Advice needed please. Re-structuring my ISA savings pots

irishjohn

I have several years ISA savings in two pots - one a Cash ISA  and the other a Stocks and Shares ISA. I need to take some action on the cash one right away and I am now over 70 and looking at whether or not to retain the Stocks and Shares one. Any advice on what I could do will be most appreciated.

The Cash ISA has been moved from one fixed rate to another over the past few years and the most recent deal ended in September. My bank are now holding it as an easy access ISA with virtually no interest while I decide what to do. They offered a new lowish fixed rate, but I held off in the meantime because of the erratic changes in interest rates. I now would like to move it to a new fixed rate Account, but put 20% of it into my easy access savings pot which I have nearly emptied this year. That is pretty straightforward I think - just move my 20% first and then open a new cash ISA with maybe a 2 yr fixed rate and transfer the remainder. 

I am also thinking of moving my Stocks and Shares ISA back into a Cash ISA with up to a 5 year fix as my current cash ISA will meet my needs until then if things go according to plan. Would it be possible for me to open what would be a second cash ISA for this transfer? Something in my head says I can only open one ISA Account a year. But if I wanted to move the Stocks and Shares ISA into a Cash ISA over a longer term than the 2 year one I am looking at, is that permitted? Or would I need to wait until April 23 to make that move? As things stand I have not opened any ISA accounts in this financial year.

I am also looking at using two separate financial institutions as the total sum of the existing Cash ISA and the Stocks and Sharers ISA would exceed the £85000 safety point for compensation. 

Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated. Thank you.

eskbanker

irishjohn said:

Something in my head says I can only open one ISA Account a year.

Fortunately there's nothing in the rules that says that!  You can open as many as you like but can only pay new money into one of each type in any tax year, so any transfers of existing contents don't fall foul of that.

Albermarle

Something in my head says I can only open one ISA Account a year.

If you had spent 5 minutes reading  through some of the forum posts, you would have realised that this is not correct 

irishjohn

Albermarle said:

Something in my head says I can only open one ISA Account a year.

If you had spent 5 minutes reading  through some of the forum posts, you would have realised that this is not correct 

Thank you for this - perhaps 5 minutes if I had known which posts to home in on or even 5 minutes looking at the terms and conditions for ISAs on the Government website but I thought maybe I will just put the question out there and seek feedback from those who carry the knowledge in their heads. I have taken your comment on board and will remeber it for future queries and probably still ask on the Forum instead of randomly searching the previous posts. I know there will be those who are happy to give helpful answers and those who feel they need to pass comment.

Albermarle

I actually give a lot of helpful answers ( I think). It just gets repetitive keep answering the same questions, when a poster can't be bothered to spend a few minutes scrolling.

irishjohn

Albermarle said:

I actually give a lot of helpful answers ( I think). It just gets repetitive keep answering the same questions, when a poster can't be bothered to spend a few minutes scrolling.

Thank you Albermarle. I fully empathise with you and apologise for asking a basic question. I fear you don't realise just how much time it could take to scroll through looking for answers to my question as the headers don't always give any real clue to the content of the answers in that post and many have multiple answers. Maybe I could suggest you just pass over the repetitve questions and leave us to either flounder or depend on those who don't struggle with having to repeat information already given in previous posts. I understand the objective of the forum is to share our knowledge freely and I will be happy to do this any time. I won't stoop to making a caustic remark criticising the poster for repeating a question asked many times previously. If you know the answer and have the time to post a simple response then why not do so. If you want to tick me off for laziness and lack of research before posting a question use a private message next time, though I realise that won't necessarily add to your posting totals. Have a nice day.

badger09

As long as you use the new ISA providers' transfer processes, rather than simply close the accounts & move the money yourself, you can do what you suggest. 

However.....

You say you are 'now over 70'. Unless you have limited life expectancy, why do you want to move all your investments to cash now? FWIW, I'm also over 70 & am still investing my annual ISA allowance in S&S ISA. Exposing all your savings to inflation doesn't seem a sensible move at any time, but particularly now.

If you are determined that's what you want to do, as rates are increasing almost daily now, you might regret committing large amounts to a long fix. Maybe consider laddering over say 1, 2 & 3 years?

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79609142#Comment_79609142

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79609113/#Comment_79609113

If you wish to transfer money from an ISA to a non ISA account, do it before you attempt an ISA transfer.

And if you wish to transfer from stocks and shares to cash isa, you might well find it wise to sell the investments so that you have only cash within the S&S before you contact you new cash isa provider to initiate the transfer.