Top Cash ISAs Discussion Area

wdyw

Junier wrote: »

Sooo if I have the following…..

2006-2007 ISA £3600
2007-2008 ISA £3600
2008-2009 ISA £3600
2009-2010 ISA £3600


[FONT=&quot]2010-2011 TFR all the old ISA account balances i.e. 2006 – 2010 into an ISA which takes transfers therefore the balance would be….. £14400 and then you can also use the tax year 2010-2011 to add another 5100 thereby bringing the total upto £19500......[/FONT]

plus the interest from all the previous years (assuming it didn't get transferred out of the ISA)

kad1

Nessie23 wrote: »

You can open the Flexible ISA with "new" money for the 2010/11 tax year, but as you rightly point out it does not accept transfers for previous tax years.
There are other accounts accepting transfers (see MSE's guide
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers ) currently these accounts can give up to 2.75% interest with instant access.

Hope this helps.

thanks nessie. can i transfer last yr's ISA £ into say a current account, and then transfer that £ again into the A&L ISA?

blueberrypie

kad1 wrote: »

thanks nessie. can i transfer last yr's ISA £ into say a current account, and then transfer that £ again into the A&L ISA?

If you do that, the money will count towards your 10/11 allowance - it will be counted as new money. To avoid reducing your 10/11 allowance like that, you must use the ISA transfer procedure, and you are limited to ISAs which allow transfers in.

kad1

forgive me I'm a bit confused. if i've already got the interest rate from 09/10 and now at the start of a new yr want to take all of that £ out and in a roundabout way, put what I can of it into a new ISA what am i losing? Sorry i have read Martin's guide but still not 100% clear...

joey0027

Hi

I wonder whether somebody could give me some advice?

I have ISA's with ING for the full 2008/9 & 2009/10 allowances which have now reverted to 1% as they were opened just over a year ago. I want to get a better rate on these funds & also have the full 2010/11 allowance to deposit. Can I transfer the ING funds to another ISA without depositing any new money & then open a new account such as the Santander 3.2% whish doesn't accept transfers or can transfers only be accepted when new money is used to open? I've thought about transfering the lot to Birmingham Midshires 2.7% ISA but I'm not keen on the operating the account by post.

Any recommendations on the best way of investing?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

blueberrypie

kad1 wrote: »

forgive me I'm a bit confused. if i've already got the interest rate from 09/10 and now at the start of a new yr want to take all of that £ out and in a roundabout way, put what I can of it into a new ISA what am i losing? Sorry i have read Martin's guide but still not 100% clear...

Okay, let's say you've got £3000 in your 09/10 ISA - last year's contribution plus your interest. Now the interest rate has fallen to nearly-nothing, so you want to put it into a different ISA.

Two ways of doing it:

Method 1: Use the ISA transfer procedure to put it into an ISA that *does* accept transfers. Your £3000 starts earning interest in that ISA *but it has not affected your ISA allowance for 10/11 in any way*.

Method 2: Take your £3000 out of the current ISA and put it into a new one, without using the ISA transfer procedure.

With Method 2, as soon as you remove your £3k from the current ISA, it turns back into "new money", as far as HMRC is concerned. So you've:
a) subscribed to a new cash ISA for 10/11, and are no longer allowed to subscribe to another, and,
b) used up part of your 10/11 allowance - you've put £3000 in, so now you can only add another £2100 instead of the £5100 you could have added with Method 1.

So what you're losing is the ability to open a new ISA for 10/11 (in addition to one for your money from 09/10), and a chunk of your 10/11 ISA allowance - and all the tax-free interest that chunk might have earned you over the years.

blueberrypie

joey0027 wrote: »

I have ISA's with ING for the full 2008/9 & 2009/10 allowances which have now reverted to 1% as they were opened just over a year ago. I want to get a better rate on these funds & also have the full 2010/11 allowance to deposit. Can I transfer the ING funds to another ISA without depositing any new money & then open a new account such as the Santander 3.2% whish doesn't accept transfers

Yes, you can. ISAs which accept transfers in will have the option of funding them with transferred money - i.e. no cash deposit required. The new ISA provider will give you a form to complete and return, and then they'll send that form off to the old ISA provider. In the meantime, you can do what you want with your 10/11 allowance.

hostie-b

kad1 wrote: »

forgive me I'm a bit confused. if i've already got the interest rate from 09/10 and now at the start of a new yr want to take all of that £ out and in a roundabout way, put what I can of it into a new ISA what am i losing? Sorry i have read Martin's guide but still not 100% clear...

Hi kad1, In the new tax year 10/11 you can put up to a total of £5100. If you transfer your money from a previous ISA to a new ISA this does not count towards your allowance. So, if you already have £3600 saved, plus interest from tax year 09/10, some new ISAs will allow you to transfer this in and then in the tax year 10/11 put in £5100.

I believe you can choose how much you want to transfer into your new ISA ( I was given this option last year when I moved mine to the Halifax) so if you can decide how much you need from your ISA to spend, just transfer the rest into the new one. This way you're not losing any of your year 10/11 allowance of £5100. This is what I think you were wanting to do?

Just remember that if you deposit money from your 10/11 allowance and then withdraw some you can only put the remainder of your allowance in - so if you put in £3000 but then take out £300. you only have £2100 left to put in for the 10/11 tax year.

You may find, depending where you're thinking of moving to, that you actually cannot transfer in from your old ISA. Just read all the small print and any penalties for withdrawing money, closing and transferring etc.

Hope this all makes sense.
If I've got any information wrong that anyone spots, please let us know. This is my first ever proper post!

joey0027

blueberrypie wrote: »

Yes, you can. ISAs which accept transfers in will have the option of funding them with transferred money - i.e. no cash deposit required. The new ISA provider will give you a form to complete and return, and then they'll send that form off to the old ISA provider. In the meantime, you can do what you want with your 10/11 allowance.

Many thanks for your reply, I am grateful to you.

When an account is opened doesn't it ask for an initial deposit? How would I approach this if I wanted to open the account purely for tranfers from previous years? One of the providers I was looking at, IF, does accept transfers but when running through the application, there is not option to open the account with tranferred funds.

Also what would you recommendations be as to the best places to deposit? Santander, who I have had accounts with for 30 years seems good for new money but I'm unsure the best place for the previous years. I could even put the transferred & new money in a Santander 2.75% ISA & have it all together....good idea or not??

Thanks for all your help.

blueberrypie

joey0027 wrote: »

When an account is opened doesn't it ask for an initial deposit? How would I approach this if I wanted to open the account purely for tranfers from previous years? One of the providers I was looking at, IF, does accept transfers but when running through the application, there is not option to open the account with tranferred funds.

Info for transferring in funds to cash ISAs is at http://www.if.com/savings/transferexisting.aspx - it also says you can apply by telephone, so if you're not sure what you're doing, that might be the best option.

Also what would you recommendations be as to the best places to deposit? Santander, who I have had accounts with for 30 years seems good for new money but I'm unsure the best place for the previous years. I could even put the transferred & new money in a Santander 2.75% ISA & have it all together....good idea or not??

I can't make recommendations - I'm not qualified or licensed to do that - but while I can see the attraction in having it all in one place, I'd rather split it up and make more money :-D So I've thought about how much I need to keep accessible, how long I'm happy to tie up funds for, what my goals are for the next few years, what emergency-funds arrangements I've got, etc, and chosen with all that in mind. As it goes, I've put my new money into the A&L 3.5% Flexible ISA (got in before the rate dropped) and some of my transferred funds into a two-year fix with Halifax, also at 3.5%. I've another ISA maturing in a couple of weeks and haven't yet decided what to do with that.