ISA TRANSFER

stevie68uk

I have just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. my ife and i have always had seperate accounts as i was self employed as it was easier. the question is can i transfer my wife isa to my bank(in the process of making it joint:) it would still fall under my annual allowance.

Albermarle

I think she would have to withdraw it out of the ISA wrapper into her/your current account and then you put it in a new isa .

If it is a cash ISA , you may not need to keep it in an ISA anyway . Cash ISA's are largely redundant for most people ( not all)  as a basic rate taxpayer can earn £1000 in interest tax free anyway .

Non ISA savings accounts also pay more interest.

eskbanker

stevie68uk said:

I have just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. my ife and i have always had seperate accounts as i was self employed as it was easier. the question is can i transfer my wife isa to my bank(in the process of making it joint:) it would still fall under my annual allowance.

The 'I' stands for 'individual', i.e. ISAs can't ever be joint but are always sole accounts.

At the risk of being indelicate, wouldn't it be more appropriate to be shifting money from your name to hers in this unfortunate situation?

canaldumidi

I don't believe so. You each have an ISA allowance and you cannot make transfer hers to joint I don't think. Ask your /her bank?

If the reason you are considering this is because you will need access to her money, is it really worth keeping within an ISA? As pointed out there are better paying savings accounts and if you will be spending the money anyway....?

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis.

Lont-term cancer patient.......

stevie68uk

so tell me if i am right if i just transfer her isa to her current account transfer to mine than transfer to my isa. so if my current account is joint she will have immediate access to the isa if she needed it..transfering my santander account with all its direct debits to her barclays dosent seem possible which would be ideal

eskbanker

stevie68uk said:

so tell me if i am right if i just transfer her isa to her current account transfer to mine than transfer to my isa. so if my current account is joint she will have immediate access to the isa if she needed it.

No, I'm afraid not - technically she has no access to your ISA even if the current account from which it's funded is joint.  Obviously it's not unheard of for login credentials to be shared between partners, but according to the letter of the law, and the product Ts & Cs, your ISA is yours and yours alone, and will be closed once they're notified of your demise.  If she is the beneficiary of your will then she would end up with access to the money (and the associated additional ISA allowance) but it's not a realistic way of setting things up if the aim is for her to have immediate access....

stevie68uk

but if i put into a normal savings account after it becomes a joint account access would be easy?

eskbanker

stevie68uk said:

but if i put into a normal savings account after it becomes a joint account access would be easy?

Money in any joint account remains accessible to the other holder in the event of one dying, so yes, a non-ISA joint savings account (or current account) would allow ongoing access to be preserved.

stevie68uk

Thank you all for your help

Albermarle

You could have a joint current account with a linked joint savings account with the same bank .
The interest rate might not be that great, which is maybe not a priority right now ,  but it would make access very simple.

stevie68uk

i can find no information that i can switch my existing current account to my wifes existing account the info is all about new accounts