Charter Savings Bank - ISA Accounts - No multiple Current Year ISA Accounts Permitted

jonp63

Thought people might like to be aware of this - I checked with them and this is part of the email reply I got:

"The announcement made was only an advisory change, it was not a mandatory change each bank had to do. It was down to each individual bank if they wanted to make these changes and Charter Savings Bank decided not to make this change.

We require all of your subscriptions for the current tax year to be invested with us and only us."

Absolutely no benefit whatsoever to investors.  They won't be getting my business!

Albermarle

jonp63 said:

Thought people might like to be aware of this - I checked with them and this is part of the email reply I got:

"The announcement made was only an advisory change, it was not a mandatory change each bank had to do. It was down to each individual bank if they wanted to make these changes and Charter Savings Bank decided not to make this change.

We require all of your subscriptions for the current tax year to be invested with us and only us."

Absolutely no benefit whatsoever to investors.  They won't be getting my business!

They are not the only one with this policy. It is not 100% clear why, presumably they need to make some IT changes which they do not want to do. 
The comments on similar threads are along the lines of 'how can they stop you opening an ISA somewhere else, as it is perfectly within the HMRC new rules? ' ' how would they even know ?' 

jimjames

It's not actually true and not enforceable. There is nothing they can do to stop you having some money in an ISA with them and some with another provider. That has always been the case albeit in the past the other provider was a S&S ISA. Quite why they need a software change other than revising the question "I won't open another ISA elsewhere" is beyond me.

They can of course stop you having 2 different cash ISAs with them but that's a different scenario.

wmb194

jonp63 said:

Thought people might like to be aware of this - I checked with them and this is part of the email reply I got:

"The announcement made was only an advisory change, it was not a mandatory change each bank had to do. It was down to each individual bank if they wanted to make these changes and Charter Savings Bank decided not to make this change.

We require all of your subscriptions for the current tax year to be invested with us and only us."

Absolutely no benefit whatsoever to investors.  They won't be getting my business!

Ignore it, that's nonsense.

poseidon1

In all fairness to Charter and other banks who have stated they will not participate with this multiple isa in one year the last government thought in their infinite wisdom to implement, there is only a very (very ) tiny percentage of ISA investors who  would think it is any way beneficial.

I would hazard a guess that were a straw poll be taken on this forum as to how many isa investors were overjoyed to hear of the change and would be rushing to take advantage of the flexibility ASAP, I think there would largely be bewilderment.

I know for a fact isa investors already struggle with the  concept of transferring prior years isas from one provider to  another whilst simultaneously paying in new money to use the current year's ias allowance.  

I know in my case with three different cash isa's and two separate stocks and shares isas, where I already regularly chop and change the  funds in each depending on bank interest rates and opportunities in the securities markets, I already have more than enough 'flexibilty' than i know what to do with!

Personally I thought the proposal ( along with the thankfully deceased Brit ISA),  was utter nonsense in the scheme of things.

jimjames

poseidon1 said:

In all fairness to Charter and other banks who have stated they will not participate with this multiple isa in one year the last government thought in their infinite wisdom to implement, there is only a very (very ) tiny percentage of ISA investors who  would think it is any way beneficial.

Anyone who doesn't want to use this option doesn't need to worry about it at all and wouldn't even be asking the question. People who have used a fixed rate ISA they can't add money to and previously were stuck now have the option (if they wish) to be able to use their remaining allowance. As I said above, in reality it's no different to having money split between S&S ISA, LISA and cash ISA previously.

masonic

jonp63 said:

Thought people might like to be aware of this - I checked with them and this is part of the email reply I got:

"The announcement made was only an advisory change, it was not a mandatory change each bank had to do. It was down to each individual bank if they wanted to make these changes and Charter Savings Bank decided not to make this change.

We require all of your subscriptions for the current tax year to be invested with us and only us."

Absolutely no benefit whatsoever to investors.  They won't be getting my business!

Make sure you let them know why. Existing customers who wish to use the remainder of their ISA allowance elsewhere have the right to do so, and should raise a formal complaint that the T&Cs of their account breach the Consumer Rights Act.

No provider is entitled to restrict your consumer relationship with one of its competitors.

etienneg

There is another, but related, issue.

Some providers insist that you open an ISA with them by making a new deposit, even if this is just £1. If you have already put all of your £20,000 allowance into an account elsewhere, this means you can't transfer any ISA to them, as you can't open one with them to transfer into.

I realise that some providers have this in their rules and ignore it, whilst others do enforce it.

Lots of unnecessary silly rules, it seems to me.

TheBanker

poseidon1 said:

In all fairness to Charter and other banks who have stated they will not participate with this multiple isa in one year the last government thought in their infinite wisdom to implement, there is only a very (very ) tiny percentage of ISA investors who  would think it is any way beneficial.

Of course this forum is not necessarily representitive, and I am simply a sample of one, but...

I have used the new rules to my benefit. I currently contribute to both a Zopa and Trading 212 Cash ISA. The reason I do this? Well I opened the Zopa ISA before T212 offered cash ISAs, at the time Zopa paid the best rate. When T212 launched, I opened their ISA with a small balance but didn't want to transfer the Zopa ISA because I wanted to see how T212 worked. And for a while, T212 did not accept transfers in. I've kept the Zopa ISA open because withdrawels are immediate, whereas T212 withdrawels are next working day.

I've also opened a Virgin Money fixed rate ISA to take advantage of a better rate, depositing the balance from a maturing non-ISA Regular Saver (although I could have achieved a similar result with a partial transfer of prior year subscriptions)

So I have three cash ISAs to take advantage of different product features - fixed rate, high rates but next day withdrawels, lower rate but immediate access.