Fund new Fixed and old Cash ISA in same year

beardiedog

This year I opened a new Fixed ISA with £10,000 with Al Ryan Bank. I also have a 2015/16 Virgin Money Cash ISA plus I upgraded my recently matured Santander Fixed ISA with Santander.

I didn't have the full £15,240 allowance available at the time I opened the fixed ISA, so am I allowed to deposit the balance of £5,240 into my Virgin ISA now or is that it for this year?

I've searched but I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

eskbanker

No, if you've paid £10K of new money into a fixed cash ISA this tax year (with one of the majority of institutions who don't support split ISAs) then you can't put any more new money into any other cash ISA until 6 April 2017. You could put the surplus into a S&S ISA, or fill some high-interest current accounts and/or regular savers if you haven't already....

beardiedog

Thanks, I thought that was the case but wasn't sure.

I've maxed out my 123 account and opened a Santander Regular Saver. I already have several S&S ISAs on the go.

I want to keep some of my savings as liquid as possible for various reasons so don't want to put this pot of money in anything fixed for too long - 1 year max - so will need to spread it around the RS's like you suggest and maybe a notice account. There seems to be very little difference in the rates between 1 year fixed and the 90 day notice accounts.

jimjames

Plenty of other places with better rates than a 123 account for the sorts of sums you're looking at, even more so once the rate drops.

beardiedog

Thanks, but as I said, I need to keep as much money as liquid as possible at the moment hence the need to use easy access accounts.

I couldn't find anything better than the other high interest current accounts paying more than the 123, where I can put it all in the one place.

eskbanker

beardiedog wrote: »

Thanks, but as I said, I need to keep as much money as liquid as possible at the moment hence the need to use easy access accounts.

I couldn't find anything better than the other high interest current accounts paying more than the 123, where I can put it all in the one place.

You could get 5% on nearly all of your £5K in two current accounts, plus 4% on another £5K, and could drip feed into regular savers for 5-6% too - the 123 does indeed have the highest interest cap but if you're happy to spread your ISA money across multiple accounts, why not your non-ISA funds too? The 123's interest rate of 1.5% in a few weeks time is going to be pretty uncompetitive....

beardiedog

Thanks very much for your advice eskbanker