Isa query

Gramski

My 5yr fixed rate isa just matured with Virginmoney. I instructed them to put the money into their new 5yr isa (albeit at the now lower rate). I suppose this means I have effectively opened up a new cash isa. I have a Leeds BS isa maturing next month. My understanding is that you cannot open more than one isa per year, so what happens when the Leeds BS isa matures - will I not be able to ask to put the matured money into their best fixed rate isa?

Zorillo

No, you can put that money (and the Virgin money) in any ISA you want. It's already "in" the ISA wrapper. So you will be able to open a new Leeds ISA to put your existing Leeds money in even though you've already got a Virgin ISA this year.

Any new money that is not already in the wrapper is limited to one cash ISA per year. So if you put new money in with the maturing Leeds (or Virgin) money, you'd then be tied to that ISA for the rest of the year (unless you transferred elsewhere).

Alexland

Yup you can open lots of cash ISAs and move money around between them provided you only contribute new money into one cash ISA wrapper per tax year (and keep the current year contributions together if you decide to change your current year provider).

Iandunsmore

I have a 2 year fixed isa with virgin money paying 1.51% interest annually. The first year interest has just appeared in my account. This was £144.38. On £10,000 isa. Surely, I should have got £151. Can someone shed any light on this

Smellyonion

Interest is calculated daily on most accounts. You probably didn't have 10k in the account for the entire period.

Iandunsmore

Am I allowed to withdraw the interest accrued so far?

eskbanker

Iandunsmore wrote: »

Am I allowed to withdraw the interest accrued so far?

Under ISA rules it's always possible to withdraw money but there will typically be a penalty for doing so from a fixed-term account.

The terms of their current 2-year fixed product state:

Any withdrawals made within the fixed rate period are subject to a charge equivalent to 90 days' loss of interest on the amount withdrawn.

so you'd need to check the Ts & Cs of the one you signed up to last year to see what the equivalent penalty is....

However, those account terms also state:

Interest can be;

• Added to your Fixed Rate Cash E-ISA.
• Transferred into any of our accounts (as long as you can add to the account).
• Paid into an account with another bank or building society.

so if you specify in advance that you want access to the interest then you can nominate somewhere else rather than having it added to the balance.

Note also that they say that "Annual interest is paid on 5 August" so your first year's interest payment may not actually be a full year but simply the period to 5 August, which may explain the small shortfall you refer to.