Multiple ISA's?

mancmackem

Hello all,

One of my first posts here, typically been a lurker Just a quick one, i did try to find the answer before i posted but got contradictory information. Am i allowed to take out another ISA with a different Bank/Building Soceity whilst holding an existing one? I hit my yearly limit some months ago and want to put some spare away into something else (nothing related to shares though with an expected downturn on the stock market) so happy with another ISA for now.

jamesd

You can't open another one in the same year in which you have fully used your limit. HMRC will detect this when they get the reports from the two providers and they will tell the second one to cancel the ISA.

mister_bojangles

manmackem, I think that the answer to this has been overflogged elsewhere. jamesd is right. You can have multiple ISAs (in the sense of accruing them over the years), but you cannot pay money into more than one ISA in one financial year. IN other words, if you open one today with Lloyds (with £3000) in the 2007/08 year, you can leave it untouched and keep accruing interest on it; and open another ISA account with Barclays in the 2008/09 financial year. If you do that, you can only pay funds into the Barclays account.

If, like you said, you have hit your yearly LIMIT elsewhere, then you cannot pay extra funds into another ISA, as you can only keep one running (you can only pay funds into ONE) at a time. I hope this makes sense.

Milarky

There is also the possibility of transferring any ISA ('in whole') in the same year it has been opened to another provider willing to accept the transfer. But in that case the ISA still only stays in one place at at time. Thus you can't have 'multiple' ISAs in the sense raised above.

Crabman

I'll move this to the ISAs sub-board

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Paul_Herring

jamesd wrote:

You can't open another one in the same year in which you have fully used your limit.

You can open as many as you want during a tax year, you just can't contribute to more than one. How else are you supposed to transfer if you can't open another one?

Oblivion

Paul_Herring wrote: »

You can open as many as you want during a tax year, you just can't contribute to more than one. How else are you supposed to transfer if you can't open another one?

Ah, now that's begs a question that has been bothering me. In April, I want to put my full £3,600 allocation for 2008/09 into an existing ISA with NS&I, but I would also like to transfer an old A&L TOISA (which will be become a cash ISA under 08/09 rules) to another provider offering better rates. But how can I do that when as far as I can see, most providers want at least a £1 to open a new cash ISA account, and I've already spent my annual allowance and cannot contribute to more than one supplier in a tax year?

Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Paul_Herring

Oblivion wrote: »

But how can I do that when as far as I can see, most providers want at least a £1 to open a new cash ISA account, and I've already spent my annual allowance and cannot contribute to more than one supplier in a tax year?

Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Not stupid at all, and it's one that you really need to ask the institution concerned.

Suitably phrased of course: "Your ISA account opening rules require me to break the ISA contribution rules - would you instead consider allowing me to open an ISA account without having to fund it immediately or am I unable to open an ISA account with you?"

Or find one that doesn't have that requirement.

IceSave for instance, allow you to open ISA without demanding a transfer or payment.

jamesd

Paul_Herring, opening with the transfer. While you can have more than one [STRIKE]open[/STRIKE] applied for but not subscribed, that wasn't relevant to the questioner, who wanted to subscribe to the new one. [STRIKE]You're right about the ability to do it, though.[/STRIKE]

Oblivion, any provider that accepts transfers in should have a way to handle a transfer in without current year subscription. You may need to ask their customer service people how to manage it if there's no apparent way.

10_66

jamesd wrote: »

You can't open another one in the same year in which you have fully used your limit. HMRC will detect this when they get the reports from the two providers and they will tell the second one to cancel the ISA.

You can't open another one in the same tax year, regardless of whether you've fully used your limit or not. Once you've opened one with new funds (not transferred), even if it's with just £1 and even if you close it, you cannot open another in the same tax year and put £2,999 new funds (next tax year £3,499) into it. HMRC will close the second one.

sloughflint

10_66 wrote: »

You can't open another one in the same tax year, regardless of whether you've fully used your limit or not. Once you've opened one with new funds (not transferred), even if it's with just £1 and even if you close it, you cannot open another in the same tax year and put £2,999 new funds (next tax year £3,499) into it. HMRC will close the second one.

What if one's opened but left empty until the new tax year.Is that ok?