Oddity noticed with my ISAs

TonyS_1980

HI,

I have spotted something odd with my isas. I took out a NS&I direct ISA in 06/07 tax year then and Egg cash ISA in 07/08 tax year, and then added my 08/09 allowance of 3600 into the Egg ISA, so now has 2 tax years of money in that.

I checked the NS&I ISA over the weekend and noticed it said I could add £3600 into that account for the 08/09 tax year.

My question is can I add that extra £3600 into the NS&I account to ineffect have two monies of £3600 for 08/09 tax year in the two different isa’s I have open. It looks like Egg have not updated my details to stop me investing any more money in other isa’s?

As far as I know this is not allowed, but if I did add this money into the NS&I account would I then at a later date get a penalty/ fine for having too much money being saved?

I know the NS&I is not the best interest rate but if I am able to save extra money from finding this possible loop hole/mistake/ wahtever it is then it will be worth while in the long run?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

debbie42

TonyS_1980 wrote: »

My question is can I add that extra £3600 into the NS&I account to ineffect have two monies of £3600 for 08/09 tax year in the two different isa’s I have open. It looks like Egg have not updated my details to stop me investing any more money in other isa’s?

As far as I know this is not allowed, but if I did add this money into the NS&I account would I then at a later date get a penalty/ fine for having too much money being saved?

I know the NS&I is not the best interest rate but if I am able to save extra money from finding this possible loop hole/mistake/ wahtever it is then it will be worth while in the long run?

It isn't a loophole: the banks don't check if you have other accounts with other providers. HMRC however are a different matter! They are the ones to be concerned about if you overstep your tax allowances.

jem16

TonyS_1980 wrote: »

My question is can I add that extra £3600 into the NS&I account to ineffect have two monies of £3600 for 08/09 tax year in the two different isa’s I have open.

No you can only put money into one of your ISAs.

It looks like Egg have not updated my details to stop me investing any more money in other isa’s?[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

Egg can't tell what other money you have in any other accounts.

As far as I know this is not allowed, but if I did add this money into the NS&I account would I then at a later date get a penalty/ fine for having too much money being saved?

HMRC will eventually notice and will probably void one of the ISAs.

Mikeyorks

TonyS_1980 wrote: »

I checked the NS&I ISA over the weekend and noticed it said I could add £3600 into that account for the 08/09 tax year.

ISA providers are required to check you don't exceed your annual subscription limit within their systems. But it would be unreasonable to expect they can also patrol the systems of other providers .... where you may earlier or later have legitimately set up an ISA.

But somewhere they will have a caution to the following effect. This is from the T&Cs relating to your NS&I ISA :-

The applicant must not subscribe to another cash ISA in the same tax year (ie a period of 12 months starting on 6 April).

TonyS_1980

Ok thanks for clearing that up.

Lavendyr

That is why you have to give your NI number when applying for an ISA - HMRC use it to track your ISAs and if they find you've subscribed to more than one ISA in a tax year, or have subscribed more than the permitted amount, they will get you... :P