ISA Transfer Question

cheersthanksbye

I currently have an ISA with Smile and plan to transfer to the First Direct account. Have applied and First Direct have sent me all the forms including a transfer form. The form says the maxium I can transfer is £3000, but because of saving over a number of years, the balance of my smile account is just over 6k.

I could do with an explanation of how much you are allowed to transfer – I expected to be able to earn the 6% odd FD rate on my 6k transferred from Smile.

Could someone fill me in please? Thanks.

dunstonh

have they sent you the right form?

A transfer between ISA providers does not have any limit as the MINI/MAXI contribution limits no longer apply to what you have paid in the past once you enter a new tax year.

littlereddevil

If i transfer all my ISA now can I still add my £3000 for this year?

jimclark1967

You can only transfer £3000 to the First Direct account - this is FD being awkward rather than a general rule.

Strangely enough you can transfer as much as you like after 6th October, which just happens to be the date the rate drops from over 6% to under 5%...

Lychee

I opened an FD ISA and transferred 3K in last month. On April 6th, I sent a message to FD asking if I can also transfer in a 2003/04 ISA and received a Transfer pack 2 days later. Filled the forms and sent it back the same day. Nothing happened for a week so I sent another message asking about it. Finally got a reply two days ago to say that the transfer authority form had just been sent to old provider. at the moment, the money is still with previous provider. Everything happened a lot quicker when I was moving my 2004/05 ISA :P

I have the same question as anneg - I've transferred 3K to FD, do they have any awkward rules that prevents me from adding another 3K this tax year?

deemy2004

You can open a new FD ISA in the current tax year, does not matter if you transfered a previous year ISA to them.

As each tax year you start with a clean slate.

inkie

So, can I just clarify something - I have a national savings ISA from prev tax years with 5000plus in - and have opened a FD isa for this tax year - so can I then open another ISA now with another provider to transfer the Nat. Savings sum into? ONe day I might get my head around this - and then they'll stop doing them! Thanks

deemy2004

They way you need to understand is that you are NOT opening a NEW ISA in the current TAX year, but TRANSFERING an ISA from a previous tax year.

So when you go down to your new ISA provider - You tell them that you want to TRANSFER your Nat SAvings ISA to THEM. You fill in a few forms, and give them your national savings passbooks etc.. and then depending on them and Nat savings the transfer should be done within a month.

inkie

Cheers Deemy for that - i'lll get onto that this week! :j

littlereddevil

thanks inkie and deemie I was struggling there :T