Santander - Fixed rate ISA - anyone UPGRADED?

boco803

Has anyone recently (or have experience of) 'upgraded' their soon-to-mature Santander fixed rate ISA via online banking?

Is it a pretty straightforward affair?

I ask as under account details for existing customers, it states:

Existing customers

Subscribing to your existing ISA

If you haven't made a deposit into your cash ISA for a whole tax year, you must complete an ISA declaration. You must do this before you can make any more subscriptions. To do this, log into Online Banking, click the chat button and type ‘Fund my ISA’ into the chat or contact us contact us.

Do I just ignore the above if I just want to fix my current funds for another year without adding new funds for 2024-25?  Surely, their systems should just get you to declare via their online form?

Just want to double check.

refluxer

That quote is aimed at people who want to add new subscriptions to an existing ISA (having not paid in during that tax year) but as you'll be opening a new ISA account for your transfer, you'll need to sign a declaration anyway because this is required and covers the provider in case you did want to add new subscriptions.

As a side note, I believe that declaration renewal is actually no longer necessary according to the recent ISA rule changes, although it's likely it'll take a while for all ISA providers to catch up with the new rules...

From https://www.hl.co.uk/news/isas-are-changing-next-tax-year-what-you-need-to-know

No need to reapply for existing ISAs each year

ISA savers and investors are currently required to, in essence, reapply for ISAs they already hold when there’s been a gap of one tax year where no subscriptions were paid. Removing this rule should reduce the potential for confusion and cut down on unnecessary red tape.

I only have experience of transferring a maturing Santander fixed rate ISA away to another provider but as that went smoothly, I wouldn't expect there to be any issues with an internal transfer. It may just take a day or so for the new account to show in online banking.

boco803

Thanks @refluxer - that's what I thought, as all I'll be doing is effectively renewing my 1 year fixed term with them with no intention to add funds

Do Santander open a new ISA account or just roll it over (like they do with their regular saver)?

refluxer

boco803 said:

Do Santander open a new ISA account or just roll it over (like they do with their regular saver)?

I'm not sure I'm afraid, as I've only had one mature so far and I let that default to an ISA Saver, before arranging a transfer to a different provider. 

Coincidentally, I do actually have another Santander Fixed Rate ISA maturing soon though, so I'm currently trying to decide between talking out another 1 year fix with them or transferring away for a (slightly) higher rate.

billn

boco803 said:

Do Santander open a new ISA account or just roll it over (like they do with their regular saver)?

I have just done this and the account number stayed the same, the interest was credited the next day. The new interest rate was applied straight away.

boco803

billn said:

boco803 said:

Do Santander open a new ISA account or just roll it over (like they do with their regular saver)?

I have just done this and the account number stayed the same, the interest was credited the next day. The new interest rate was applied straight away.

Thanks for confirming