ISA without National Insurance Number

pcalluk08

Hello, I am an Irish citizen who moved to England in March 2020. Since then, the UK governments stopped issuing national insurance numbers for EU nationals (due to covid, certainly not Brexit related). You can only apply for a NIN if you entered the UK on a visa, like from Australia, America, India, etc. I thought this would be a temporary thing, but it's approaching 12 months now.

• See this page on GOV UK site: apply-national-insurance-number  (I´m too new to post links)

I have cash savings but can't open an investment account in the UK, nor open a private pension, etc. To make matters worse, I no longer meet the domicile rules for Irish investment accounts, so I am stuck with a large pot of cash earning 0.05% interest in Ireland.

Question: Is there any institution that will allow me to open an ISA without my national insurance number? Or any suggestions on how I could invest in ETFs etc while waiting for my NIN? My wife is not from the EU and recently received her residency permit. She will receive her NIN within the next 6 weeks.
The GOV website suggests it is possible to open an ISA without a NIN, but 3 different banks have turned me down. It says here the ISA manager can create my account with a dummy QQ9999999A NIN.

• See this page on GOV UK site: how-to-open-an-isa-as-an-isa-manager

Alexland

Yes according to the below ISA manager guidance it is possible for a manager to accept an application for most types of ISA from someone without a NI number but I don't think there is a list anywhere of which managers if any choose to allow this so I guess you will just have to work through various ISA managers in order of preference checking with them. I suspect most if not all managers want neat records in their systems so will not allow this.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/information-you-need-from-investors-when-they-apply-for-an-isa

"Applications must contain the investor’s:

• full name - which does not have to include a middle name or initial - so an application showing Mr John Joseph Bloggs, Mr John J Bloggs or Mr John Bloggs is acceptable but Mr J J Bloggs or Mr Bloggs is not
• permanent residential address, including postcode
• national insurance number, or, for a cash, a stocks and share, or an innovative finance ISA, the manager may accept confirmation from the investor that he or she does not have one (ISA managers should provide a 9 character box to accommodate the format of the National Insurance number - QQ123456C - this does not apply to Lifetime ISAs where a national insurance number must be provided
• date of birth (ISA managers should provide an 8 character box so that the investor provides the date in the format DDMMYYYY)"

pcalluk08

Thank you for the quick answer Alexland. I've tried three providers, but no joy. The call center people seem to be reading from a manual and won't escalate my queries. I am new to UK and ISAs, so am at a disadvantage when talking on the telephone.
Would you have any suggestions about ISA managers I could try? I had planned to get something sorted during the children's midterm break. During homeschooling, it's difficult to find the time to make a phone call. 

Alexland

pcalluk08 said:

Would you have any suggestions about ISA managers I could try?

If you are looking to invest in exchange traded assets such as ETFs rather that OEICs it might be worth sending an email asking Jarvis X-O who always seem to have skilled customer service people.

https://www.x-o.co.uk/isa-account.html

enquiries@x-o.co.uk