Advice on savings

eskbanker

Listless_2 said:

To complicate matters I have two ISA at present but one is wider family and one is my own.

The 'I' stands for Individual - ISAs can only be held by one named individual.

Listless_2 said:

I’d like to move both to new accounts with better interest but I don’t want to merge them. However I believe it’s only possible to open one per year so I would have to keep one in an Isa with a worse rate unless I merged them together?

You can't 'merge' ISAs held by different people, but if they're both in your name then you could.  However, you don't need to - you can open as many ISAs as you like but can only pay new money into one (of each type) in any tax year - you can do what you like with prior year money, including transferring them into separate new ISAs....

friolento

Listless_2 said:

To complicate matters I have two ISA at present but one is wider family and one is my own. Neither opened this financial year. I’d like to move both to new accounts with better interest but I don’t want to merge them. However I believe it’s only possible to open one per year so I would have to keep one in an Isa with a worse rate unless I merged them together?

 

You can open as many ISAs as you like in the same tax year. The only limitation is that you can only put new money (they call it subscribe) into one of each type in any given tax year. Moving existing ISAs does not count as a subscription - as long as it is done with an ISA transfer. Meaning you must not move the money yourself but you need to ask the new provider to carry out a transfer.

Albermarle

Listless_2 said:

To complicate matters I have two ISA at present but one is wider family and one is my own. Neither opened this financial year. I’d like to move both to new accounts with better interest but I don’t want to merge them. However I believe it’s only possible to open one per year so I would have to keep one in an Isa with a worse rate unless I merged them together?

 

You can not have a family ISA, only individuals can hold them.

. However I believe it’s only possible to open one per year
Not true, if you read just through the last couple of days threads on this forum
ISAs & tax-free savings — MoneySavingExpert Forum you will see the same question being answered numerous times. 

Listless_2

Thank you all so much for your advice.

If you could confirm: I have two ISA in different providers from previous years.

Could I sign up to an ISA with a new provider who requires a deposit of 1k and a transfer one of the ISA into the account. 

This would mean the other ISA if I wanted to put with a new provider I would be ok to do so as long as I transferred and didn’t deposit.

The only issue I see here is that most ISA providers expect a deposit to be made and therefore you are unlikely to be able to just open an ISA and transfer existing balances?

sheslookinhot

Many providers will accept transfers only. I have just transferred 2 this week.

You can only open a new ISA if you have not opened and subscribed to one this tax year.

ColdIron

sheslookinhot said:

You can only open a new ISA if you have not opened and subscribed to one this tax year.

This is incorrect

If you have opened and subscribed to an ISA in this tax year you can open as many new ISAs as you like for transfers

You cannot subscribe to more than one in any financial year

badger09

Listless_2 said:

Thank you all so much for your advice.

If you could confirm: I have two ISA in different providers from previous years.

Could I sign up to an ISA with a new provider who requires a deposit of 1k and a transfer one of the ISA into the account. 

This would mean the other ISA if I wanted to put with a new provider I would be ok to do so as long as I transferred and didn’t deposit.

The only issue I see here is that most ISA providers expect a deposit to be made and therefore you are unlikely to be able to just open an ISA and transfer existing balances?

The wording on some (most?) ISA providers’ websites isn’t very good. However, if they accept xfers in, then they invariably accept the xferred sum & don’t require any additional ‘new money’ 
There will be box to tick on the application showing whether you want to deposit money, xfer in from another provider or both. 

If you deposit ‘new money’ of £1k into ISA 1, then basically you will only be able to pay further money into that ISA during the current tax year.  

Listless_2

Since most require at least a £1 deposit to open the account this classifies as ‘paying in’ and therefore locks me into paying into that account only?

fabsaver

Listless_2 said:

Since most require at least a £1 deposit to open the account this classifies as ‘paying in’ and therefore locks me into paying into that account only?

The transfer in will count as your opening deposit. You don't have to pay in 'new' money unless you want to subscribe for that year.

Listless_2

For example Shawbrook require a 1k min balance to start but from what I can tell this needs to come from your current account and doesn’t include isa transfer.