Does transferring an old ISA count as opening a new ISA?

Acremead

Very confused by the Cash ISA small print.....


I have an old Cash ISA with Aldermore @ 1.25% which I want to transfer across to their 1 yr fixed rate Cash ISA @ 1.6%. I rang them today and they told me to go to their web-site, set up a fixed rate ISA (without putting in any funds), then phone them and they will transfer the money across. I've now set up this account, ready to have the 'old' money transferred into it. So far so good.


However, I've just noticed in the small print that you are only allowed to open one Cash ISA per year. Does this count as 'opening an ISA', as I'm not adding any fresh 2015/16 money to it?


I've also got three 'old' Nationwide Cash ISAs (One maturing at the end of July) and I was planning to do the same with these; ie transfer them all into a fixed Nationwide ISA.


Having opened this Aldermore Cash ISA, am I now 'stuck' with it as my only 2015/16 account, even though I haven't put any fresh 2015/16 financial year funds into it? ie am I still free to open a Cash ISA elsewhere to deposit this year's fresh funds or have I only got this one place (Aldermore) to deposit any ISA cash, or transfer old ISA funds, until April 2016??

AndyT678

You're fine. You can "open" many accounts but you can only subscribe to (pay money into) one. As long as all you are doing is transferring previous years' contributions you can do this as many times as you need to.

Since somebody else will almost certainly bring it up anyway: have you looked at interest paying current accounts? 5% in TSB & Nationwide, 4% Lloyds, 3% Tesco & Santander would all beat your 1.6% ISA even for a high rate tax payer.

jimjames

No. Which isn't long enough reply.

But the answer is still no.

Acremead

Thanks for the replies. Yes Andy- I recently opened a Santander account, and fresh savings all go into that. Currently I'm just trying to rationalise the multiple ISA accounts I've accumulated over the years. Not sure yet whether I'll be putting any fresh funds into an ISA this year; and I guess the landscape changes radically soon with the proposed tax free allowance on savings interest.

saintalan

Acremead wrote: »

... Not sure yet whether I'll be putting any fresh funds into an ISA this year;...

Dont forget you have until 5 April 2016 to decide, plenty of folk doing that now.