Multiple ISA's?

Deafening_Silence

I was reading an article on here last night and want to check that I've understood correctly.

I have an e-isa with Natwest that I opened in 11-12 and have approx £2k available left to save for this year.
I can open another isa with another provider in 12-13 meaning I now have two isa's.
I can deposit the maximum amount in the e-isa and then the maximum amount in the second isa so approx £11600 for the 12-13 year.
This is possible as the isa's were opened in different financial years.

Is this right or have I got it completely wrong?? Can you have multiple isa's but only be 'using' one in any financial year?

Would appreciate some help here - trying to make sure I make the best out of savings this next couple of years...

blueberrypie

I think you've understood but your post isn't completely clear.

You can *have* as many ISAs as you want. You can only *subscribe* to one cash ISA in each tax year. "Subscribe" means "put in new money" - that is, money that was not already in an ISA. If you want to move money from one ISA to another, you do that using the transfer process, and it doesn't count towards your current year's allowance.

The tax year runs from April 6th one year to April 5th next, so your Natwest e-isa is still your current ISA. From April 6th, you can open a new one, and you can subscribe the 12-13 allowance to that. In the meantime, you can, if you want, transfer the funds that are in the Natwest ISA as you wish.

Deafening_Silence

Aha thank you I think that's made it clearer for me! So basically I can only ever deposit the £5300approx each year - regardless of which isa. I can transfer existing deposits but not make any more than the £5300approx...

Lokolo

Deafening_Silence wrote: »

Aha thank you I think that's made it clearer for me! So basically I can only ever deposit the £5300approx each year - regardless of which isa. I can transfer existing deposits but not make any more than the £5300approx...

The transfer of existing deposits doesn't count towards the allowance.

So you have your e-ISA with £3k in it. Come April 6th you can open an ISA elsewhere e.g. HSBC. You can then deposit £5k into this HSBC ISA. Then, if the HSBC ISA allows it, you can transfer the existing e-ISA money into using an ISA transfer form.

Once the the transfer has been completed, you then have £8k in your HSBC ISA.

Deafening_Silence

Gotcha!

Thank you both Is it silly to say that just getting to grips with this stuff in my head makes me feel more like I'm heading somewhere with purpose financially?

jamesd

Not silly at all. There are lots of things to learn about money and how you can best make it work for you.