders of your bank account will be responsible for the origin of the funds. Finally it helps with the identity confirmation process.
But I could be wrong, and often am.