Cash ISA - transfer in - minimum funding

Yorkie1

I have already fully subscribed to a cash ISA this year. I also have some cash ISAs from previous years that are at pretty poor rates, and I should probably do something about transferring them somewhere with better rates.

Looking at the tables of such ISAs on the main website (Best cash ISAs: up to 5.17% easy access, up to 4.5% fixed - MSE) - they all say there is a minimum deposit level, even if it's just £1.

How does this work if you have already put £20K elsewhere this tax year? Do you put the approximate (but unknown) value of the ISA(s) to be transferred in (unknown because interest will be added at transfer)? Or do you put £0 because there's no new money (and thus be less than the minimum)?

Thanks

eskbanker

Most providers will accept a transfer instead of a token amount of new money on opening, but check with whichever one(s) you have in mind.

refluxer

As above, the minimum balance is normally covered by either new subscriptions or transferred-in funds.

The only exception to this I can think of where an ISA provider would require a mandatory payment from the current tax year's ISA allowance is if they didn't accept transfers-in from existing ISAs (eg. Marcus), but most do so these providers are few and far between.

When opening the new account, you'll just have to play it by ear with regards to filling in the required fields, as every provider will ask different questions. If they just want to know an approximate balance for info (or for anti-money laundering reasons) then, as you say, putting the balance of your existing ISA at the time (or estimating the final balance if you know roughly what the final interest payment will be) should be fine. At the point you need to request the transfer though, then there should be a check box to transfer the full amount so be cautious about putting an exact figure down if it's not supposed to be a partial transfer.