ISA Transfer between accounts with the same bank

skray

Hi
I hold an easy access Cash ISA with Charter Savings bank which has a positive balance and have now opened a I year Cash ISA with the same bank. When applying I completed a ISA Transfer Form and also sent a separate secured message requesting transfer of the entire balance from my Easy Access to Fixed Term account.
I am being asked to do it myself by logging into netbanking and using the funds transfer option between accounts.
Is this allowed? I thought for ISA transfer has to be done by the bank/banks involved. If the account holder does it it may be deemed withdrawal of funds.
Thanks

refluxer

I don't have personal experience of doing this (and would also be naturally cautious about it) but I think there have been comments on here from people who've been allowed to transfer money between different ISA accounts with other banks or building societies themselves, like Nationwide for example.

I'm not sure, but this may be related to the fact that both Charter and Nationwide have a 'portfolio' approach to their ISAs (Charter call it 'Mix & Match') which allows you to spread your annual allowance across different ISA products, in which case I would imagine that allowing you to transfer funds from one ISA to another yourself internally would be a useful feature ?

Either way, I would imagine if Charter themselves have instructed you to do this then you would have some comeback if anything went wrong (take a screenshot of their message !). If you're still not convinced though, then you could always give them a call to get a second opinion from a different advisor. 

It may not provide any answers, but Charter's ISA guide can be found here : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pdf.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/01768_isa_information_booklet.pdf

isasmurf

I haven't transferred between ISAs with Charter, but I know they use the Newcastle Strategic Solutions savings platform. Other banks (Paragon, Ford Money) and Newcastle BS that also use this platform you transfer between ISA accounts by moving the money yourself as a normal transaction.

As alluded to above as a portfolio cash ISA you can transfer money between accounts yourself as the money stays within the same ISA rather than with those that don't offer the portfolio feature where the money leaves the ISA to be put in another ISA. To get technical, the accounts are only a means to hold money in an ISA and not the actual ISA. An ISA is a tax wrapper around the money. Providers that offer the portfolio feature hold multiple accounts within the same ISA wrapper. 

Ocelot

I transferred between Virgin Money ISAs last week. I opened the account, and it asked me to select the ISA I wished to transfer from, and it all went through straight away, without getting them to do anything.

Doesn't sound that unusual.