Transfer Cash ISAs Discussion Area

MarkyMarkD

There's no chance of the A&L one being withdrawn before 6 April. They wouldn't launch it now, simply to dump it in 3 weeks.

So I'd suggest chilling out, leaving your existing money where it is (or transferring it to someone other than A&L) and then opening the A&L one on 6 April. That's certainly what I'm going to do!

thepoundster

I'm confused by not being allowed to withdraw my ISA. I want to open an A&L Cash ISA but it doesn't allow transfers in. My current ISA is with Natwest and isn't great in comparison. Whats the harm in me withdrawing the money from Natwest and opening a new ISA with A&L on 6th April 2010?

Please someone help my hurting head!

Dustykitten

thepoundster wrote: »

I'm confused by not being allowed to withdraw my ISA. I want to open an A&L Cash ISA but it doesn't allow transfers in. My current ISA is with Natwest and isn't great in comparison. Whats the harm in me withdrawing the money from Natwest and opening a new ISA with A&L on 6th April 2010?

Please someone help my hurting head!

If you withdraw funds from an ISA you loose the tax benefits from previous years. Over time if you use you full allowance every year you build up a pot of tax free savings but as soon as you remove some that money looses it's benefit as it cannot be put back. If however, you do not have the funds in the coming year to invest 'new' money then you may choose to withdraw and reinvest. HTH

Baldur

thepoundster wrote: »

I'm confused by not being allowed to withdraw my ISA. I want to open an A&L Cash ISA but it doesn't allow transfers in. My current ISA is with Natwest and isn't great in comparison. Whats the harm in me withdrawing the money from Natwest and opening a new ISA with A&L on 6th April 2010?

The general advice regarding not withdrawing funds from a Cash ISA is because, once funds leave the tax-free ISA 'wrapper', those funds cannot be replaced.

If you have £5,100 or less in your Natwest Cash ISA, there is no real reason why you should not withdraw the funds and use them to fund your 2010/11 Cash ISA - especially if you know that you will not be able to subscribe your full 2010/11 ISA allowance to the A&L account without those funds.

jamesd

MarkyMarkD, seems unlikely to me as well. More likely is someone else launching a better deal.

thepoundster, nothing at all if you don't mind the money paid in to A&L on 6 April counting against your 2010-11 cash ISA subscription limit. Most of the fancy discussion here is for people who don't want that to happen. If your balance is say £2500 now and all you're going to do next tax year is add say another 500 you can ignore all this fancy discussion and just do whatever you like because you won't go over £5100 total next year anyway.

Kezia47

Hi I have a ISA taken out April 2008 with Barclays , Nationwide are offering a E ISA is it good to transfer from Barclays to Nationwide , I do have other Nationwide accounts . I am retired so not even sure if an ISA is right for me at all ??? I get totally confused with it all , I have very little money just trying to make the best of what I have . many thanks Valerie

loulou2702

I have some old ISA's ( 3) which I would like to transfer to get a better rate. They are old and have various amounts of money in them ( all over £4,000 each)
I think Santander ISA acount looks best for this. I have applied and got all the forms. However, I am a bit confused. I have always put the max amount into a cash ISA each year and then left it and never taken money out . If money is taken out does that make the ISA void or do you still get it on the remaining amount.
1. If I transfer all 3 into the one new account ( which I think is what will happen) How does that effect any money I take out in the future.
I have bever touched any of the money I have put in inthe past but never know whats round the corner. I htought they would go into 3 different account according to the year they were started??
2. ALso. If I want to tansfer the money out again in 12 months to get a better rate, does it count as 1 ISA or 3 sepearate ones.
So you see I am confused and help need here. Thanks in advance.

KTF

The Santander ISA does not allow transfers in from previous products.

To answer your questions.

1. When you transfer in, all the money is consolodated into 1 account at whatever rate that account is offering. Any money taken out cannot be put back in.
2. When you transfer out this can be as 1 lump sum or split into several ISAs if the account you are moving it to accepts partial transfers.

Baldur

KTF wrote: »

The Santander ISA does not allow transfers in from previous products.

The Flexible ISA (3.5%) does not, the Direct ISA (2.75%) does.

loulou2702 wrote: »

...If money is taken out does that make the ISA void or do you still get it on the remaining amount.

Any balance remaining in the ISA will continue to be tax free, subject to any Terms & Conditions that apply to the particular account.

If I transfer all 3 into the one new account ( which I think is what will happen) How does that effect any money I take out in the future.

As above

If I want to tansfer the money out again in 12 months to get a better rate, does it count as 1 ISA or 3 sepearate ones.

One, unless you do partial transfers of previous tax years' funds, which is permitted.

KingL

You can transfer all three into a single ISA to get the better rate. Behind the scenes it will be recorded that they each started in different years and that you haven't broken any rules. Note that you must use the ISA transfer process. Do not simply withdraw the funds and pay them in somewhere else. The new ISA provider will tell you how to start the ISA transfer.

New money paid in in the future (new subscriptions) has nothing to do with old transfers. You can still add £5100 (next years limit) into an ISA each year - either into a brand new one or into the one that you transfered the old three into (as long as the terms of that ISA don't say you cant).

If you take money out (as ordinary cash) it just means you can't put it back into an ISA again. You can put £5100 into an isa each year and no more.

If you consolidate your 3 ISAs into and want to transfer it somewhere else next year (or next month or next week), you would probably want to keep it all together (and put it all in one place with the best interest rate), but you could do multiple "part-transfers" out to multiple different ISAs if you wanted to.

btw, which Santander ISA are you talking about? You do know that the 3.5% one doesn't accept transfers, don't you ?