*URGENT* New MiniCash ISA - 2 from same provider???

Rochdale_Guy

david78 wrote:

The above is all very confusing. Here's the truth

For this year you can:

(i) put your £3000 into your existing A&L ISA if you want, OR

(ii) open a mini cash ISA with another provider and put the £3000 into that.

You might want to do option (ii) if for example, you want to have a fixed rate on your second pot, or if you find a better variable rate than A&Ls.

A&L won't let you open a second mini cash ISA with a different account number.

When it says you are agreeing to open accounts with A&L for subsequent years, all it means is you can pay money into the existing ISA account in subsequent years without the bother of filling in an application. If you are paying monthly by Direct Debit, they will keep taking contributions in the new year and your mini ISA for that year will be with them. But, of course, you can cancel them so no payments are taken after 5th April 2007 if you want.

Please don't worry, you are allowed to have mini cash ISAs with more than one provider (I have 5 accounts with 3 different providers: Nationwide (3 accounts), M&S (1 account), NS&I (1 account)).

The only restrictions are:

(i) You can only pay up to £3000 into one provider's account each year.
(ii) When you open a new account, that becomes your default account for subsequent tax years (unless you change it by opening another account).
(iii) If after paying money into an account one year, you decide to pay it into another of your existing accounts the next year, you will need to fill in an application form (sometimes a short renewal form, sometimes a full application form).

In your case, you didn't need to complete the on-line application for your 2006-2007 ISA, you could have just topped up your existing account. I would imagine A&L will realise you have an account already and will just add your new contribution to that when they process your new form (toss it in the bin 'cos they don't need it)

Many thanks for that clarification, I guess I'll wait and let them get in touch with me then... I'll give them 24 hours !

Cheers

Mr_Mumble

djohn2002uk, sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick. Just your comments such as "You are only allowed 1 mini cash ISA with any provider" could have been misconstrued to be an absolute rather than per annum.

Rochdale_Guy

Boy, can this get any worse ????

"Googled" Alliance & Leicester Customer Service and all I got was a number for complaints, so..... I explained everything to the kind woman who wrote it all down and promised to pass my details onto the right department. Sure enough a very helpful woman called "J" rang me up and tried to explain my situation to me, but left me more confused. She basically said you can't have 2 Mini Cash ISAs with the same provider even in different tax years so when they process my application and send me the paperwork for the new one, just bin it all and I'd be okay with the Inland Revenue as long as I never use this new one or pay a penny into it.

1) Well, if you can't have 2 with one company then A&L shouldn't go ahead and open another for me should they, never mind telling me NOT to use it....

2) There own T&Cs state they will open a new one for you at the start of each new tax year - what a contradiction

3) I also explained about the lack of letters containing my Customer ID and Customer PIN numbers, 3 weeks after having opened my original Direct ISA on March 17th in the last tax year..... she said she'd investigate and get back to me.

4) I am totally down about this whole episode now, my own fault for trying to be greedy and earn some "FREE" money. Life sucks eh?

Anyway, what is the bottom line here ANYONE?

Can you, or can you not have 2 separate Mini Cash ISAs (or "A&L" Direct ISAs in this case) with the same firm even if its in different tax years... please?

I also said to her that if I can't have this newly applied for one "opened", can I add the intended £3k into my existing old one opened last month. She said yes, but I can't yet as I can't access their online banking / telephone banking service

I don't even know if the £3k I transferred from my bank account into this old Direct ISA has even got there, all I know is £3k has gone out of my bank account..... somewhere.

Yours desparate, (and with burnt hands from playing with fire)...
Rochdale Guy.

P.S. By the time I get this mess sorted, it'll be September when I have to repay this darned borrowed £11k back to the credit card company ...

Mikeyorks

Rochdale_Guy wrote:

Boy, can this get any worse ????

"Googled" Alliance & Leicester Customer Service and all I got was a number for complaints,

Won't respond to your majority stuff - as you're getting some very A&L specifics there - so will let an A&L expert respond. My provider, for example, opens a fresh ISA for me each year! Quite discrete account number etc.

But this may help if you need to ring them. Don't know where you looked though, as only took 5 secs to find

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/siteinfo/index.asp?page=savings&custype=existing

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks for the reply, but.....

The "Direct ISA" 08703 333 444 number - which I already called, is an automated number:

"For current accounts press (1)", then "For savings enquiries press (2)", then "For Direct ISA press (2)" etc, where you then have to input your 12 digit Customer number plus (I assume) your PIN afterwards.... I can't even access that as they never sent me my security details (inc. Customer number and PIN).

Rochdale_Guy

All I have from both an email and "Welcome to A&L" letter, is my 11 digit Direct ISA number

ManAtHome

Sounds like you need to do:
1) bin the letter about the NEW account
2) wait for the Customer Account and PIN
3) go online, check your ISA is there with £3k in it, transfer £3k in.

I'm not an A&L customer (not sure I ever will be...), but if their on-line system has any checking at all it shouldn't allow you to do anything dodgy. As I said before, my providers definitely distinguish between:
New - should ask if you already have an ISA with them
Deposit - deposit up a maximum £3k into the current ISA (could be a £3k lump, or several deposits adding up to £3k or less within the year).

As to whether you can have more than one ISA with a provider as long as they are different years - obviously varies by provider (A&L computer says no).

By the way, if you withdraw this years ISA in September, you can't bung it back in - you'll have to wait until next April to open a *NEW* ISA (2007/8).

Would recommend that you don't open next year's (2007/8) with somebody else then go back to A&L - too scary to think about!

Remember - no pain, no gain! (you'll look back on this and laugh eventually, possibly hysterically...)

MarkyMarkD

You can have different ISAs in different years with A&L, as they have offered more than one sort of Direct ISA as well as non-Direct ISAs. These are all unique types of account and there's no reason why you can't have more than one, despite what the complaints person said.

But you shouldn't have opened a Direct ISA Issue 2 in March 2006, and then another Direct ISA Issue 2 in April 2006, because there was no need and you could have just added the money to the original account.

I don't see that it makes any difference at all to A&L if you have 2 separate, but identical, accounts for different tax years and it's not an ISA rule breach to do so. So whether you bin the April 2006 ISA account details or have them both running is "six of one and half a dozen of the other" IMHO.

If the lack of a 12 digit Internet Banking number is what is holding you up, I would phone the Internet Banking helpline on 0845 300 2562.

But you can pay money in for the 2006/07 tax year by a BACS transfer from your current account, using the details shown here:

Using Alliance & Leicester telephone and Internet Banking is by far the easiest way to pay money in and we strongly recommend that you use these facilities. However, you can also ask another bank to pay money into your Direct ISA by BACS (this might be referred to as a Bill Payment or Funds Transfer if you use your banks telephone or Internet Banking). Please note: Your bank may charge for this service.

Your bank will need the following information:

* Sort Code 72-58-10
* Account number 00000000 (yes – eight zeros - this is the Alliance & Leicester account that funds are received in before going in to your Direct ISA)
* Reference number – This is your eleven digit Direct ISA number, and can be found on your welcome letter

- this info is from the Direct ISA user guide.