Opening 2 ISA's in one year, definition of subscribing?

RichIbizaSport · 12 Sep 2008 at 15:13

Hey guys, cant really find the answer im after with google etc.

Ive got a few ISA's already open from previous years, with several different banks: ING, B&B, YBS. Ive currently used the £3600 allowance for this tax year the ING account. Unfortunately all the rates in these are quite frankly rubbish.

So my question is, am i allowed to open a new ISA (with alliance and leicester) to transfer all my ISA's into it (without adding any more funds)

Ive read through a few banks T&C's and it says:

When you open an ISA account you confirm that you have not subscribed and will not subscribe to another Cash ISA in the same tax year.

When it says 'subscribe' does that mean pay into? or sign upto?

thanks

Burned_Alive · 12 Sep 2008 at 15:17

You should be able to transfer all your current ISAs into the A+L ISA, yes. Essentially the rules round up to saying you can only put £3600 per year into an ISA.

drunkenmaster · 12 Sep 2008 at 18:21

£3600 per tax year, you can only open a single account per year also, so say you open a tax isa with Halifax, assuming the particular one you want lets you keep paying money in you can top off that single account to the £3600 limit, or do it one lump sum. Transfering accounts is different and doesn't count to the limit. You can transfer them generally where you want and afaik lots of banks will cover the transfer fee's involved as lots of charge from existing account to release it.

I'm not sure exactly what the rules are with what interest you'd get from each bank, some might pay the interest yearly and you might have to give up the interest when you transfer it, so it may only be worth doing very very very early on in the tax year. Check all the T&C's work out where you want to transfer for a better rate but make sure you don't lose months of interest in moving. Its better to have a full year at 5.5% than transfer and only get 6 months at a 6.5% rate.

Vonhelmet · 12 Sep 2008 at 20:04

I'll check the SIs in my tax legislation books tomorrow, but tonight is all about beer and Mario Kart, so I'm afraid I can't help you right now.

Ben M · 12 Sep 2008 at 20:05

you can transfer a cash ISA to a different bank and it shouldn't cause issues.