Old cash ISA can be split? Limits?

bowlhead99

ANGLICANPAT said:

   Eco-Miser,  havent really done my research thoroughly yet to take on board precise charges , ( Id just presumed  HL was free to hold  IT's for eg although maybe its only for BG transfers) and I quite like their customer service,   but  if your eg. is the case , then yes  , Id probably be better  with just the one . Will be doing more homework.  Thanks all. 

The 'free to hold ITs at HL' is only if you're holding them in an 'unwrapped' general investment account (they call it a 'fund and share' account); if you want to hold in an ISA you have a percentage basis but capped at a reasonably low amount. The exception would just be in some cases where a fund manager is no longer offering their own ISAs direct and encourages people to move to HL's service and HL will offer a deal on the fees (usually temporarily) to ensure people aren't discouraged from moving across and trying their service.

If you are already doing some ISA  investment on a different platform which wouldn't have much of an incremental cost for holding another couple of ITs, there's no point buying HL's service to start paying them a fee for holding the ITs, even if it's a relatively nominal £45 a year.

The counterpoint is that if you expect to need access to the value at short notice it can be useful to have a portion of your money with an alternate provider just in case there is a temporary problem at ISA Manager A, it may be handy to still be able to access the assets at ISA Manager B, as it's unlikely they would both suffer major disaster or fraud at the same time. If you already have lots of ready cash or other liquid assets outside the S&S ISA then probably no need to pay the extra £45 a year for that 'insurance'.

badger09

ANGLICANPAT said:

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badger 09 - I was thinking that it would be   filling a form to authorize each new platform to request transfer of half the  BS maturity cash to them   and then when each had its cash,  straight away I'd  buy two new funds (on each platform) with it . That doesnt sound like a good idea in the light of what youve said? Are  you suggesting it would leave less scope for error ,  to leave half the maturity cash in an instant ISA with the BS  and deal with each platform one at a time  ? (Or maybe was it deal with both platforms at a time , but only buy one fund at a time , the second one once first properly in place and correct?)

That is what I would avoid. Do one at a time because you won't actually know what the final balance on your cash ISA will be until the existing provider transfers it. The addition of even a few £ interest could screw the whole thing up. My advice would be (if cash ISA provider allows xfer out of part) to get one S&S ISA provider to transfer a round figure of approx half, if you wish. Then when that's arrived, ask 2nd provider to transfer balance.

ANGLICANPAT

Bowlhead thanks .  Badger point taken thanks .  In the light of various advice above , Im going to stick to the one platform  , so hopefully things will be straightforward .. 

ANGLICANPAT

Apologies for resurrecting this again , but  I'd like to clarify a point that has just occurred  to me please .   Ive opened my Iweb account now , and transfers in from back years  are in hand , spread out a bit as suggested .   Doing just  two funds . mainly  HSBC global  , and  probably bit of  Impax  for the other one  as  a little extra 'green'  .  Anyway I  wondered if  s/s isa  are the same as cash ones in as much as they can lapse if you miss paying into them  one year ?  If I  want  to  pay  the whole £20k allowance into  HSBC  next year , but the following year  choose to  divide  further £20k  between  the two funds. Would I have to do extra paperwork or pay any charge  before being able to add to  Impax again? 

cattie

Even if you failed to pay any money into a S&S isa during one tax year, it would still be 'active' in that the following tax year you can add any amount up to the limit allowed, whether in existing funds you hold, or new ones you might wish to invest in.  You'd only be paying the trading fee for the deposits, ie with iweb, £5 per trade to buy into a fund & no paperwork involved as you already have an account with them.

Another_Saver

ANGLICANPAT said:

Apologies for resurrecting this again , but  I'd like to clarify a point that has just occurred  to me please .   Ive opened my Iweb account now , and transfers in from back years  are in hand , spread out a bit as suggested .   Doing just  two funds . mainly  HSBC global  , and  probably bit of  Impax  for the other one  as  a little extra 'green'  .  Anyway I  wondered if  s/s isa  are the same as cash ones in as much as they can lapse if you miss paying into them  one year ? You would miss that year's £20k allowance if you didn't add any money in but whatever's in there would just stay there, don't know what you mean by lapse.
 If I  want  to  pay  the whole £20k allowance into  HSBC  next year , but the following year  choose to  divide  further £20k  between  the two funds. Would I have to do extra paperwork or pay any charge  before being able to add to  Impax again? 

No you just pay the money in, buy £10k of the HSBC fund and £10k of Impax (or however much of each fund you want). Once the money is in the ISA you can do what you want - buy funds, sell funds, leave it as cash etc. 

ANGLICANPAT

Brilliant cattie  thank you.   That should make life simpler . 

ANGLICANPAT

  Another Saver  .    ----       I  had this quote from  Nat West   in mind  and wasnt sure if   s/s the same.   " If you haven't deposited money into your ISA for a full tax year, and you want to pay into it again, you will need to reactivate your account." Some places refer to it as being lapsed it would seem .  Ive just  realized now  it wouldnt affect   my funds , because  they are both in the same ISA wrapper  which I keep forgetting  , so whichever I funded wouldn't matter .  (Im a bit slow realizing these things  lol ! )  It would seem  from answers given too , that with s/s  funds it wouldnt matter anyway even if I didnt fund either in a tax year , I could still  fund the following  year without having to re-activate or re-do anything .   

Another_Saver

ANGLICANPAT said:

  Another Saver  .    ----       I  had this quote from  Nat West   in mind  and wasnt sure if   s/s the same.   " If you haven't deposited money into your ISA for a full tax year, and you want to pay into it again, you will need to reactivate your account." Some places refer to it as being lapsed it would seem .  Ive just  realized now  it wouldnt affect   my funds , because  they are both in the same ISA wrapper  which I keep forgetting  , so whichever I funded wouldn't matter .  (Im a bit slow realizing these things  lol ! )  It would seem  from answers given too , that with s/s  funds it wouldnt matter anyway even if I didnt fund either in a tax year , I could still  fund the following  year without having to re-activate or re-do anything .   

I haven't heard of having to do this with S&S ISAs. With iWeb you open the account, stick your £20k in, buy whatever funds/ETFs/stocks etc. you want and that's it. No "reactivating", you just leave it and let it (hopefully) grow, that sounds like something you might have used to have to do with the more old fashioned ISA providers but I haven't heard of it. Your iWeb account will just sit there waiting for you.

Aceace

Another_Saver said:

ANGLICANPAT said:

  Another Saver  .    ----       I  had this quote from  Nat West   in mind  and wasnt sure if   s/s the same.   " If you haven't deposited money into your ISA for a full tax year, and you want to pay into it again, you will need to reactivate your account." Some places refer to it as being lapsed it would seem .  Ive just  realized now  it wouldnt affect   my funds , because  they are both in the same ISA wrapper  which I keep forgetting  , so whichever I funded wouldn't matter .  (Im a bit slow realizing these things  lol ! )  It would seem  from answers given too , that with s/s  funds it wouldnt matter anyway even if I didnt fund either in a tax year , I could still  fund the following  year without having to re-activate or re-do anything .   

I haven't heard of having to do this with S&S ISAs. With iWeb you open the account, stick your £20k in, buy whatever funds/ETFs/stocks etc. you want and that's it. No "reactivating", you just leave it and let it (hopefully) grow, that sounds like something you might have used to have to do with the more old fashioned ISA providers but I haven't heard of it. Your iWeb account will just sit there waiting for you.

From my experience (tens of isa accounts over all 3 types) the vast majority, if not all, do require an account to be reactivated if you want to pay new subscriptions in and you didn't pay any in in the previous tax year. It's no hassle though, you just tick a box and click a button to confirm that you wish to make new subscriptions in the current tax year. You're really just confirming that you understand that you can't make new subscriptions to more than 1 ISA of the same type in a tax year.