ISA - Transferring to a new ISA with the same provider

peterbh

Hi, I have an ISA with Barclays. They are closing it. If I do nothing it goes into a low rate instant access ISA. The also have a fixed rate ISA that I would prefer to put it into. So I am effectively putting old ISA money into a new ISA. Do I do this before or after the end of the tax year? Barclays say if you are transferring ISA money to them from another provider, tell them to wait until if matures so there are no penalties. But within Barclays online banking there is no provision to make this request when moving ISA money within Barclays. In 24/25 will I be able to open another cash ISA as I will not be putting any 'new' ISA money into Barclays. Advice welcome. Many thanks

LHW99

You could try contacting Barclays to clarify how best to transfer from one product to another.

For some, I think you need to log in, view the product, and options for maturity come up a couple of weeks (or thereabouts) before the maturity date for you to choose. Not all will work that way though so you may be best to wait until it is in the Instant access ISA and transfer then.

You can add up to £20,000 new money to an ISA per financial year, Transfer of old ISA money to another ISA doesn't count, unless you do it the wrong way. You get the provider of the new ISA to pull the money across, you don't close the old one yourself.

Albermarle

When your ISA or bond term ends | Savings | Barclays

refluxer

If it's a Barclays Flexible Cash ISA (with a fixed term) that you currently hold, then the information in the link posted above implies that it's possible to open a new Barclays ISA up to 2 months before the maturity date of your existing ISA and transfer the money in.

It actually says 'you can transfer the money' but I don't know whether this is literal or whether this still involves submitting a request for them to do it, which is the normal approach for ISA transfers. Either way, doing so would appear to suggest that the transfer would happen straight away, but it makes no mention of the penalty that would normally apply for transferring out of your existing ISA before the maturity date. The last thing you'd want to do is do an internal transfer early and have to pay the applicable penalty, so this would definitely need confirming.

The reason I'm wondering if the transfer might happen immediately is that a Barclays Flexible (fixed term) ISA normally has a window of 30 days for submitting a transfer-in request, so being able to open one 2 months before the maturity of an existing fixed rate ISA would go against that. (ie. you wouldn't normally be able to open one and have it sit with a zero balance for 2 months).

I've actually got a bit of a vested interest in this as I have a Barclays Flexible ISA due to mature in March and, while their current fixed rate ISAs aren't that competitive, there's a chance that being able to apply for one of those now may end up putting me in a better position than opening an ISA elsewhere in two months time, if rates keep dropping between now and then.