Transferring your cash ISA from previous year before interest is credited

Scampi

Hi all,

I'm finally starting to use my ISA allowances and hope to end 2013/14 with a full cash ISA for the year :beer:

I've presumed that the most competitive deals for 2014/15 will be available from April 6th, and that as time goes on, these become less competitive in terms of interest rates.

On that basis, I want to find an ISA I can transfer my 13/14 ISA into as quickly as possible. Issue is that based on when I opened my previous ISA, the annual interest will not be added to that account until early May.

On that basis, I would like to open an ISA for the transfer as soon after April 6th as I can as not to miss out, for which I'm presuming that if I'm only using it for transfers, and set-up a seperate cash ISA for the new year's allowance.

However, this is where I get confused. I'm presuming that when you open an ISA to transfer funds into, you need to do that transfer as part of the opening process. So I can transfer the year's balance across, but when the interest comes in a month later I'd like to transfer that across seperately.

Is that possible?

Thanks,
Scampi

bsms1147

When you transfer the old funds the interest will be calculated up to that point in time, credited, and transferred with the rest of the money.

Scampi

Thank you so much for clarifying that - and only minutes after I posted! Very good to know - thank you. It was an easy-access ISA so I'm presuming I'll also not get penalised with a reduction of rates at all, outside of the pro-rata of course.

Scampi

Also to note that I've since done my research - and it's actually March when historically the best deals are available - as banks try to capitalise on last minute savers mopping up their 2013/14 allowance before it's too late. Who said the early bird gets the worm?

ChopperST

Scampi wrote: »

Also to note that I've since done my research - and it's actually March when historically the best deals are available - as banks try to capitalise on last minute savers mopping up their 2013/14 allowance before it's too late. Who said the early bird gets the worm?

Those times are long gone I'm afraid. Still the QE money washing around so there's no need to offer competitive savings rates.

March / April's ISA rates will be sub-inflation IMHO.

Scampi

Ah, did wonder - the article I read was from Jan 2012 I think. I'll keep an eye on them nonetheless and realistically we'll get a feel for 14/15 rates before you know it. A colleague at work said the 123 Santander account is better at 3% before tax - but the reality is that whilst that's competitive with the returns you'll get on most ISAs, it's a shame to miss out on building up an ISA nest-egg over the years and hopefully at some point seeing higher interest rates, tax free, on a relatively substantial balance.