ISA Help

GBwheelman

Heya, new user here so be nice haha
Im sure this has been asked a thousand times before but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my current situation, and what to do next. It's quite simple...I think!

So I currently have 2 ISA's, one from the 2009/10 tax year and one from the 2010/11 Tax year, both with ING. They are two separate accounts, with the 2009/10 ISA being transferred from my previous provider (until recently I didn't realise that every tax year I could pay in the limit to the same account, hence two accounts).

So, ideally what i'd like to do, is rather than open up a third ISA account for this tax year, i'd like to combine the two I currently have, just to make it easier to manage really; (i've heard that having more in one single account is better than having lots of little ones?)

I've seen that the Halifax seem to offer the best rate and allow transfers, but how would I go about transferring two previous ISAs into one account? Or will I have to transfer one of them and then take my second account, withdraw all the money and then pay it into the new Halifax account? (Which will then count against my limit for this year?)

Sorry if that's a bit jumbled or mixed up, I'll try and be more clear if any more info is needed!

Thanks very much for any help, it's appreciated

Lokolo

OK basically its best to have a single account at the best rate, than little ones at different rates. And usually for organisation, it's easier to have one rather than loads.

The halifax one. You open it up, you fill in multiple ISA transfer forms. One for each ISA.

You can then choose to deposit new money (as you have a new allowance of £5,430 since April 6th), in either the same Halifax ISA or you can open another one elsewhere.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/accounts/cash-isas/transfer-your-isa/

There are instructions here. When you open the ISA it will ask you to deposit money, you do not have to do this unless you want to also subscribe to that ISA (which means you cannot subscribe to any other ISA that year)

GBwheelman

Ok excellent!
So it's basically just a case of me getting multiple ISA transfer forms (one for each account) and then on top of that im also able to pay in this years subscription of £5,430, perfect. I [probably will subscribe to Halifax for this year, 3% seems pretty good in comparison and it means all my money is in one place, which is what I want really

Thanks very much for your help

Lokolo

Yep that's correct!

Yorkie1

Just to clarify, you get the transfer forms from Halifax and not ING

david78

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Just to clarify, you get the transfer forms from Halifax and not ING

Yes you get the transfer forms from the provider you are transferring to, Halifax in this case.

However, if both ISAs are with ING Direct you might just ask them (ING Direct) to consolidate these into one cash ISA account first. They should be able to do this as an internal transfer instantly over the telephone (You don't need to tell them why you are doing it). Then you will only need one transfer form from Halifax.