Noob question about cash ISAs

twozeronine · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:04

There's one thing I still don't quite understand about cash ISAs. If I open an ISA at the beginning of the tax year and dump the maximum allowance in to it, what happens at the end of the tax year? Can I just leave it in there and put in another £5760, and keep building it up this way, or do I have to withdraw it, or what? :confused:

Nothing I've read seems to explain this clearly enough for me.

Azza · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:07

Leave it in there and then you get a new allowance for the new tax year. Or you could transfer it into a new ISA or open up another ISA.

NXZT · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:08

you can leave the amount and build up cash that way over time.

twozeronine · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:09

Well that clears that up then, thanks.

Jokester · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:10

At the start of each tax year look around for a better deal though and transfer into that.

twozeronine · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:14

Jokester said:
At the start of each tax year look around for a better deal though and transfer into that.

I think that's what confused me. People always talking about transferring it made me think you couldn't add more on top of it. That sounds stupid now that I typed it out.

AFK_Matrix · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:40

But remember if you are transferring your isa to another one to NOT withdraw the money yourself. On the former for the new isa it will have a section to transfer the money.

semi-pro waster · 28 Mar 2013 at 19:59

AFK_Matrix said:
But remember if you are transferring your isa to another one to NOT withdraw the money yourself. On the former for the new isa it will have a section to transfer the money.

You're right, you want it to stay in the tax-free wrapper and that is how you can build up a fairly substantial amount of tax-free savings over time.

theukmoog · 28 Mar 2013 at 22:23

Also, you can have more than one Cash ISA account but only one account can be subscribed to in any single tax year, up to that year's limit (£5,640 for 2012/13; £5,760 for 2013/14).

So if you find a good deal next year but they don't accept transfers in, you can just keep the old account sitting there and open a new ISA for 2013/14.