Tell us you cash ISA questions

Alexland

Becks07 that's fine it doesn't matter when the bonus is paid you can still add £4k per tax year. If you open it with £1 remember you can only add £3999 or the whole £4k contribution might be rejected.

Eleanorgrace

I currently do all of my banking with barclays and previously had money in an instant cash isa which is only giving 0.60% interest. I have left it in there as now I pay into a 'help to buy' isa.

I am wondering if i can transfer my barclays instant isa money into a higher interest account as I'm already paying into the help to buy isa?

I would like easy access to my money but unsure what my options are.

eskbanker

Eleanorgrace wrote: »

I currently do all of my banking with barclays and previously had money in an instant cash isa which is only giving 0.60% interest. I have left it in there as now I pay into a 'help to buy' isa.

I am wondering if i can transfer my barclays instant isa money into a higher interest account as I'm already paying into the help to buy isa?

I would like easy access to my money but unsure what my options are.

Assuming that all the money in your instant cash ISA is from contributions prior to the 2018/19 tax year then yes, you can transfer it to any other provider accepting transfers (not all do). Pick something with a better rate than 0.6% (not difficult!) from https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa/ or https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/401374/cash-isas-the-best-currently-available-list and follow the new provider's transfer process.

That's assuming you want to keep all the money under the ISA umbrella for the long term - if you're saving for a first-time property purchase (implied by the HTB ISA) and would be planning to use all the rest of the ISA money towards this, then there may be better options such as current accounts or regular savers, see https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account/ and https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/ for further details.

One option would be to open a Lifetime ISA, which allows higher annual contributions than HTB and therefore more free government money towards your first property, but it's not easy access (without penalties) if that's important to you....

Eleanorgrace

Thank you, I have just checked and I transferred another isa into the instant isa I'm talking about but haven't contributed to either of them as I've been paying into the help to buy isa since May 2017.
Is that still okay to transfer? All I'm worried about is the paying into one isa in one tax year, I left the current instant isa where it was for so long because I was never told I could move it, I just assumed as I wanted to continue paying into the HTB that I would have to leave it where it was.

Thank you for your reply x

Alexland

You are fine to ask a new provider to transfer cash ISA(s) that you have not contributed into during the current tax year.

You can open and hold many cash ISAs - the rule is that you can only contribute new money into one cash ISA per tax year. Unless it is a provider which operates a split cash ISA wrapper.

Alex

sharonmacd

Hi
I have a current help to buy ISA with Barclays that I started 2 years ago. Not sure when I will be ready am I better just saving up to the maximum £12,000 in the meantime or should I be looking at other products for a better interest return?

Grahame151

How and where do i ask a question

Grahame151

I have an ISA with the full £20k at 1.44% after next month I will transfer it to a better one but does that transfer include the interest or am I limited again to £20k

veryintrigued

Grahame151 wrote: »

I have an ISA with the full £20k at 1.44% after next month I will transfer it to a better one but does that transfer include the interest or am I limited again to £20k

The transfer can include the interest or indeed many years of interest as long as it's always remained within the ISA wrapper.

eskbanker

sharonmacd wrote: »

I have a current help to buy ISA with Barclays that I started 2 years ago. Not sure when I will be ready am I better just saving up to the maximum £12,000 in the meantime or should I be looking at other products for a better interest return?

There are a number of possible ways in which you can improve your return, including a Lifetime ISA (if you're not buying for at least a year), plus current accounts and regular savers, with higher interest rates for capped amounts.

Check out http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account and https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/