Partial ISA transfer out of Zopa

nedwilsher

I want to transfer part of my ISA with Zopa to another provider. It's a case of too many eggs in one basket. But Zopa do not allow partial transfers out - you have to do the whole thing. So I thought of a workaround. Has anyone else experience of this? Would it work? What are the risks?

The new provider is fully flexible and allows partial transfers in and out. Step 1: Transfer the whole Zopa ISA to new provider. When completed, Step 2: Goto my Zopa Smart Savings Hub and request a partial transfer in from the new provider. Voila!

Where's the catch?

slinger2

nedwilsher said:

I want to transfer part of my ISA with Zopa to another provider. It's a case of too many eggs in one basket. But Zopa do not allow partial transfers out - you have to do the whole thing. So I thought of a workaround. Has anyone else experience of this? Would it work? What are the risks?

The new provider is fully flexible and allows partial transfers in and out. Step 1: Transfer the whole Zopa ISA to new provider. When completed, Step 2: Goto my Zopa Smart Savings Hub and request a partial transfer in from the new provider. Voila!

Where's the catch?

The catch for many people will be that they have a fixed-rate ISA with Zopa and will pay a penalty for transferring it out.

nedwilsher

slinger2 said:

nedwilsher said:

I want to transfer part of my ISA with Zopa to another provider. It's a case of too many eggs in one basket. But Zopa do not allow partial transfers out - you have to do the whole thing. So I thought of a workaround. Has anyone else experience of this? Would it work? What are the risks?

The new provider is fully flexible and allows partial transfers in and out. Step 1: Transfer the whole Zopa ISA to new provider. When completed, Step 2: Goto my Zopa Smart Savings Hub and request a partial transfer in from the new provider. Voila!

Where's the catch?

The catch for many people will be that they have a fixed-rate ISA with Zopa and will pay a penalty for transferring it out.

Thanks for pointing that out. Luckily (in this repect) mine are flexible easy access ISAs - so I won't have that problem. But this might be of interest to others.

nedwilsher

I would think twice (thrice) about a fixed rate ISA with any provider that does not entertain partial transfers out. It effectively locks you in, at least until the final fixed ISA matures. It's OK if you have just one fixed rate ISA with them but if you have more than one, or a mix with an easy access ISA you can get stuck (or face a penalty).

refluxer

nedwilsher said:

I would think twice (thrice) about a fixed rate ISA with any provider that does not entertain partial transfers out. It effectively locks you in, at least until the final fixed ISA matures.

TBH, if you think its likely you'll need access to the money then a fixed rate ISA isn't a good place to be putting it anyway, as the withdrawal/transfers penalties before maturity can be quite severe.

nedwilsher said:

It's OK if you have just one fixed rate ISA with them but if you have more than one, or a mix with an easy access ISA you can get stuck (or face a penalty).

Zopa are pretty-much unique in considering all their different ISA pots (both easy access and fixed) to be part of the same ISA. If you have a mix of easy access and fixed rate cash ISAs with other providers, then transferring any one of them to a different provider will count as a full (and not a partial) transfer and in that scenario, it doesn't matter whether they allow partial transfers away or not.