ISA 2024/25 and ISA 2025/26

kilos

On this Saturday 5th April, can I open a ISA 5 year fixed rate account, and max out the allowance. 
Then on Sunday 6th April, max out the allowance again in the same account? 

Note from opening account on Saturday 5th April, there is a 5 working days only to receive any credits to the account. 

As I am not breaking any ISA allowances, as im maxing out in each tax year. 
But am I breaking any ISA rules, by not physically opening a new account in 2025/26 tax year and then maxing out allowance?

Ayr_Rage

In theory, yes, but it'll depend on the Ts and Cs of the account.

Aretnap

Correct, your 2025/6 allowance can be paid into an existing ISA or a new one - or split between them. There's no need to open a new account after April 5th if your existing one will accept the new money. (Fixed rate ISAs in particular u usually have a finite window in which you can pay money in).

The one possible flaw in the plan is that you might struggle to get an ISA opened and money paid onto it all on the save day - especially if it's a Saturday. Making the 2024/5 subscription a few days in advance of the deadline would leave you less at the mercy of the time it takes your back to transfer the money etc.

lr1277

Just been looking at the ISA pages of Yorkshire Building society.

They say if you are opening a new account it has to be done by 8pm on 4/4/25 and have passed the ID checks before you can add any money to the account. And the money for this year has to be deposited by 8pm on 5/4/25.

My mum had a savings account with YBS so was already verified by them. So opening the ISA and funding it was done in about 30 minutes.

Make sure you are verified by the institution where you want to open an account by the time you come to open the ISA.

Edited to add: Further to @Aretnap's point, do you think your bank might block the transaction? Some banks are more inclined to do this than others. One advantage of YBS is that it can be funded with a debit card.

mebu60

Assuming the Ts&Cs permit what you propose to do I'd suggest starting the process on Tuesday 1st or Wednesday 2nd latest to increase your chances of getting the 24/25 funds credited in time. You'll then have one or two days respectively the following week to add the 25/26 money. 

friolento

You need to confirm with your ISA provider that they would credit your deposit on April 5 (non-working day) will count as a 2024-25 subscription.

Similar for a deposit made on 6 April though it's not critical as it would definitely count as 2025-26 subscription whether it's credited on April 6 or later.

What is the reason you would want to cut your 2024-25 subscription so fine?

kilos

Thank you all for comments.

At present I have a flexible variable rate cash ISA, where what ever I take out, I can put back in until 5th April upto the 20k allowance. 
So I've passed credit checks and am known to the financial institution. 

The reason for cutting 2024/25 so fine, is that I have funds coming in on Friday 4th April.
These funds will allow me to fulfill both  2024/25 and 2025/26 allowance.

So on Friday I am going to max out my 2024/25 ISA allowance by bank transfer funds into my presnet flexible variable rate cash ISA.
Credit normally shows within 2 hours on the ISA account, I've tried and tested this. 

On Saturday I'm going to open a 5 year fixed cash ISA by only transfering the maxed out  variable rate ISA in.
I understand I'm allowed to move this flexible variable rate ISA to a better rate. 

So with the 5 days credit window opening, on the 5 year fixed ISA, then on Sunday I transfer new monies in, to max out my 2025/26 ISA allowance. 

Note all business will be done with one financial institution. 
I am only home weekends at the moment, in weekdays i have no computer access or able to visit financial institutions for appointments etc...
Only Internet access I have in weekdays is phone. 

Reading T & C it states payment must be made by 5pm on April 5th in the tax year your ISA opened and within 5 business days.

Kim_13

lr1277 said:

Just been looking at the ISA pages of Yorkshire Building society.

They say if you are opening a new account it has to be done by 8pm on 4/4/25 and have passed the ID checks before you can add any money to the account. And the money for this year has to be deposited by 8pm on 5/4/25.

My mum had a savings account with YBS so was already verified by them. So opening the ISA and funding it was done in about 30 minutes.

Make sure you are verified by the institution where you want to open an account by the time you come to open the ISA.

Edited to add: Further to @Aretnap's point, do you think your bank might block the transaction? Some banks are more inclined to do this than others. One advantage of YBS is that it can be funded with a debit card.

YBS are potentially not one to go with in this situation, given the increasing number of checks they perform on existing customers opening new accounts - as that might mean an account opened on Saturday did not allow deposits until 25/26.

Skipton also don’t allow internal transfers on a Saturday (I tried it at the start of this tax year.) So anyone wanting to make a deposit would need to check how deposits made on 5/4 will be treated, and pay by debit card if it would count for 24/25.

OP’s plan sounds fine. The money they deposit on Sunday might not show/be counted until Monday (or later in rare cases, due to Faster Payment timescales) but there’s no way it can count in a year other than the one intended so the funds can arrive when they arrive.

friolento

Kim_13 said:

 

OP’s plan sounds fine. The money they deposit on Sunday might not show/be counted until Monday (or later in rare cases, due to Faster Payment timescales) but there’s no way it can count in a year other than the one intended so the funds can arrive when they arrive.

Money is credited to any account in accordance with the T&Cs of the account. There is no concept of "intended" crediting.

lr1277

Kim_13 said:

lr1277 said:

Just been looking at the ISA pages of Yorkshire Building society.

They say if you are opening a new account it has to be done by 8pm on 4/4/25 and have passed the ID checks before you can add any money to the account. And the money for this year has to be deposited by 8pm on 5/4/25.

My mum had a savings account with YBS so was already verified by them. So opening the ISA and funding it was done in about 30 minutes.

Make sure you are verified by the institution where you want to open an account by the time you come to open the ISA.

Edited to add: Further to @Aretnap's point, do you think your bank might block the transaction? Some banks are more inclined to do this than others. One advantage of YBS is that it can be funded with a debit card.

YBS are potentially not one to go with in this situation, given the increasing number of checks they perform on existing customers opening new accounts - as that might mean an account opened on Saturday did not allow deposits until 25/26.

Skipton also don’t allow internal transfers on a Saturday (I tried it at the start of this tax year.) So anyone wanting to make a deposit would need to check how deposits made on 5/4 will be treated, and pay by debit card if it would count for 24/25.

OP’s plan sounds fine. The money they deposit on Sunday might not show/be counted until Monday (or later in rare cases, due to Faster Payment timescales) but there’s no way it can count in a year other than the one intended so the funds can arrive when they arrive.

At the time I posted it was not clear, all these accounts were with the same institution. I had thought of the possibility of different institutions, where the OP might not have had an account yet.

In terms of YBS, as I said, the opening and funding was achieved within 30 minutes. However even though we entered mum's NI number at the time of the account application, a few weeks later they wrote to her asking for her let them know her NI number.

Thanks for the heads up about not being able to fund an account on a Sunday.