Cash ISA newbie

cmonwigan

Guys,

I'm looking for some free advice about opening a cash isa.

I've got the max 2011/12 allowance sitting in my current account and would now like to open a cash isa with it, and also to continue saving monthly in the same account using next year's tax free allowance.

I've just looked into opening an account with ING, but they have advised that they will not allow me to add to the account with money from the new tax year. Instead ING have advised that I could open another ISA for the new tax year.

Are there any instant cash ISAs out there, which I could open with this year's tax free allowance, and which I could continue to deposit money into during 2012/13?

Thanks

atush

You can't add new money until April, so any new money should go into an easy access acct first. Then bung it into an easy access cash Isa til full. Then you can transfer it to something longer term.

And why, when you could have been earning interest all this time have you got it in a current acct? Open as ISA asap.

cmonwigan

Thanks Atush.

I had a 5k windfall recently.

So you would advise sticking the 5k in one Cash ISA, and then open another ISA for the new tax year? I was hoping to open just the one ISA and top it up monthly, hence earning more interest from the larger amount.

As I understand it ING are saying I would have £5,340 sitting in one ISA getting 3%, but then a second ISA with £100 getting 3%. I would regularly add to the second ISA, but either way it would be meagre returns.

I was hoping that I could get an 2011/12 ISA, then add to it with next year's 2012/13 allowance i.e. April 5th £5,340, May 6th 2012 £5440, etc

Your thoughts?

atush

you can't put in more than 5340 this year.

If you want to start regular payments in the new FY in april then fine.

Some ISAs may allow the next years contribs to be added, but most it has a seperate acct number. And there are reasons (such as fixing the orginal ISA for a yearor more to get higher interest) that you might not want to ahve it all in one acct.

AirlieBird

cmonwigan wrote: »

I've just looked into opening an account with ING, but they have advised that they will not allow me to add to the account with money from the new tax year. Instead ING have advised that I could open another ISA for the new tax year.

Really? That's bonkers.

cmonwigan wrote: »

Are there any instant cash ISAs out there, which I could open with this year's tax free allowance, and which I could continue to deposit money into during 2012/13?

Yes, every Easy Access Cash ISA I know of does.... apart from ING it seems.

atush wrote: »

You can't add new money until April, so any new money should go into an easy access acct first. Then bung it into an easy access cash Isa til full.

What are you talking about? The OP has not used their annual allowance so of course they can add new money now.

atush wrote: »

And why, when you could have been earning interest all this time have you got it in a current acct? Open as ISA asap.

But you just said they couldn't?

atush wrote: »

you can't put in more than 5340 this year.

I don't believe the OP was suggesting they were going to.

atush wrote: »

Some ISAs may allow the next years contribs to be added, but most it has a seperate acct number.

Rubbish. All Instant Access ISAs allow you to continue to subscribe to the ISA in the following year (except it seems ING) and use the same account number.