Help - Confused - opening ISA before deadline

wombleon

Hi - Can someone more clued up then I am please advise, I've taken the advice and opened a cash ISA tonight, the 3 April, before the deadline of the 5th. However, now I am receiving the information from Santander via email it appears to be me that to tranfer money from my existing cash ISA I need to print out and sign a form and post it to them and allow 15 days for the transfer. If I want to pay money in via direct debit its another form to be printed off and posted.

What am I missing, if I cannot tranfer money in before the 5th has there been any point opening one now? I had hoped to be able to tranfer my existing ISA or at least be able to send money from my NatWest account to my new Santander ISA using online banking.

Please can someone advise?

Many thanks!

Lokolo

The ISA transfer form is used to transfer one ISA to another. This is the form they have sent you.

If you have already had an ISA this year and you want to transfer it to this new Santander ISA then you use that form.

If you have not used any allowance this year and want to make a contribution then you can deposit using online banking using the Santander account details.

moneysaver84_3

I have also just opened a Santander ISA but would like to transfer my old Santander ISA into this. Can this be done online or do I have to visit a branch? Also noticed on the new one it says I have £5640 contributions remaining but have already used all of this years allowance so assume thats just for next year and take it I will have to hold off paying any more in until after the deadline? Just worried they would get funny if I leave the account empty for a few days, I take it this would be ok?

sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance for any replys!

Rich

innovate

You won't now be able to complete the transfer of an existing ISA before the end of the tax year - - - but this does not really matter. If you have an ISA to transfer, just fill in the transfer form and it will all happen. Don't attempt to transfer the ISA money yourself. Read the MSE ISA transfer guide if you don't understand what I am on about. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers

If you have not yet used any of your 2012-13 cash ISA allowance, you can deposit £5,640 of new money into your newly opened ISA. You should be able to do this by faster payment, or by going into a Branch and making the payment.

If you have used any of your 2012-13 cash ISA allowance, you can now only deposit new money into your old cash ISA before the end of the tax year. You can transfer the entire ISA, or part of it, to a new one after you have maxed your 2012-13 allowance.

wombleon

Thanks Lokolo, my question was about timing, if I have to use a form to tranfer my current ISA £s then it will take me way beyond the 5th April deadline?

wombleon

Thanks Innovate, you replied whilst I was typing my reply to Lokolo. Thanks for the helpful advice, I'll go ahead and complete the transfer form.

innovate

moneysaver84 wrote: »

I have also just opened a Santander ISA but would like to transfer my old Santander ISA into this. Can this be done online or do I have to visit a branch? Also noticed on the new one it says I have £5640 contributions remaining but have already used all of this years allowance so assume thats just for next year and take it I will have to hold off paying any more in until after the deadline? Just worried they would get funny if I leave the account empty for a few days, I take it this would be ok?

sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance for any replys!

Rich

You must fill in an ISA transfer form, which you can send off to a central ISA transfer team, or hand in at a Branch.

The "£5,640 remaining" is a bit meaningless - - they just know how much you deposited with them, not any other provider.

They will not "get funny" if you don't deposit, or transfer in, any funds for a few days.In fact, nothing would happen if you never deposited any new money into the newly opened one, or never transfered an old ISA into it.

moneysaver84_3

Hi Wombleon,

I'm pretty sure the deadline is just to make sure you have used up (payed into) this years ISA allowance. You can transfer you previous ISA after the deadline (providing the new ISA allows it).

I'm a bit confused on transfering from a previous Santander ISA to the new Santander one. But transfering from an old external one just seems to be a case of using the form they provide on the welcome email.

Cheers

Rich

moneysaver84_3

innovate wrote: »

You must fill in an ISA transfer form, which you can send off to a central ISA transfer team, or hand in at a Branch.

The "£5,640 remaining" is a bit meaningless - - they just know how much you deposited with them, not any other provider.

They will not "get funny" if you don't deposit, or transfer in, any funds for a few days.In fact, nothing would happen if you never deposited any new money into the newly opened one, or never transfered an old ISA into it.

Thanks innovate for the fast reply. I have found an internal cash isa transfer form on the Santander website so will complete and pop into the branch. I have been a Santander (online) customer for a couple of years but never set foot in a branch, hopefully it will be straight forward enough!

Thanks again

Rich

innovate

Actually, you should be able to phone Santander about an internal transfer

If you wish to transfer an existing Santander cash ISA to another Santander cash ISA simply:

• Visit any Santander branch or call 0845 600 0181.
• You might be asked to provide a Cash ISA Internal Transfer Form

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237836201044&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateA1

moneysaver84_3

Thanks again