ISA opened before end of 25/26 tax year but transfer in, deposit showing as 7/4/26. used up 26/27?

sherbie28

Sorry for the long title, wasn't sure how to word it. Dad opened a Skipton ISA on 19/3/26. Requested transfer in of a Lloyds ISA that didn't mature until 2/4/26. Also funded the Skipton ISA with money from his current account on 3/4/26 (debit card payment i think). He is looking to open a new ISA for 26/27 however, on his current account banking app it is showing the transaction clearing date as 7/4/26. Also Skipton showing the Lloyds transfer in date as 7/4/26. So on paper it looks likes he did everything after the 6/4/26 even though he didn't. Does that mean he can't open a new ISA for 26/27?

surreysaver

If it's a transfer, then the money was already in an ISA, so it's not new money.

eskbanker

The date of the transfer doesn't matter, as that doesn't affect annual contribution allowance.

However, the date of the new money deposit does matter - was there any guidance by Skipton on year-end deadlines, as this year was particularly problematic given the Easter long weekend (Friday 3rd wasn't a working day and the next working day was indeed Tuesday 7th)?

I think there was recently a post about the contribution date technically being the date the payment was initiated rather than completed, will look for that…

Edit: this is what I was thinking of, courtesy of @masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81950947#Comment_81950947

masonic

Yes, if it was a debit card payment authorised on the 3rd, then that should be no problem. Most providers will show you how much of your allowance they think you have left if you go through the motions of making another deposit, so this would be an easy way to confirm Skipton doesn't think any 26/27 allowance has been used.

DRS1

Some of the year end notes said debit card payments should be OK even on 5 April but bank transfers had to be done sooner. So you should check which method he used. But isn't the simple answer to look at the Skipton ISA and see what that says about what year's allowance he has used? Maybe cash ISAs don't have that sort of thing but my S&S ISA has a big figure saying how much of this year's allowance is left to fill.

lr1277

I think for Skipton's non-ISA savings accounts, whilst they do allow you to fund the account with a debit card, they do say the money won't start earning interest till a few days later when the money is actualy with Skipton.

Perhaps the same applies to the ISA account and that is what happened here?

In fact Skipton say this on their site:

Interest from debit card payments starts to accrue on the third business day, from and including the day on which a debit card payment is made into your account (if this is a business day).

This is taken from this web page https://www.skipton.co.uk/help-and-support/savings-help/paying-in#accordion-8687493306-item-b817234ae5

under the heading "Important information when paying in with deibt cards

Even if your dad had done a bank transfer to Skipton on 3/4/26, this would have been a faster payment. So Skipton may have received it in minutes and hence within the 25/26 tax year, or as faster payments allows the money to be received by the end of the next working day, it may have credited on 7/4/26, so would be classed as funding in the 26/27 tax year.

Edited to add: This was an unfortunate situation of a tax year end and a long Easter weekend.

With hindsight it would have been easy to recommend:

You dad opening an 25/26 ISA with his current account provider which I assume is Lloyds. The advantage of this is they money can be transferred across in the app or on the website. It will credit instantly and would definitely have been in the 25/26 tax year. Then at his leisure he could have transferred that to Skipton.

sherbie28

The Skipton app has the interest rate and then underneath states: paid into account: £0.00. I'm guessing that means for 26/27. The card payment in Skipton has 3/4/26, I've just read an email from them with the isa deadline dates so I think he's ok because it said debit card payments was 11pm on the 4/4/26.

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968342#Comment_81968342

For debit card payments, there are three dates to be aware of:

1. The authorisation date (this is when it is deemed to have been received as a subscription by HMRC) - 3/4/26 in this case
2. The posting date, which could be a later date (e.g. next working day) for payments made at certain times - 7/4/26 in this case
3. The clearing date (usually when the payment starts earning interest) - likely 9/4/26 in this case

For bank transfers, there is usually only one relevant date and that is the posting date, so here's hoping it wasn't a bank transfer!

lr1277

@masonic why wouldn't the authorisation date be the date Skipon received the money in their coffers? In which case it would be 7/4/26 instead of 3/4/26.

From your text you say 'have been received as a subscription'.

This to me means the date Skipton received the money.

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968366#Comment_81968366

The authorisation date is the date the customer authorises the transaction with their card issuer through the merchant's payment portal. See the repost eskbanker shared a few posts earlier of one of my posts to the HMRC ISA regulations. Skipton won't actually receive the money until a couple of days later when the debit card transaction clears. This will usually be after the posting date, but might not be the case for a transaction on Good Friday.

[Deleted User]

I think the moral of the story is don't open an ISA near the end of a tax year that falls at Easter lol. He is new to ISAs so he's still finding his feet (as am I seeing as I'm the one that does all the donkey work!)