Zopa smart saver hub

davie56

I was left some money by my parents. As I could only invest £20k per year in an isa, i invested £20k on the 5th April over three different years with three different rates of interest.

Two of the accounts mature this April. I am told by Zopa that they will be transferred into an access isa on maturity but will not be able to transfer to an isa with another company until the third isa has matured. I can transfer the money to a bank account but would lose the isa umbrella. OR I could take out all three accounts with a penalty.

So I cannot access my isa funds without losing the isa umbrella. Surely this is not right!!

slinger2

This is a known quirk of ZOPA. See eg and many other threads.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542029/zopa-isa-transfer-out-penalty-clause

flaneurs_lobster

Afraid so, it's a "feature" of this kind of "portfolio" ISA product. Zopa treat all the savings in their ISA 'pots' as a single ISA when it comes to transfers out. Since they do not allow partial transfers out you would need to break the fixed-term of the not-yet matured ISA to release all of the funds.

Explained in their FAQs

ISA transfers out:

If you want to transfer your Smart ISA to a new provider, but have a Fixed Term ISA pot that hasn't come to the end of the fixed term, you'll need to pay an interest charge.

Note: We don't allow partial transfers, so if you choose to transfer out, you'll need to move the full amount in one go. This means, if you have Access ISA pots as well as Fixed Term ISA pots, you'll need to break the term on your Fixed Term ISA pots and pay an interest charge before transferring out – you can't just transfer your Access ISA pots.