Can I do this with Trading212 & is there a L-ISA 'cool off' (to get money back)?

B0bbyEwing

TRADING212:

OH opened account with them to bag their rate. It since dropped 0.1% it seems. Just went to sort out putting money in today & our (my) fault - there seems to have been some short period of time where you needed to credit the account to get the rate as a notification flashed up for her saying she has 3 days to secure the rate which was 9 days ago.

Her account now shows as 3.whatever%, not the 4.whatever (.68?) % that she signed up for.

Would it be possible to just close the account down (nothing has been paid in) sign up again, bag the 4.(58?)% rate & credit it in time, or is she now seen as a customer even though not credited & she'll not get that rate now?

LISA:

Chucked a few £thousand in to our L-ISAs in the morning. In that same day my car went knackered & needs selling at a loss. I now need to get a replacement car.

If I'd had a crystal ball then I wouldn't have put as much or even any in to the LISAs this year.

Is there a cool-off period where you can get your money back? I'm not talking about all your money, I'm talking about just this payment in.

To be clear we're with AJ-Bell & have been for years so it was a payment in to an already running account in to funds we were already invested in.

I'm going to guess the answer is no but if I don't ask then there's no chance.

eskbanker

I don't think you'd succeed on either front - the T212 promotion is for new customers, so I can't imagine it working second time round, although nothing to lose by trying I suppose.

And there's no cooling-off period for deposits into ISAs, just one for opening them in the first place, so if you find yourself needing access to LISA funds then you'll need to pay the 25% withdrawal penalty, although it's effectively 6.25% when measured against what you paid in.

Linking the two questions, is there any scope for redirecting some of the funds intended for T212 towards the car purchase rather than having to break into the LISA?

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968548#Comment_81968548

Thanks for the reply. Nothing lost in asking I guess though I suspected the answer would be as you gave.

The T212 was just for dribbling money in to to go towards holidaying really. The money in to that wasn't really connected to the L-ISA but I see where you're coming from.

I got stung the last tax year by earning beyond the 1k threshold on savings so ended up having to pay more tax via my wages - and so for this tax year I was wanting to better use ISAs, even if their interest rates may not be as good as 'normal' savings accounts.

eskbanker

If you earned over £1K in interest from taxable non-ISA savings, aren't any of those savings accessible (instead of needing to pay to withdraw from LISA)?

Having easy access to an emergency fund is often recommended on here, so, even if too late this time, in future it'll be worth ring-fencing some money to ensure that it's readily available if needed - obviously you can access money in LISAs, or fixed rate cash ISAs for that matter, but it's an expensive route given the penalties for doing so…