Can you avoid isa transfer fee with cash

Jonathano

I have a Hargreaves landsdown isa. They charge £25 to transfer the isa, but no charge to withdraw cash. Does anybody know if there any way I can withdraw cash, but keep it as an isa, and the put that cash in a cash isa

masonic

If H-L offered flexible withdrawals, you'd have been able to withdraw your current year subscriptions and move them to any other type of ISA. But H-L does not offer flexible withdrawals, so your only option is to pay the £25 (+VAT I believe) to transfer.

Jonathano

I thought as much,,,,,no vat at least, but I hate paying fees if I can find a way around it...I need an isa current account, or feeder account

colsten

Jonathano wrote: »

I have a Hargreaves landsdown isa. They charge £25 to transfer the isa, but no charge to withdraw cash. Does anybody know if there any way I can withdraw cash, but keep it as an isa, and the put that cash in a cash isa

The minute you withdraw cash from an ISA, it loses its ISA wrapper. Can I ask, why do you want to transfer your ISA?

Jonathano wrote: »

I thought as much,,,,,no vat at least, but I hate paying fees if I can find a way around it...I need an isa current account, or feeder account

There's never been any VAT for savings or investment accounts. When you say you need "an ISA current account, or a feeder account" - what do you mean by that? What is it you are trying to achieve?

colsten

masonic wrote: »

If H-L offered flexible withdrawals, you'd have been able to withdraw your current year subscriptions and move them to any other type of ISA. But H-L does not offer flexible withdrawals, so your only option is to pay the £25 (+VAT I believe) to transfer.

Out of interest, what are flexible withdrawals and who offers them? I know about flexible ISAs but this flexible withdrawals stuff seems to involve self-transfers of ISA money to other ISAs and is a new one on me.

masonic

colsten wrote: »

There's never been any VAT for savings or investment accounts. When you say you need "an ISA current account, or a feeder account" - what do you mean by that? What is it you are trying to achieve?

The VAT is in reference to my post. In fact, it's the account closure fee that's subject to VAT, not the transfer fee. I'm not sure how one is considered a service and the other isn't. I can't remember whether you get charged the transfer fee AND account closure fee when transferring - I bailed from H-L before the closure fee came in.

colsten wrote: »

Out of interest, what are flexible withdrawals and who offers them? I know about flexible ISAs but this flexible withdrawals stuff seems to involve self-transfers of ISA money to other ISAs and is a new one on me.

They are one and the same. The terminology used by HMRC is that money withdrawn from a flexible ISAs is referred to as a 'flexible withdrawal' and money paid back in is referred to as a 'replacement subscription'.

Withdraw current year money from a flexible ISA and within the same tax year you can repay it into the same ISA or an ISA of a different type, subject to the usual rules and limits. For this purpose, current year money flexibly withdrawn is treated as never having been subscribed, although it's not clear whether the edge case in which you flexibly withdraw all of the current year subscriptions and subscribe them to a different ISA of the same type is valid. For a single cash -> cash transfer this would be covered by the self-transfer loophole that's existed for many years, but S&S -> S&S might be considered invalid. Clearly for any flexible withdrawal of previous year subscriptions, replacement subscriptions can only be made into the same ISA.

Jonathano

I have a Stocks and Shares ISA, that has made a lot of money over previous years when the market was good, but over the past few months has been loosing money, and I feel that until brexit is sorted and trump has gone, I would rather just have a cash isa.......
But also I have money saved as non isa, and so I would like to have the tax benefits of an isa on my cash, and then, when the market improves, have an normal stocks and Shares account, as thee is less tax to pay on profits from that

masonic

Jonathano wrote: »

I have a Stocks and Shares ISA, that has made a lot of money over previous years when the market was good, but over the past few months has been loosing money, and I feel that until brexit is sorted and trump has gone, I would rather just have a cash isa.......
But also I have money saved as non isa, and so I would like to have the tax benefits of an isa on my cash, and then, when the market improves, have an normal stocks and Shares account, as thee is less tax to pay on profits from that

Sounds like you are trying to time the market to me. Whatever you know about Brexit and Trump will have been priced into the market already, so the right time exit was before the outcome of the Brexit vote was known and before Mr Trump was elected.

Stockmarkets (as measured by the FTSE World Index) have risen 20% since Trump was elected and have risen 45% since the Brexit vote took place. Being invested in international markets has been a great hedge against the consequence of the latter on the value of the pound.

So both have essentially been good for stockmarket returns from the perspective UK investor. What is different now?

Jonathano

I guess I started investing in isa funds in 2015, and had been making 20% a year, but this last few month the funds I have chosen do not seem to have performed to well, I’m probably about even over the last year...looking at the FTSE global there is a similar pattern..
I did not want to risk my money, and peace of mind is valuable to me, and I was beginning to fret a little. So I have decided to play it safe for a time.
I’m trying to post a graph of the ftse global, but it shows that sort of trend, 50% in three years, but only 10% of that in the last year.
Thanks for your advice though
I’m off out to enjoy the sun now...

masonic

Jonathano wrote: »

I guess I started investing in isa funds in 2015, and had been making 20% a year, but this last few month the funds I have chosen do not seem to have performed to well, I’m probably about even over the last year...looking at the FTSE global there is a similar pattern..
I did not want to risk my money, and peace of mind is valuable to me, and I was beginning to fret a little. So I have decided to play it safe for a time.
I’m trying to post a graph of the ftse global, but it shows that sort of trend, 50% in three years, but only 10% of that in the last year.
Thanks for your advice though
I’m off out to enjoy the sun now...

Sounds like you were extremely lucky. With those returns, you'd have been in high risk investments.

The trouble with looking at a chart and what has happened over the past 2-3 years is that it tells you nothing about what will happen in the next few years. But a major crash is a distinct possibility (it always is).

In any case, based on your statement above, I think your decision to move to cash is sensible, and you shouldn't consider investing again until you are prepared to risk your money - and only then in investments where the loss potential matches the loss you could tolerate without losing your peace of mind.

Jonathano

Not really high risks, just ones picked from HL. Funds like Lindsell train global equity, standard life small companies...But I guess I was lucky..