Be ISA Wiser about the new ISA changes

Although the Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) haven't changed much over the years, the Government has made a few tweaks this year which you need to be aware of.

Most things are staying the same for the 2024/25 tax year, like the ISA allowance remaining at £20,000.

However, some of the changes might affect the way you save, so let’s look at them in more detail.

What’s new?

• The new age limit: it’s now mandatory that you need to be at least 18 to open an adult ISA. Previously, some adult ISAs could be opened at 16, but with this change, the only ISA available for anyone aged 17 or below would be a junior ISA. At Charter Savings Bank our Cash ISA have always had an age limit of 18 so this change is already in place.
• Multiple cash ISAs: previously, you were only allowed to have one cash ISA at a time, but it’s now possible to subscribe to multiple cash ISAs across providers as long as you don’t go over your £20,000 limit. This isn’t a mandatory change, and some savings providers may opt out of this. We’re in the process of looking into how we can implement this change for our customers, so keep an eye out on our website for updates.
• Partial transfers: some providers may adopt the change that allows savers to make a partial transfer of the current tax year allowance to another provider – something that was not previously allowed. This means that you can move some of your savings to a different ISA provider without having to completely close your other ISA. Again, this is a change we’re looking into and will be allowing our ISA customers to do as soon as possible.
• No need to reapply for a dormant ISA: if you now decide to pay into an existing ISA that you didn’t pay into during the previous tax year, HMRC no longer needs you to make a new application to start saving in this ISA in the new tax year. This is another change that providers don’t need to implement into their ISA application process, but we’ll be putting it into place soon.

As ever, ISAs are a fantastic choice for savers if they want to keep their interest tax free. These improvements aim to make saving with ISAs even more flexible and accommodating for people and give you more options when choosing a way to save.

If you have any questions or want any more information, check our FAQs or get in touch.