fixed rate ISAs

555

this may sound daft:o

i would like to lock my money away into a Halifax 4 or 5 year isa.
i think the min opening is £500 or so.

what i am struggling to understand is can you put in the £3600 in the tax year, the same as mini ISA's?

i'ts making it out reading the small print that you can only put a lump sum in, say £2000 and not be able to add to the fund for the whole fixed period???

i am i correct in thinking?

thanks

Lokolo

Fixed products only allow one deposit.

So if you deposit £500 into that fixed account, thats all you can deposit that tax year.

What I tend to do is open an instant access, when thats full, transfer it to a fixed rate ISA.

Also I would not fix for 4-5 years. Fix for 2-3 years max, once its over you can always fix again for another 2-3 years.

555

cheers.

so once my mini isa is full with £3600 i can put this into a fixed rate for say 2 or 3 years.

ok

what about the mini isa will now have £0 in it, can i start filling this up again?

what i mean is can i have both a fixed isa and an instant access at the same time?

Lokolo

Ok stop calling them mini ISAs, they don't exist anymore. Its Cash ISA.

You have filled up your Cash ISA with £3,600.

You can transfer it to Halifax using an ISA transfer form.

You other ISA isn't left with £0 in, its closed.

You can only deposit new money into one Cash ISA each year. Transferring does not count as depositing new money.

opinions4u

555 wrote: »

i would like to lock my money away into a Halifax 4 or 5 year isa. i think the min opening is £500 or so.

A quick look at their web site confirms the £500 minimum opening balance. But the longest term is 4 years only.

what i am struggling to understand is can you put in the £3600 in the tax year, the same as mini ISA's?

As Lokolo says, mini ISAs don't exist anymore.

You can pay up to £3,600 a tax year in to a cash ISA. This becomes £5,100 from the next tax year, or 6th October 2009 for over 50s.

The fixed rate Halifax cash ISA doesn't allow additional deposits though. So if you open an account with, say, £500 then you cannot save in any other cash ISA until 6th April 2010 and will have "wasted" £3,100 of this year's allowance.

I have read in the financial press that those aged over 50 in this tax year who have funded a fixed rate Halifax ISA since 6th April 2009 will be allowed to top-up their additional £1,500 at the existing fixed rate. I cannot find ny reference to this on their web site though so 08456 26 36 46 for an answer!

what i mean is can i have both a fixed isa and an instant access at the same time?

Yes. But you can only fund one of them in the same tax year. You can easily transfer a Halifax ISA Saver or ISA Saver Direct in to a fixed rate ISA (takes about 10 seconds) but at that point you restrict your ability to save more until April 2010.

Hope that helps.