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Help to Buy ISA guide
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Hi Ed-1
I know that thanks - what I meant was maybe we should defer paying in until she is eligible for LISA and just carry on paying into JISA for now. Too many choices0 -
Hi can anyone clarify the rules with regard to the difference (if any) between subscribing to a cash isa and just opening a new one?
I've got a halifax help to buy isa (3.5%) and a santander cash isa (0.5%) and I'd just like to transfer the santander isa to a higher paying provider such as virgin money(1.01%) without paying any additional funds in to it, whilst keeping and contributing to my halifax HTB isa. Is this allowed or would opening the virgin isa class as a subscription?
The virgin isa claims a min. £1 to open but is it ok for that to be the transfer? I'm not looking to make additional payments to the cash-only isa to comply with the HTB rules. I just want to transfer my cash isa to a better rate and keep paying in to my existing HTB isa. Is that allowed or not?
I'm aware of the split-isas but those rates currently mean I'm better off with my current isas than switching to a split.0 -
You could do this providing you only transferred existing ISAs and added no new money.
The Virgin ISA that I have just looked at accepts transfers but also requires at least £1 of "new" money so you cannot do this.
Would you not be better of with interest paying current accounts?0 -
Hi can anyone clarify the rules with regard to the difference (if any) between subscribing to a cash isa and just opening a new one?
I've got a halifax help to buy isa (3.5%) and a santander cash isa (0.5%) and I'd just like to transfer the santander isa to a higher paying provider such as virgin money(1.01%) without paying any additional funds in to it, whilst keeping and contributing to my halifax HTB isa. Is this allowed or would opening the virgin isa class as a subscription?
The virgin isa claims a min. £1 to open but is it ok for that to be the transfer? I'm not looking to make additional payments to the cash-only isa to comply with the HTB rules. I just want to transfer my cash isa to a better rate and keep paying in to my existing HTB isa. Is that allowed or not?
I'm aware of the split-isas but those rates currently mean I'm better off with my current isas than switching to a split.
Subscription = paying new money into the ISA.
You can't make subscriptions to 2 cash ISAs in the same tax year.
However, you can open a new ISA and transfer previous year funds into it without making subscriptions to 2 cash ISAs in the same year. Transferring is not subscribing.0 -
Thanks for the replies guys. Greenglide yes I'm using current accounts as well, but I want to boost the interest I'm getting from my previous years isa without withdrawing it.
So if I can't open a new isa without putting "new" money in then I'm stuck with an active HTB isa and a dormant cash isa? (Unless I use a split-isa)0 -
Thanks for the replies guys. Greenglide yes I'm using current accounts as well, but I want to boost the interest I'm getting from my previous years isa without withdrawing it.
So if I can't open a new isa without putting "new" money in then I'm stuck with an active HTB isa and a dormant cash isa? (Unless I use a split-isa)
You can open a new ISA without putting new money in, although perhaps not the Virgin one (I haven't checked it out but generally if it says it's a £1 minimum balance, you can open it with a nil balance and then transfer in).0 -
Thanks for the replies guys. Greenglide yes I'm using current accounts as well, but I want to boost the interest I'm getting from my previous years isa without withdrawing it.So if I can't open a new isa without putting "new" money in
However, banks sometimes reserve their very best rates for customers who are giving them new money, and sometimes don't even accept transfers in at all on their very highest paying accounts. There are a couple of business reasons for this:
1) If they only accept new money and not transfers in then the most they are going to have in the account is about £15k, and their marketing budgets probably allow them to pay out reasonable-to-good rates on those small amounts of cash. Whereas if you could transfer in old money, they might have to be paying that level of interest on £100k+ which could get expensive.
2) Sometimes they only accept transfers in if you also put in new money - the rationale being if you are actively putting in your new money this year you are perhaps likely to be a sticky customer who will stay with them next year. So maybe they won't mind giving you a decent rate for both your new and transferred funds, because they are winning a proper customer with more and more deposits coming from you in the future. Whereas if you just want somewhere to park your old pile of cash but don't want to give them your new money, it could imply you are just whoring around for the best rate in town and you will probably take that old 'previous year balance' off somewhere else next year.
Like the poster above I haven't actually checked the Virgin offer. But with the various explanations you've been given above hopefully you can look around with a bit more understanding now.0 -
Again thanks for the replies. I've opened a virgin isa and it's gone through without asking for an initial deposit and there's a transfer form to print off and snail-mail in to them, so looks like it should be ok.
Thanks for the help.0 -
According to the Virgin Money site the Defined Access ISA and the Easy Access Cash ISA have a "Minimum to Open" of £1 but it doesnt actually say (at least where I can find it) whether an ISA transfer can be used to meet that condition or whether "new" money is required.0
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