When does £15,000 + £5,000 = more than £20,000?

B0bbyEwing

Seemingly when it's invested with Vanguard, or attempted to be invested with Vanguard.

Changed the numbers out of curiosity to see if it would make a difference - nope, £10,000 in one fund, £1,000 in another - still exceeds the allowance apparently.

Nope, no other ISA paid in to this tax year.
Yep, that includes not a penny in a cash ISA
Yep, that includes L-ISAs too - nothing in one of those either.
The full £20,000 should be allowed to be used in this case.




**Editing to add - with a bit of luck this https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/need-help/answer/why-is-my-cash-not-available-to-invest?intcmpgn=landing_help_topics_link will be the cause of the issue.
I'll have to find out tomorrow.

eskbanker

B0bbyEwing said:

When does £15,000 + £5,000 = more than £20,000?

When Diane Abbott is counting it?

B0bbyEwing said:

Changed the numbers out of curiosity to see if it would make a difference - nope, £10,000 in one fund, £1,000 in another - still exceeds the allowance apparently.

Surely the number of funds shouldn't make any difference to the amount contributed to the ISA?  What contributions have you paid in this year so far?  I don't have an ISA with Vanguard but don't they have some sort of dashboard highlighting your remaining allowance?

B0bbyEwing

eskbanker said:
 What contributions have you paid in this year so far?

B0bbyEwing said:

Nope, no other ISA paid in to this tax year.
Yep, that includes not a penny in a cash ISA
Yep, that includes L-ISAs too - nothing in one of those either.
The full £20,000 should be allowed to be used in this case.

Those contributions.

I'm hoping the link in my edit is the cause of the issue.

As you go through the site, it looks like you're able to invest. Only at the end does it look like you can't.

If it's still this way tomorrow then they'll have to get contacted. Bit late in the day now.

jimjames

What happens if you try adding the money rather than buying funds?

eskbanker

B0bbyEwing said:

eskbanker said:
 What contributions have you paid in this year so far?

B0bbyEwing said:

Nope, no other ISA paid in to this tax year.
Yep, that includes not a penny in a cash ISA
Yep, that includes L-ISAs too - nothing in one of those either.
The full £20,000 should be allowed to be used in this case.

Those contributions.

None of those answer how much you've paid into the Vanguard ISA this year, or are you saying that there haven't been any at all?  Just trying to identify if this relates to multiple payments into the S&S ISA, or something else - I'd see the inability to invest money already in there to be a separate issue, and the initial error message wouldn't seem to relate to that....

Edit: maybe Jim hits the nail on the head - logically, paying money into the ISA and then buying funds with it are two separate processes (only the first of which has the annual limit), but I think Vanguard offer some sort of combined joined-up version, which perhaps causes confusion and misleading error messages?

B0bbyEwing

jimjames said:

What happens if you try adding the money rather than buying funds?

That's the thing - it's added. It's sat there showing as cash on the main page.
It just wont allow for it to be invested anywhere.

So was looking to see about pulling it & putting it elsewhere (thinking it only uses the allowance at the point of investment) but nope - it says the full £20,000 allowance has been used. 

If it's not due to the link in the edit then I'm stumped. 

jimjames

B0bbyEwing said:

jimjames said:

What happens if you try adding the money rather than buying funds?

That's the thing - it's added. It's sat there showing as cash on the main page.
It just wont allow for it to be invested anywhere.

So was looking to see about pulling it & putting it elsewhere (thinking it only uses the allowance at the point of investment) but nope - it says the full £20,000 allowance has been used. 

That's normal. It caught me out when I added money to mine. If you do it as a fund purchase it is actioned (well queued) but if you add money it has to clear first before you can do anything. The allowance is used when you pay the money into the account as you've seen. It wouldn't make sense for it to be paid in but not counted unless used for investing as some people don't invest for a while and that would mean allowance wasn't used. So it's all fine and the money has been added to your account.

eskbanker

B0bbyEwing said:

jimjames said:

What happens if you try adding the money rather than buying funds?

That's the thing - it's added. It's sat there showing as cash on the main page.
It just wont allow for it to be invested anywhere.

So was looking to see about pulling it & putting it elsewhere (thinking it only uses the allowance at the point of investment) but nope - it says the full £20,000 allowance has been used. 

If it's not due to the link in the edit then I'm stumped. 

No, as above, allowance usage is at the point of paying into the ISA, not at the point of investing it thereafter.

Edit: worth clarifying exactly what you mean by "pulling it & putting it elsewhere", i.e. specifically what you were trying to do when you encountered the message quoted at post #1

B0bbyEwing

First off, thanks for clarifying the situation.

eskbanker said:

Edit: worth clarifying exactly what you mean by "pulling it & putting it elsewhere", i.e. specifically what you were trying to do when you encountered the message quoted at post #1

As for this, the bold & not bold bits are two different things entirely. 

As for specifically what was being attempted to cause the message in post 1 - Selecting 2 funds, putting in an amount to each totalling £20k which matches the £20k that had just been loaded (switch out for preferred term) to the account a few moments prior via debit card.

k_man

B0bbyEwing said:

First off, thanks for clarifying the situation.

eskbanker said:

Edit: worth clarifying exactly what you mean by "pulling it & putting it elsewhere", i.e. specifically what you were trying to do when you encountered the message quoted at post #1

As for this, the bold & not bold bits are two different things entirely. 

As for specifically what was being attempted to cause the message in post 1 - Selecting 2 funds, putting in an amount to each totalling £20k which matches the £20k that had just been loaded (switch out for preferred term) to the account a few moments prior via debit card.

You weren't trying to buy funds via the Buy Investment option were you, after adding the cash?

If you want to add cash and choose your funds at the same time, please use the 'Buy Investment' option.

B0bbyEwing

k_man said:

You weren't trying to buy funds via the Buy Investment option were you, after adding the cash?

If you want to add cash and choose your funds at the same time, please use the 'Buy Investment' option.

Money was added to the account. 
THEN invest/buy (can't remember what it says as I'd need to log in) was selected, THEN funds chosen.

I think from what the other guys have said already, it's pretty clear now that this wasn't the way to do it for an instant trade.

Not to worry, it's only 24 hours. At least we know what's what now.