ISA transfers

Lizbaby

I have opened a Flexible ISA with Santander for this year.

I want to transfer an existing ISA that I have with another bank but Santander don't accept transfers.

Is there any other way of transferring an existing ISA this year? What do you recommend?

Lokolo

You can open an ISA elsewhere and transfer there instead. Halifax have one for 3%.

Stompa

Lizbaby wrote: »

I have opened a Flexible ISA with Santander for this year.

I want to transfer an existing ISA that I have with another bank but Santander don't accept transfers.

Is there any other way of transferring an existing ISA this year? What do you recommend?

Transfer to an ISA that does allow transfers in:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers

Naf

Santander do allow transfers, but not to this type of ISA. Its become fairly common that banks refuse to allow transfers into their headline rate accounts, they limit them to a single year's contribution as a new deposit. As above find a good rate that does allow transfers in.

King_Of_Bling

What would happen, using the OPs situation, if he had a current tax year Santander ISA and moved previous years ISA to Halifax, but accidentally paid £1 or more into the Halifax ISA?

Naf

They'd be obliged to continue paying into the Halifax one for the remainder of the tax year, or transfer that one also and pay into the post-transfer account

King_Of_Bling

Naf wrote: »

They'd be obliged to continue paying into the Halifax one for the remainder of the tax year, or transfer that one also and pay into the post-transfer account

So, as long as you keep within the ISA allowance for the current tax year, you can pay willy-nilly into as many ISA's with different providers as you want (if you transfer them)?

Naf

King_Of_Bling wrote: »

So, as long as you keep within the ISA allowance for the current tax year, you can pay willy-nilly into as many ISA's with different providers as you want (if you transfer them)?

You can transfer as many ISAs as many times as you like, yes. But if you transfer one you've paid new deposits into, you must continue depositing into it for the remainder. Your new deposit up to the annual ISA allowance MUST all go into the same account, transferred or not...

System

You cannot subscribe concurrently to more than one Cash ISA in a year.

In the OPs situation, because they have already subscribed to the Santander Flexible ISA, then the best thing for them to do would be to continue subscribing to this Santander account up to the £5340 limit this year.
They can open another Cash ISA that allows transfers in, with any provider they wish, but they must not pay any new money into this new account during this current year. Then they can arrange to transfer in any old Cash ISA money by completing a transfer form from the new account provider (one form for each old ISA account being transferred).
When the Santander Flexible ISA interest rate drops to 0.5% (when the account becomes 12 months old) then the OP can transfer that Santander account to the new ISA account too.

Naf

BAA1 wrote: »

You cannot subscribe concurrently to more than one Cash ISA in a year.

In the OPs situation, because they have already subscribed to the Santander Flexible ISA, then the best thing for them to do would be to continue subscribing to this Santander account up to the £5340 limit this year.

They can still transfer the current year's ISA too. But after it has been transferred it is still the one they must continue paying into: the Santander one would be closed.
i.e. you can't pay simultaneously into an ISA with Halifax and Santander, but you can move the ISA you're paying into from Santander to Halifax, then continue to deposit (subject to the subscription allowances) into the Halifax one after transfer.

System

Naf wrote: »

They can still transfer the current year's ISA too. But after it has been transferred it is still the one they must continue paying into: the Santander one would be closed.
i.e. you can't pay simultaneously into an ISA with Halifax and Santander, but you can move the ISA you're paying into from Santander to Halifax, then continue to deposit (subject to the subscription allowances) into the Halifax one after transfer.

Yeh but why the hell would the OP wish to do that - it would most likely reduce the interest they could earn on this year's subscriptions, since most accounts that allow transfers in have a lower interest rate.

I was trying to cut out the waffle to make the picture as straight forward as possible, no point complicating things just for the sake of it