ISA moved to another acc - can I open another ISA this tax year

cloo

I hated the user experience of my previous Cash ISA, plus there was barely any interest and I didn't have much left in it, so I closed the account in May and moved the remaining cash to an existing bank account, intending to open a better ISA if I improved my saving position some time in the future.


It so happens I have unexpectedly now received a fairly large sum most of which I'd like to put in an ISA... but I'm wondering whether I will be allowed to open another ISA this tax year? I know you can move between ISAs, I've done it several times , but given the various limitations around them I wondered if it might be verboten to close one, move money elsewhere, then open another in the same tax year, as presumably otherwise this might be a way around the annual limit that you can put in.

eskbanker

Did you pay any new money into the old account between 6 April [2018] and closure in May? If not then you still have the full £20K annual allowance and free rein as to where you put it....

And are you sure that a cash ISA is the best place for your money anyway, as opposed to other accounts that pay better interest, or S&S ISAs for longer term money?

cloo

Thanks. No, pretty sure nothing was added to it in that time or possibly the last year. I agree ISA may not be best place - in fact I plan to invest a few K in something longer term, maybe an ethical investment fund of some kind. We're likely to need a quarter or so of the money in two years, and I want to keep about a third as accessible savings, but could do something with the rest.

Reed_Richards

cloo wrote: »

I wondered if it might be verboten to close one, move money elsewhere, then open another in the same tax year, as presumably otherwise this might be a way around the annual limit that you can put in.

I don't see how that would get around the £20k limit. You can have millions of pound in an ISA or ISAs if you had invested very successfully in the past. But this tax year you cannot deposit more than £20k of new money into an ISA. Any deposit that isn't by means of an ISA transfer counts as new money.