📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

General ISA question

Hi

When opening a cash ISA for the first time, how much can you deposit initially? I understand you can only deposit £53** odd a year but i was reading the Nationwide site about there's and it 'sounds' as if you can deposit an initial big lump sum - 25K is mentioned. Could someone clarify this please?

Many thanks

Ian

Comments

  • blueberrypie
    blueberrypie Posts: 2,397 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper
    If the funds are coming from another ISA - i.e. they are already within an ISA wrapper - you can *transfer* (not withdraw and deposit!) as much as you want.

    If the funds are "new" - i.e. not coming from another ISA, then you are limited to whatever the ISA allowance is for the current tax year (£5340 in 2011/12).
  • Ian68
    Ian68 Posts: 5 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    If the funds are coming from another ISA - i.e. they are already within an ISA wrapper - you can *transfer* (not withdraw and deposit!) as much as you want.

    If the funds are "new" - i.e. not coming from another ISA, then you are limited to whatever the ISA allowance is for the current tax year (£5340 in 2011/12).

    Thank you.

    And is that the 'law' with no exceptions?

    So if I had a lump sum of say 30k, can I open only 1 ISA? If so, where could I put the rest to earn 'decent' interest?

    Cheers

    Ian
  • blueberrypie
    blueberrypie Posts: 2,397 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper
    Yes, that is the law, with no exceptions.

    You do have a couple of options, although none of them will allow you to invest £30 in ISAs soon. You could use your 2011/12 allowance of £5340 now, and on April 6th (when the new tax year starts), put a further £5640 into an ISA - the same one or another one.

    Or you could put some of your funds into a stocks and shares ISA, if that's a suitable option for you. Your "full" ISA allowance for 11/12 is £10680, and you can put up to half of this into a cash ISA, with the rest into a S&S ISA. Again, once April 6th arrives, you will have your 12/13 allowance to use.

    But I'm afraid there's no way to invest more than the current year's allowance - that's why you so often hear the mantra "use it or lose it" applied to your ISA allowance.
  • Hi there, I've just received my redundancy money and want to use it to make me money toward my retirement. If I use some to open a cash ISA this financial year can I then transfer it into a new one next financial year or would I not gain anything by doing this?

    Thanks
  • Lokolo
    Lokolo Posts: 20,861 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    Healthking wrote: »
    Hi there, I've just received my redundancy money and want to use it to make me money toward my retirement. If I use some to open a cash ISA this financial year can I then transfer it into a new one next financial year or would I not gain anything by doing this?

    Thanks

    Why would you want to transfer it to one next year? You can deposit ~£5k (£5340 this year, cannot remember how much next) each year, so you open one today, deposit £5340. On April 6th - new tax year - you can deposit a further £5xxx (new limit, cannot remember), so you will now have over £10k in ISAs.

    The only reason you'd transfer it is if there was another ISA with a better rate.
  • Hi Again - Can my wife and I each open a cash ISA individually?

    Thanks again
  • blueberrypie
    blueberrypie Posts: 2,397 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper
    Healthking wrote: »
    Hi Again - Can my wife and I each open a cash ISA individually?

    Thanks again

    Yes. They are Individual Savings Accounts - you can only hold one in your own name (i.e. no joint accounts). You can certainly open one in your own name and also give your wife some money to open one in her name. Bear in mind though that it will then legally be her money, which might have consequences if she were to die, or you were to separate, or she just decided to go on a spending spree with it.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.4K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.6K Life & Family
  • 256.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.