ISA Questions

boomsmitty

In the next few weeks I am planning on opening an account with Vanguard. As I want to begin investing in funds, I want to open a stocks and shares ISA with them.

The issue is, I have an Investment ISA with Barclays Smart Investor. The "portfolio" there consists of one position and a tiny bit of cash I hold for fees. I haven't paid anything into that ISA for 2 years.

Will I be able to simple open a new stocks and shares ISA with Vanguard as we've just ticked over into a new tax year for ISA's?

Or should I sell my position at Barclays and transfer the ISA to Vanguard and just use that as a base? I just want to start afresh but don't want to be faffing around too much transferring things. Ideally I'd just like to start up with Vanguard and then later this year sell my remaining position I hold with Barclays SI and close that account.

Also, who knows/keeps track of your ISA's? I mean, who would stop you from opening multiple stocks and shares ISA's a year? Just curious, because I din't realise that until this morning.

Thanks

droopsnoot

Now that you're in a new tax year, you can just open a new ISA if you want to. It's up to you whether you want to take out what you have in Barclays as well, or just leave it there. I'm not sure of the mechanism of transferring holdings in a S&S ISA to another provider.

When you open an ISA, you are asked for your NI number, which I believe is used to report the transaction to HMRC so that anything outside of the rules can be detected. Part of the act of opening a new ISA includes some text that you sign to confirm you haven't opened another of the same type in the same year.

There's a thread ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4948628/stocks-shares-isas ) in the "ISAs and tax-free" sub-board ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18 ) that has a lot of questions and answers on S&S ISAs. I must have a look there again as I want to get some of mine out of the Nationwide / Aegon platform now we're into a new year. I always leave it too late at the end of the year and end up opening a cash ISA just to use the allowance.

ColdIron

boomsmitty wrote: »

Will I be able to simple open a new stocks and shares ISA with Vanguard as we've just ticked over into a new tax year for ISA's?

Yes

Or should I sell my position at Barclays and transfer the ISA to Vanguard and just use that as a base? I just want to start afresh but don't want to be faffing around too much transferring things. Ideally I'd just like to start up with Vanguard and then later this year sell my remaining position I hold with Barclays SI and close that account.

It's up to you, previously you have said:

The bottom line is that I want to invest a lump sum of about £5k and top it up every month by about £200. I'm 32 and intend for this to be sat there for about 20 years.

So that will leave you with over £12,000 unused allowance this year. You don't say how much you have with Barclays but if you have more than this you could transfer it if you want or if less just sell up, remove it and add it to your Vanguard subscription

Also, who knows/keeps track of your ISA's?

The ISA managers report your subscriptions to HMRC

boomsmitty

Thanks for the links to the other threads droopsnoot, I will check them out.

Hello ColdIron - The amount in my Barclays SI is about £1k. Hence why I'm inclined to just leave it in there for the time being and not worry about transferring it to Vanguard. It's more about "tidying up" so I think I'll cash it out later in the year and close the ISA I have with them.

Just as long as I can start a new stocks and shares ISA with Vanguard is what matters. Didn't want my Barclays account interfering.

Thanks!