Santander Fixed 18 month ISA

Richchad

We are thinking of opening a couple of Santander 18 month fixed ISAs for next financial year as we have used up this years allowance, however to open the account you have to deposit minimum £500 or a transfer in.

I don't want to transfer in any of our ISAs and wanted to open with new money.

I could wait until April 6th and open the accounts but applications may close before then and wondered what is the risk if I opened them now with the minimum £500 and top up with £19500 after 6th April..?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Surely you can't open with even £500 if you've used up this year's allowance 🤷‍♂️

refluxer

Yes - you can only pay money from this year's allowance into one cash ISA at any one time and £20k is the maximum for any one tax year, so you would be breaking two ISA rules if you did that.

Richchad

Yes I did realise it was against the ISA rules but as it would only be a matter of a few days I just wondered what would happen, but then thinking about it, it would be registered as a 2023 tax year end ISA and not a 2024 tax year end ISA and the fact it was opened before April 6th nothing can change that.

Thanks for the answers anyway... looks like I will have to wait and hope still available or something better comes along.

refluxer

More importantly, you'd effectively be making false statements on the ISA declaration too, which is presumably not a path you'd want to go down.

One thing that does occur to me with the Santander Fixed Rate ISAs... could you go down the transfer route when opening the ISA but then simply not do a transfer and fund it after 6th April ? I don't know whether this is possible, but I haven't read anything to suggest that it isn't - obviously do your own checks, though. A deadline of 30th April was definitely mentioned in the T&Cs.

badger09

I started a reply but didn’t finish it. 

You have nothing to lose, apart from a few days interest, by applying now but waiting until 6th April to fund. That way you secure the product with no ISA rules broken. You’ll have to confirm you haven’t subscribed to another Cash ISA this tax year, which of course isn’t true, but as you now have no intention of subscribing to this one in this tax year, again no ISA rules broken. 

Or you can wait until 6th April & hope it’s still available. 

Worst that can happen is Santander send you a couple of reminders about funding.  

Are you able to fully fund these immediately (on/after 6th April)? If not, how do you plan to use the rest of your 2003/04 allowance?

Richchad

refluxer said:

One thing that does occur to me with the Santander Fixed Rate ISAs... could you go down the transfer route when opening the ISA but then simply not do a transfer and fund it after 6th April ? I don't know whether this is possible, but I haven't read anything to suggest that it isn't - obviously do you own checks, though. A deadline of 30th April was definitely mentioned in the T&Cs.

Yes I did think that might be an option, I actually started the process of applying to see what it actually asks for and it asks..

How are you saving for this tax year? * 

I will transfer money from an account in my name

I will not be depositing new savings

Other

If you select transfer money from an account in my name it asks how much..

The other two options just take you to the next page and an option to submit, I didn't go any further as wasn't sure if I should go ahead...

Richchad

badger09 said:

I started a reply but didn’t finish it. 

You have nothing to lose, apart from a few days interest, by applying now but waiting until 6th April to fund. That way you secure the product with no ISA rules broken. You’ll have to confirm you haven’t subscribed to another Cash ISA this tax year, which of course isn’t true, but as you now have no intention of subscribing to this one in this tax year, again no ISA rules broken. 

Or you can wait until 6th April & hope it’s still available. 

Worst that can happen is Santander send you a couple of reminders about funding.  

Are you able to fully fund these immediately (on/after 6th April)? If not, how do you plan to use the rest of your 2003/04 allowance?

Maybe I should just apply as you suggest and see what happens, I just worry that opening a new ISA account before 6th April will make it automatically a 2023 ISA which allowance I have already used.

We intend to fund the ISAs fully on 6th April but think opening accounts now will cause confusion as to which tax year they are in.

refluxer

Richchad said:

I just worry that opening a new ISA account before 6th April will make it automatically a 2023 ISA which allowance I have already used.

Not at all - I don't think there is any such thing as a '2023 ISA'. As is often said on here, you can open as many ISAs as you like within the same tax year but you can only pay new subscriptions (from the current tax year) into one cash ISA at any one time - that is the important bit.

Opening a cash ISA within the 2022-23 tax year and funding it with subscriptions from the 2023-24 tax year is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. The only question would be whether the application process and/or the T&Cs of the ISA in question allow it, which could just boil down to whether you're forced to make a deposit during the application process and if not, whether or not the funding window is big enough to allow you to wait and make a deposit after 6th April.

surreysaver

You can open it now, and even keep your eyes open to see if anything better becomes available and open that as well - as long you only fund one on or after April 6th
I've just opened a Yorkshire Building Society ISA which will be paying 4.25% from 5th April which allows withdrawals, but its only available if you've had a YBS account for at least a year 

Band7

surreysaver said:

You can open it now, and even keep your eyes open to see if anything better becomes available and open that as well - as long you only fund one on or after April 6th
I've just opened a Yorkshire Building Society ISA which will be paying 4.25% from 5th April which allows withdrawals, but its only available if you've had a YBS account for at least a year 

The Santander 18 mths ISA is a bit of a weird one. Normally, you can open a cash ISA instantly but they seem to be reviewing applications for this one. Nonetheless, I can't see how they would prevent you from applying now, and not make any deposits (or transfers) until the next tax year. I shall find out eventually as I now have applied, and I won't be making andy transfers or any deposits until April 6th. My fallback is a 12 month 4.25% Virgin ISA (NLA) which I have already secured.