More than one cash ISA?

busybee1234

I've got a cash Isa which currently has about £85,000 in it. To make sure I am covered by the bankruptcy guarantee I would put any more savings into a different cash ISA from a different provider. If I just leave the one sitting there and pay only into the other, can I have more than one cash ISAs?

Albermarle

busybee1234 said:

I've got a cash Isa which currently has about £85,000 in it. To make sure I am covered by the bankruptcy guarantee I would put any more savings into a different cash ISA from a different provider. If I just leave the one sitting there and pay only into the other, can I have more than one cash ISAs?

Yes you can have as many as you like. Currently though you can only add new money to one cash ISA per tax year up to a max of £20K.
So if you have added any new money to your current cash ISA this tax year, you can not add to a new one.
However you can transfer money out of the current ISA to a new ISA, as that does not counts as new money.
Not all ISA's allow part transfers out.

Suggest you spend some time reading through this forum as there are numerous threads on isa rules, transfers etc .

eskbanker

busybee1234 said:

I've got a cash Isa which currently has about £85,000 in it. To make sure I am covered by the bankruptcy guarantee I would put any more savings into a different cash ISA from a different provider. If I just leave the one sitting there and pay only into the other, can I have more than one cash ISAs?

To echo the point made repeatedly by one particular poster on here, remember that interest earned on that capital will take the balance above the £85K FSCS protection level, so if you're looking to protect everything then you should allow enough headroom below that £85K.

And to reiterate another point usually made in these circumstances, are you sure you need so much money in cash deposit form, where it'll likely lose real-terms value to inflation?

Finally, although the previous post hints at this with its reference to 'currently', you can pay into any combination of ISAs from next April....

Reed_Richards

Albermarle said:

Not all ISA's allow part transfers out.

Really?  Even if the ISA normally allows withdrawals? 

refluxer

Reed_Richards said:

Albermarle said:

Not all ISA's allow part transfers out.

Really?  Even if the ISA normally allows withdrawals? 

The Zopa Smart ISA is one example of a flexible, easy access ISA that allows withdrawals but not partial transfers out. I don't know how common this is, though.