Second ISA - stick or twist!?

markalanious

I've just opened an ISA (my first ever) with Santander (3.3 flex). I opened it with 1.5k and have budgeted to have the full entitlement (which i think is £5340) by the end of this year.

My partner and I are saving for a house, and since I earn 3 times what she does, it will be me doing most of the saving. So I was wondering what to do after I have filled my ISA.

Now, my first thought was that I would open the same ISA in her name, and then attempt to fill that before April. But then I thought, that we'd have to switch that to another ISA which probably wouldn't have as good a rate. So would it not be a better idea to open a savings account or a 'second best' ISA for her and fill that one up in the back end of the year (when it wouldn't accrue as much interest) and then whack it in the best buy Santander ISA next year?

Hope that makes sense, and thanks in advance for any assistance.

kidmugsy

There's guesswork involved, but you might not be aware that there are often particularly atttractive Cash ISA offers in February and, especially, March (i.e. end of the old tax year) as well as April (start of the new). Why not open a particularly high-paying Cash ISA for her now with some small sum? If better interest rates are available later in the tax year, just transfer it. If not you will have "locked in" a good rate.

markalanious

I didn't think you could have two ISAs in a year - or are you saying you can transfer and it only counts as one ISA (that does make sense now i've typed it )

Gordon_the_Moron

You can only have one per tax year but you can transfer it in whole from one to another (so you could for example transfer your Santander one now to Halifax if you wished and close the Santander one) you can't split up the current year's allowance or have more than one open at a time though.

bigfreddiel

markalanious wrote: »

I didn't think you could have two ISAs in a year - or are you saying you can transfer and it only counts as one ISA (that does make sense now i've typed it )

The post said:

"Now, my first thought was that I would open the same ISA in her name, and then attempt to fill that before April."

I think this is allowed - infact I know its allowed my wife and I have been doing this for years.

bigfreddiel

markalanious wrote: »

I've just opened an ISA (my first ever) with Santander (3.3 flex). I opened it with 1.5k and have budgeted to have the full entitlement (which i think is £5340) by the end of this year.

My partner and I are saving for a house, and since I earn 3 times what she does, it will be me doing most of the saving. So I was wondering what to do after I have filled my ISA.

Now, my first thought was that I would open the same ISA in her name, and then attempt to fill that before April. But then I thought, that we'd have to switch that to another ISA which probably wouldn't have as good a rate. So would it not be a better idea to open a savings account or a 'second best' ISA for her and fill that one up in the back end of the year (when it wouldn't accrue as much interest) and then whack it in the best buy Santander ISA next year?

Hope that makes sense, and thanks in advance for any assistance.

Just stop poncing around and open another ISA in your g/f name - start using it as soonas you've used up you allowance .

Do you do a tax return each year - if so a point often not mentioned is that as ISAs are tax free you don't report them on a tax return - no record keeping to do -makes life so much simpler.

markalanious

poncing around