MSE News: Budget 2015: ISAs to become fully flexible with withdrawals allowed

masonic

Ashen wrote: »

They only mention that you can do it with current years subscription, and that you need to replace previous years subscription before a transfer happens. Nothing at all mentioned about previous year withdrawals after the transfer.

Seems to be implicit in their statement that if you must replace all previous year subscriptions before you can transfer out to another provider, that they must have permitted you to withdraw them in the first place.

liamcov

Coventry - Yes (source: web page)
Nationwide - Yes, from April (source: email)
National Counties - Plan to offer it later in the tax year but not now (email)
Lloyds - I've seen here that they do plan to offer it (ASAP?) (source:forum)
Virgin - Easy Access 1.1% only (source:forum)

Santander - No. (forum)
Cambridge - No. (email)

Does anyone have an updated list as on NW Flexclusive ISA it says:

You can’t replace the money you withdraw in the same tax year, unless the amount you wish to replace is within your unused ISA allowance

Also the Coventry one doesn't seem to allow transfers in?

goRt

liamcov wrote: »

Does anyone have an updated list as on NW Flexclusive ISA it says:

You can’t replace the money you withdraw in the same tax year, unless the amount you wish to replace is within your unused ISA allowance

Also the Coventry one doesn't seem to allow transfers in?

There is no ISA flexibility until the new tax year on 6/April/16, expect the Nationwide rules to update after that

Gordon_the_Moron

If I had this tax year's ISA money in 1 account (account 1 - offering flexibility after April 6th)

Open a new ISA tomorrow (account 2) with another provider and pay into it.

What happens if I withdraw from account 1? I'd be breaking the ISA rules by paying back into it as you can only pay into 1 per tax year, however the flexible allowance can't be transferred between accounts so I can't pay the money into account 2.

jamesd

You can pay into an unlimited number of accounts in a single tax year, provided you have withdrawn at least the same amount of past year money from each of them. What you can't do is have new money from the tax year with more than one provider for each type.

So it's fine to take out past year money and repay past year money because that isn't the restricted current year money.

If you pay that past year money into an account that you haven't withdrawn past year money from it is counted as part of your annual subscription allowance for the year. Use a transfer instead to avoid using the annual allowance. If you do it by mistake just withdraw the money and you'll get back the previously used allowance amount.

If you were to take out current year money you need to replace that into the same account. If you transfer you replace it into the account you transfer the current year money to, not the original one.

MDMD

Looks like Nationwide finally confirmed in writing that they will allow full flexibility:

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/guides/news/articles/2016/04/flexible-isa

From 6th April 2016, you can replace money you’ve withdrawn earlier in the tax year from any Nationwide cash ISAs, without impacting your annual ISA allowance as long as you replace it in the same tax year.

10_66

MDMD wrote: »

Looks like Nationwide finally confirmed in writing that they will allow full flexibility:

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/guides/news/articles/2016/04/flexible-isa

Someone posted earlier in this thread that it only applies to the current year's subscription though, not previous years'.

mrb42

Thanks to everyone posting links from banks who do seem to understand the new flexible ISA rules, and are implementing them!

Just thought I'd post this from the government which does confirm that previous tax years can be withdrawn (although as per other posts, it's up to the provider how flexible they're going to be).

I can't post the link (newbie), but search for "flexible isa hmrc" and open the gov.uk link on
individual-savings-accounts-increasing-flexibility-for-savers

To quote:

"Proposed revisions
The ISA Regulations will be amended by secondary legislation to establish new flexibility that will allow savers to replace cash they have withdrawn from their account earlier in a tax year, without this replacement counting towards the annual ISA subscription limit. This flexibility will be available in relation to both current year and earlier year ISA savings where provided for in the terms and conditions of a ‘flexible ISA’, but will be subject to conditions in certain cases about which ISA provider can accept replacement amounts. ISA providers can offer this flexibility for cash ISAs and also for cash that is held in stocks and shares ISAs."

colsten

The most important thing to keep in mind is:

mrb42 wrote: »

although as per other posts, it's up to the provider how flexible they're going to be

The details will be in the T&Cs of the provider.

mrb42

OK, to get the ball rolling....

Coventry - Yes (source: web page)
Nationwide - Yes, from April (source: email)
National Counties - Plan to offer it later in the tax year but not now (email)
Lloyds - I've seen here that they do plan to offer it (ASAP?) (source:forum)
Virgin - Easy Access 1.1% only (source:forum)

Santander - No. (forum)
Cambridge - No. (email)
Originally posted by gwapenut

MDMD wrote: »

The Skipton Building Society is offering the flexible features for past year money and transfers from S&S ISA for their variable rate ISA products. Verified by phone last week.
Originally posted by jamesd
Although it would be helpful if their website explicitly stated that they allow previous year withdrawals

ThriftyFelicity wrote: »

TSB - Yes (source: page 3 of

10_66 wrote: »

West Brom - No, source: phone call
first direct - No, source: secure message
Kent - No, source: email
RBS/Nat West - No, source: newspaper article


Halifax - Yes on easy access, source: (can't remember)


Some of those offering flexible status are only offering on certain ISAs (ie, not fixed rate), whilst others are offering it on both easy and fixed.

Barclays - Yes on Instant Cash Isa, source: Their website

Updates from above:
Lloyds now say some accounts will be flexible on their website
Santander explicitly say they won't do flexible accounts on their website
NatWest explicitly say their ISAs are not flexible in their T&Cs

Apologies for the first poster lack of links.

To reiterate other posts, everything depends on the T&C of the ISA you subscribe to, so you have to ensure that you check the terms for yourself - nothing here is advice, and the info found out and recorded on this forum may well change over time.