Unofficial ISA transfer

ShelfStacker_3

Hi,

I currently have a Halifax ISA from last year with about £1400 in it, and have just opened a new HSBC e-ISA for this year. Unfortunately, the new ISA doesn't allow transfers in... at least not officially.

Would it be possible to simply withdraw the money from Halifax's ISA and then pay it into the HSBC one? I am aware this would take away over a grand of my ISA limit for this year, but I'm not able to save much anyway so it wouldn't make much difference to me.

bristolleedsfan

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Hi,

I currently have a Halifax ISA from last year with about £1400 in it, and have just opened a new HSBC e-ISA for this year. Unfortunately, the new ISA doesn't allow transfers in... at least not officially.

Would it be possible to simply withdraw the money from Halifax's ISA and then pay it into the HSBC one? I am aware this would take away over a grand of my ISA limit for this year, but I'm not able to save much anyway so it wouldn't make much difference to me.

U will lose the 1400 from last years allowance and it would be 1400 towards this years allowance.

ShelfStacker_3

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

U will lose the 1400 from last years allowance and it would be 1400 towards this years allowance.

Well, that's fine, I wasn't anywhere near subscribing to the full 3000 last year, and I won't be anywhere near subscribing to the full 3600 this year. So other than that, there wouldn't be any problems?

born_again_saver

I don't see there is anything to stop you doing this. Obviously as you said you would lose some of this year's ISA allowance, but if you definitely won't be able to put in more than an extra £2,200 then I can see your logic in doing this. My only thought would be that you may do better than you think this year financially and then miss out on the extra allowance, but you'll know your own circumstances and how likely this is.

Alternatively, you could open either the Alliance and Leicester Direct ISA or the Abbey Direct ISA which both accept transfers in and both offer 6.25% AER, a better interest rate than the HSBC e-ISA. If you've already put some money into HSBC you would need to transfer this amount over to the new ISA as well as the Halifax ISA, though.

ShelfStacker_3

Not dealing with A&L again (already have a DISA with them actually, have never put anything into it though and probably never will) and from hearing about Abbey's service I'm not touching them with a bargepole.

It's unlikely I'll be able to save all that much over the next year - maybe £100 a month, £200 at a push. Might as well get a better rate on my savings while I can Thanks for the advice all.

Milarky

One 'plus' of course to drawing the cash yourself and giving it to HSBC is avoiding up to 30 days of delay associated with transfer requests....

ShelfStacker_3

Called up Halifax tonight, and after 5 minutes on hold, a security procedure and then another 15 minutes on hold, all at 20p a minute, I'll have a BACS transfer of my money on Friday Woo.

Funny tho, called HSBC and they picked up instantly. Definitely avoiding Halifax now...

YorkshireBoy

ShelfStacker wrote: »

Called up Halifax tonight...all at 20p a minute,

Definitely avoiding Halifax now...

You won't be needing to avail of their free callback service then?