Confused. How many stock and share isa account can you have??

Cisco001

i had few thousands pounds sitting in funds in stock and share isa which open 5 - 6 years ago in Halifax.

I want to sell 1 of the funds haven't been doing too good.
Then, I will invest another few thousands pounds, probably for min 3 years as Cash ISA rate is really bad.

The question is
Do I have to stick with Halifax? They don't have wide options of funds.
Can I open new stock & share isa with another platform? Do I need to transfer my existing out?

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

You are allowed precisely one per tax year.

You are not restricted to maintaining ISAs with different providers as long as you adhere to the rule above.

Therefore, in answer to your questions :
- Do I have to stick with Halifax?
No.
-Can I open new stock & share isa with another platform?
Yes, as long as any other ISA you hold was not opened in this tax year.

A tax year being a year that starts on 6th of April every year, if you didn't know already.

Archi_Bald

Cisco001 wrote: »

Do I have to stick with Halifax? They don't have wide options of funds

They have the same range of funds as all other major platforms. Which funds are you after?

Porcupine

TakeCareOfThePennies wrote: »

You are allowed precisely one per tax year.

No you aren't.

For the current tax year's money, you're allowed precisely one. So if you put cash into a S&S ISA from 6 April 2015, it all has to go to the same one. You're allowed to transfer that to a new provider, but you have to transfer all the money you paid in since 6 April. So it means, at any point during the year, your money from this year is in one place and one place only.

For previous tax years, you're allowed as many as you like. You can slice and dice your money however you want, transferring money from old S&S ISAs and old cash ISAs here and there. You can have a hundred S&S ISAs if you want.

So, essentially, when the clock strikes midnight on 5th/6th April each year, all restrictions on how many accounts you can have are lifted, for the money you have in there. And then any new money you pay in after that date is subject to the new year's restrictions, until the next time 6th April comes around.

It ought to be said that having a hundred S&S ISAs isn't a great plan as you'll probably pay lots of fees, but there's nothing in the rules to stop that.

jimjames

TakeCareOfThePennies wrote: »

You are allowed precisely one per tax year.

You are not restricted to maintaining ISAs with different providers as long as you adhere to the rule above.

Therefore, in answer to your questions :
- Do I have to stick with Halifax?
No.
-Can I open new stock & share isa with another platform?
Yes, as long as any other ISA you hold was not opened in this tax year.

A tax year being a year that starts on 6th of April every year, if you didn't know already.

For someone who supposedly holds so much in cash you seem to be either confused about ISA regulations or unable to explain them clearly.

As per the thread on cash ISAs you can only pay into one cash ISA and one S&S ISA per year but you can open any number and transfer money into them from an old ISA

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

jimjames,

I explained the answer perfectly clearly given the question asked.

The poster also stated " Do I need to transfer my existing out?" ... not "Can I" !

He doesn't need to transfer the existing out, thus all this talk of transfers is irrelevant.

redux

The existing Halifax ISA could stay as it is, with a fund sold within it, then invested into another fund, still within it.

However, as you say they don't have a wide choice, you could transfer that old account to another provider, without affecting this year's subscription entitlement.

If it works out that a transfer would create large charges, and if you weren't planning to use up all this years allowance otherwise, it might be worth comparing the charges effect to instead withdrawing some from that account wrapper and starting a new account elsewhere using this year's subscription allowance.