MSE Newsletter ISA confusing statement

Starsky_4

In the last MSE Newsletter there was a link to an ISA article "Best Mini-cash ISA" (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1077487692,12362,)

Towards the end there was this sentence "If you already have a mini-cash ISA either from this or previous years don’t assume you’re stuck with it."

Surely if you have one from this year you are stuck with it as you can only open one Mini-Cash ISA per year. I whole heartedly agree about previous years and have just transferred all my previous year's ISAs to Abbeys Postal ISA (Issue 1) - however as for this year I thought I was "stuck with it".

Any clarification from the MSEs out there ?

grumbler

You can transfer current year ISA too.

See 'ISA Transfer FAQ' above

Starsky_4

Thanks for the clarification - now I've read more it makes sense, I guess its the £3k limit that is important. What is odd, however, are some of the statements on Websites such as A&Ls: (http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/directisauserguide/index.asp?page=page2) where they say in the who can apply section, "you can apply if You have not subscribed and will not subscribe to a Maxi ISA or another Mini Cash ISA in the same tax year that you subscribe to this Direct ISA"

To me they are suggesting that if you have opened one mini ISA already but want to transfer to theirs cos of a better rate you can't. Based on ISA Transfer FAQ you of course can ...

Are they doing themselves out of potential business ?

jimclark1967

It's because you're not "subscribing", you're "transferring."

The ISA regulations are unnecessarily complicated and leads to a large number of people deciding that ISAs are some kind of "advanced" product not for ordinary people.

The banks could certainly do more to explain things clearly but the underlying problem is the regulations

lipidicman

JimClark 'The ISA regulations are unnecessarily complicated and leads to a large number of people deciding that ISAs are some kind of "advanced" product not for ordinary people.'

Yeah, I missed out on the first year as I didnt understand at the time that it was £3k per year (I'm so ashamed now, but I was only a student and they were brand new!), I just thought - I'll get one next year. Daggnabbit!

Anyway - to the OP - well done for reading the T&C's - you wouldn't believe how many people dont. Hope all is clear now!