ISA question

redtomatopassata

Hi, I’m a bit clueless with ISA accounts.

I have a cash ISA fix 1 year with paid in £1.6k at 4.10%.

It will go down to variable rate after a year (I’m assuming this will be April 2026).

I have £12k in a saving account, I’m assuming I can add this to my current fix 1 year cash ISA till 5th April 2026, and then I can transfer the balance to a Reward ISA at 2.72%, rather than staying with the variable rate in the Cash ISA.

I also assume that as I put this amount (less than the £20k tax free allowance) in this year ISA, I can potentially add an additional £20K in the Reward ISA from April 6th 2026.

Is my reasoning correct?

flaneurs_lobster

It's unlikely that you can add additional funds to a fixed ISA that you opened in April, they usually only accept funds for a short period (often 30 days) from opening. There are, however, a few exceptions and you should check the terms of yours to be sure.

Nothing to stop you opening another Cash ISA now and moving your £12k there, here's a list of current cash ISAs

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/cash-isas/

What's the "Reward ISA" you mention and why would you move your funds there as opposed to anywhere else?

maman

Your fix will end in April 26 only if you took it out in April 25.

Whether you can add money to it before the end of the tax year in April will depend on the Ts & Cs of your provider and whether you used up this year's allowance when you opened it. 

saajan_12

redtomatopassata said:

Hi, I’m a bit clueless with ISA accounts.

I have a cash ISA fix 1 year with paid in £1.6k at 4.10%.

It will go down to variable rate after a year (I’m assuming this will be April 2026).

I have £12k in a saving account, I’m assuming I can add this to my current fix 1 year cash ISA till 5th April 2026

When did you open the 4.10% ISA? Usually you can only add funds for a couple of weeks after it starts. However you can add the £12k to another ISA account and it'll still count towards this years allowance. 

redtomatopassata said:

I have £12k in a saving account, I’m assuming I can add this to my current fix 1 year cash ISA till 5th April 2026 and then I can transfer the balance to a Reward ISA at 2.72%, rather than staying with the variable rate in the Cash ISA.

Only if that's when the 1 year fix matures. 
Note fixed term ISAs don't have to finish in line with the tax year - its just the date you deposited the money that counts to the 20k allowance. 

After the maturity, you could transfer the money to an easy access or a new fix - just get the providers to do the transfer for you, don't do it yourself so that it counts as 'old money' and not 'new money'. You may well find accounts paying more than 2.72%. 

redtomatopassata said:

I also assume that as I put this amount (less than the £20k tax free allowance) in this year ISA, I can potentially add an additional £20K in the Reward ISA from April 6th 2026.

Is my reasoning correct?

Yes, next year you'll have a new 20k allowance. You could add this to the same or a different ISA account as the money already in there. 

Ayr_Rage

An ISA paying 2.72% is absolutely pants as Mr Lewis would say.

Are you a taxpayer and if so what is the highest rate you are paying?

If you are only paying tax at the basic rate then a normal term account may well beat an ISA if you only plan on putting in £14k or so.

Time to do a bit more research.

redtomatopassata

It's unlikely that you can add additional funds to a fixed ISA that you opened in April, they usually only accept funds for a short period (often 30 days) from opening. There are, however, a few exceptions and you should check the terms of yours to be sure.

Nothing to stop you opening another Cash ISA now and moving your £12k there, here's a list of current cash ISAs

It’s a Cash ISA for Barclays Preminum account holder that I have opened in April, it says “you can top up whenever you like during the ISA term”. I will double check ref adding funds. Thanks 

thriftyms

Hi to the OP, you've probably checked this by now, but yes, Barclays is unusual in offering fixed-rate ISAs that you can continue to pay-in to for the whole period (12 or 18 months depending on the product). So you should be fine to do as you suggest in your original post.
You are right that the fixed-rate product matures into a cash isa with a variable rate, which IMHO is generally very poor/low. If you want to stay with Barclays, you can opt to open a Reward ISA with a slightly better rate, or you may find that by the time your ISA matures, they are offering a reasonable new fixed-rate product if that suits.