Partial Cash ISA transfers to keep below the £85k limit

JSmith321

I recently wanted to transfer part (50%) of a Santander Cash ISA to a new Cash ISA with Cynergy but appear to only be allowed to transfer all the cash ISA. I wish to split my existing cash ISA into two others with separate providers in order to stay below the £85k FSCS guarantee. When I transferred my stocks and shares ISA from HL I was able to specify a percentage. Is there a list of providers that allow partial transfers. Thanks 

refluxer

There isn't a definitive list so you'll have to check the T&C's of any accounts you're interested in but, in my experience, I would say it's more common for an ISA provider to allow partial transfers (both in and out) than not.

Is it Shawbrook not allowing a partial transfer out or Cynergy not allowing one in ?

JSmith321

refluxer said:

There isn't a definitive list so you'll have to check the T&C's of any accounts you're interested in but, in my experience, I would say it's more common for an ISA provider to allow partial transfers (both in and out) than not.

Is it Shawbrook not allowing a partial transfer out or Cynergy not allowing one in ?

According to their website Shawbrook appears to allow it but Cynergy makes no mention. This article in the Mail appeared yesterday which suggest most don't allow it either in or out which I find hard to believe Big banks ignoring new rules that let savers open more than one Isa each year | This is Money

JSmith321

As a "work around" if Shawbrook allow partial transfers (assuming Santander cooperate) then 50% could be transferred to Shawbrook and the remaining 50% (i.e. 100% of what's left) transferred to Cynergy. Talk about jumping through loops

Fredw56

Is that article referring to ISA accounts containing current year deposits or also to ISA accounts that contain only previous year’s deposits? 

The Daily Mendacious is prone to twisting stories to be vexatious and provocative.  I have done partial transfers out of and ISA with only old deposits before and not had this problem. From Virgin for example. Like the OP I currently have an ISA with too much in it and would like to split it across different providers. 

slinger2

JSmith321 said:

refluxer said:

There isn't a definitive list so you'll have to check the T&C's of any accounts you're interested in but, in my experience, I would say it's more common for an ISA provider to allow partial transfers (both in and out) than not.

Is it Shawbrook not allowing a partial transfer out or Cynergy not allowing one in ?

According to their website Shawbrook appears to allow it but Cynergy makes no mention. This article in the Mail appeared yesterday which suggest most don't allow it either in or out which I find hard to believe Big banks ignoring new rules that let savers open more than one Isa each year | This is Money

A pretty poor table IMO. The rules applied by individual providers are so specific that the "Allow partial transfers in and out" column (for example) is useless. Paragon say (for transfers out):

"You can only transfer all of the money you’ve paid into an ISA in the current tax year. You can’t transfer part of it. If you’ve paid money into more than one ISA with us in the current tax year, you’ll need to transfer all that money. But you can transfer all or part of the money you have paid in previous tax years."

And the table doesn't mention the flexi aspect. If I've got a flexi Cash ISA with some of this year's money, I don't need to do a transfer. I can just take it out and move it somewhere else. So in that case a condition that says I can't do partial transfers of this year's money seems pretty meaningless.

subjecttocontract

JSmith321 said:

I recently wanted to transfer part (50%) of a Santander Cash ISA to a new Cash ISA with Cynergy but appear to only be allowed to transfer all the cash ISA. I wish to split my existing cash ISA into two others with separate providers in order to stay below the £85k FSCS guarantee. When I transferred my stocks and shares ISA from HL I was able to specify a percentage. Is there a list of providers that allow partial transfers. Thanks 

Last year when I had this same problem, I transferred one of my ISAs to Tesco Bank and then did partial transfers out to other banks.

Kim_13

I did a partial transfer out of Skipton last year, but it was previous year funds so I suspect they mean that they won't allow a partial transfer of the current year (as this is the part that would be covered under the new rules.)

This gives me food for thought. I have the Saffron Regular Saver ISA and intend to continue doing so in future years where available, especially as the new rules mean I don't have to weigh having it up against the possibility of opening a fix with current year funds further down the road. Saffron have a clause saying that you can only have one Regular Saver ISA at a time, which creates a problem in that it matures in the next tax year (the 11th for me - it's postal or branch so I filled in the application on the Saturday, being the first day of the tax year and it was posted on the 8th, with the 11th being when they processed it.) Were they/RM to move quicker next tax year, I would then be in breach of that clause. I'm quite happy to initiate a transfer out once I've subscribed in March so that I can open for 25/26 promptly (as they state that the account can be withdrawn at any time) and Coventry seemed to be my best bet for this purpose (as I understand that Skipton, with whom I hold my other EA ISA accepting transfers in, would then prevent me from transferring to another of their ISAs - would have taken their 4.75% and 4.5% fixes this year had I had £10K available to do so.)

My problem arises in that while I am happy to transfer everything with Saffron (as to do otherwise would undoubtedly mean paying postage to return the passbook to them, as well as to request the transfer with the new provider - unless Saffron are part of the electronic system by year end) it is not my full 24/25 subscriptions, as I have applied for a Cash ISA elsewhere with new money. I can't transfer there at year end, as the provider only accepts transfers as part of account opening.

HMRC's instruction to ISA managers is to treat current year subscriptions being transferred and previous year subscriptions staying in the ISA as a full transfer, but nothing that I can see for this scenario. 

Paragon and Aldermore come off looking particularly bad - they allow customers to have both an Easy Access and a Fixed with them which they don't have to do, but they don't allow customers to open a Cash ISA with another provider which they do have to do.

JSmith321

Fredw56 said:

Is that article referring to ISA accounts containing current year deposits or also to ISA accounts that contain only previous year’s deposits? 

The Daily Mendacious is prone to twisting stories to be vexatious and provocative.  I have done partial transfers out of and ISA with only old deposits before and not had this problem. From Virgin for example. Like the OP I currently have an ISA with too much in it and would like to split it across different providers. 

Yes I think that's the case. Important difference between previous years and the present year contributions