Is there a way to find out if I have already taken out an ISA this tax year using my allowance

1spiral

poseidon1 said:

Duncan77 said:

Is there anyone who can advise how to set up a savings spreadsheet? 

Try the Moneyhub app. I use it to track all savings, current and credit card accounts. Savings accounts are mostly entered manually into the app with notations of interest rates and maturities where relevant. Some savings accounts ( Ford Money and RCI ) use open banking which is helpful.

I like moneyhub too but do not find it better than a spreadsheet for manual accounts. I would like to be able to see a summary of when all the balances were last updated on 1 page (similar to the connections page) whereas the only way currently is to drill down on each account 1 at a time. I can achieve my requirements easily on a spreadsheet.

t0rt0ise

I hate to be morbid but I keep a paper copy of a precis of my spreadsheet with my will for obvious reasons. Very important to make things easy for others.

Bourne

I feel the OP's pain. I have multiple accounts set up mainly with two online providers. They seem to be increasing exponentially, as I keep moving money from the highly uncompetitive Nationwide and to get the best interest rates have set up fixed rate accounts as both savings and cash ISAs. Of course, within a very short time you can't add any more money to these or even transfer them, so the only option is to keep opening new ones. I have so many now of both kinds that I seem to be almost constantly getting maturity option emails and quite honestly, I no longer have even the faintest idea whether I have used any new money in this year's ISA's, or have simply transferred existing ones on maturity. I would love to consolidate them all but it seems impossible. My only option would be to let all the savings accounts default to the variable rate on maturity, then open a single, new account with them all combined.
One problem with this is under current tax rules, getting the best interest rate on a savings account seems almost self-defeating. I would really like to put almost the whole lot into ISAs but all of those are also in fixed rate accounts where I have the same problem.
I have tried to create a spreadsheet, but even that can be bewildering. The way the online accounts are laid out, they make it very difficult to retrieve all the information I need in the brief time before I get a time-out warning.

silverdarlin

SlyF0x said:

I appreciate this may sound like a daft question but I can't honestly remember if I took out an ISA this year or simply moved across previous years ISAs onto better rates with different providers. Is there any easy way of identifying whether I have used my allowance this year (maybe via national insurance number?). If not and I open a new one (and I had already opened one elsewhere) how long before i am informed that I could not have a new one and it is closed? 

Having been though the milI  I have been here several times and really think there should be some gov. body where you can find out how much you have subscribed in the current tax year. I am making notes from now on and the spreadsheet sounds a good idea 

flaneurs_lobster

silverdarlin said:

SlyF0x said:

I appreciate this may sound like a daft question but I can't honestly remember if I took out an ISA this year or simply moved across previous years ISAs onto better rates with different providers. Is there any easy way of identifying whether I have used my allowance this year (maybe via national insurance number?). If not and I open a new one (and I had already opened one elsewhere) how long before i am informed that I could not have a new one and it is closed? 

Having been though the milI  I have been here several times and really think there should be some gov. body where you can find out how much you have subscribed in the current tax year. I am making notes from now on and the spreadsheet sounds a good idea 

Have a read of this thread again and then think about the logistics of having the 100-odd (my guess) ISA offerers reporting in real time their individual account holdings to some "Government body" and then making those holdings available to just the individuals who are entitled to see them.

It would cost 100's of millions and wouldn't work.

It should be possible for anyone with basic arithmetic skills to be able to keep track of their savings and where they are deposited. Pencil and paper would do it, or go crazy and use a spreadsheet.

t0rt0ise

I just write a note at the bottom of my spreadsheet saying new money: £xx,xxx and update the sum as necessary. This year it say £18,000 so I know I can put 2 grand more new money in if I want to. 

masonic

flaneurs_lobster said:

silverdarlin said:

SlyF0x said:

I appreciate this may sound like a daft question but I can't honestly remember if I took out an ISA this year or simply moved across previous years ISAs onto better rates with different providers. Is there any easy way of identifying whether I have used my allowance this year (maybe via national insurance number?). If not and I open a new one (and I had already opened one elsewhere) how long before i am informed that I could not have a new one and it is closed? 

Having been though the milI  I have been here several times and really think there should be some gov. body where you can find out how much you have subscribed in the current tax year. I am making notes from now on and the spreadsheet sounds a good idea 

Have a read of this thread again and then think about the logistics of having the 100-odd (my guess) ISA offerers reporting in real time their individual account holdings to some "Government body" and then making those holdings available to just the individuals who are entitled to see them.

It would cost 100's of millions and wouldn't work.

It should be possible for anyone with basic arithmetic skills to be able to keep track of their savings and where they are deposited. Pencil and paper would do it, or go crazy and use a spreadsheet.

There are currently 466 registered ISA managers, many of which offer several different types of ISA. They currently have an obligation to report to HMRC once per year, and HMRC processes that data and follows up with customers that have breached allowances several years in arrears. So moving from a process that takes years to one that works in real time (and managed by HMRC) just isn't going to happen. There is no chance of it being managed by the banking industry, because customers (and more importantly the media) would never tolerate banks sharing data with each other about the contents of individuals' accounts held elsewhere.

Far far easier for consumers to keep track of their own ISA transactions.