Transfer or cash in mini cash ISA

lo_bush · 20 September 2007 at 1:02PM

Hi it's my first time on this board so treat me gently!!
I have a question relating to a scottish widows mini cash isa.
Both my father in law and mother in law had one of these each and my father in law has recently passed away. Our understanding is that ma has one of two options:
Cash his in or transfer his isa into hers. The value of both isa's are relatively small (less than £1000 each) but obviously a lot to a pensioner.
We were wondering which would be the best option, they were both retired, if that has any implications.
Actually I've just noticed it was a combined isa ,if that makes any difference.
I'm not really up on this sort of thing and wondered if either of these options would reduce the value of it or if there were any other options she should consider.
Sorry if that was a little vague, but as I say I'm not up on these things.
Thanks in advance.

Aegis · 20 September 2007 at 1:20PM

Transfer if at all possible. Transfering keeps the tax-free status of the money, while closing the account loses it, requiring the saver to use their new ISA allowance on their old accounts, which is very inefficient.

cheerfulcat · 20 September 2007 at 2:48PM

Transferring as an ISA is not an option; the ISA status dies with the original owner.

InMyDreams · 20 September 2007 at 4:15PM

But even if it was an option, the inefficiency of it would be irrelevant if the OP's mother was not able to use the rest of her allowance anyway. And the chances are she could get a better interest rate for 'new money' than transferred anyway.