Topping up ISAs

Old_Bloke_2

Hi
My cash isa is now just over £50,000 which of course is the max for bank guarantee. What should I do next April? Can I leave this one alone and open a new one? The rule is £5,100 per tax year but is that with any or as many as you like providers?
look forward to any observations/opinions
Regards
Old Bloke

blueberrypie

You can only *subscribe* to *one* cash ISA, with *one* provider, per year - but you can *have* as many cash ISAs as you like - and you can transfer funds however you like too. If you are transferring funds that were put in (as new money) during the current tax year, you have to transfer them in one block, but if you're transferring funds that were subscribed in previous years, you can split them as you want.

So you could, for example, split your current ISA, putting some of it in a long-term fixed-rate ISA, and part of it into a shorter-term fix or a variable rate. Or you could transfer part of it to another provider and leave part of it where it is (depending on the terms and conditions of your current ISA).

In fact it makes sense to transfer funds around, because it's very unlikely you'll continue to get a good rate year on year with the same provider.

Next April you can open a new ISA and put new money into that - or you can add next year's allowance to any of your previously-opened ISAs (again assuming that's within the providers conditions).

By the way the FSCS limit will rise at the end of December, to the equivalent of 100,000 euros (so nearly £87,000 at today's exchange rate).

jimjames

There is no reason why your ISA each year has to be with the same provider so you can certainly move to a new one next year.