Cash ISA transfers – what do you need to know?

The thought of transferring your Cash ISA can be quite daunting and might seem complicated. But with the current economic climate, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re making the most out of your savings, and you should shop around to find the best ISA for you.

We’ve put together some simple tips and things to remember when transferring your ISA that might help ensure it’s a smooth process.

What is an ISA transfer?

An ISA transfer is simply where you move your existing Cash ISA from one ISA provider to another. Unlike other savings or bank accounts, however, you don’t move the money yourself. Your new ISA provider will help you with the transfer, to ensure your ISA fund retains its tax-free status.

There are various reasons you might want to move ISA providers, the most popular being to get a better interest rate, especially if you have had your existing Cash ISA for a long time. You may also have a few different Cash ISAs and want to consolidate them, or you may want to change the type of savings account you have (i.e. switch from an easy access ISA to a fixed rate one, for instance).

You can choose to transfer all or part of your existing Cash ISA, as long as you meet certain criteria (see below).

How do I transfer?

With Charter Savings Bank, you can transfer all of the current tax year’s subscriptions and those from previous years when you open a new Cash ISA.

When transferring, always make sure you do it through an ISA transfer request with your new provider, otherwise if you make a withdrawal it will no longer be held in your Cash ISA. This means that any money withdrawn cannot be repaid into an ISA later in that tax year without impacting your annual ISA allowance.

If you’d like to transfer your existing Cash ISA to a new one with us, simply let us know when you apply and we can arrange this for you. This is normally done electronically between ISA providers so it’s worth checking that your current provider can complete electronic transfers. It’s not a problem if they don’t, we can arrange this slightly differently for you. Simply download our ISA transfer form from our ‘useful documents’ page and complete the relevant details. We’ll take care of the rest.

Make sure you’re aware of any possible charges or terms and conditions that are applicable with your current provider before opening a new Cash ISA with us.

How long will my ISA transfer take?

The amount of time varies between provider and types of ISAs, but as a general rule transfers shouldn’t take longer than 15 working days for a Cash ISA.

Can I have more than one ISA?

You can only subscribe to one Cash ISA in each tax year (which runs from 6 April to 5 April); however, you can hold more than one Cash ISA within the Charter Savings Bank Mix & Match ISA to suit your needs (e.g. one Fixed Rate Cash ISA, one Easy Access Cash ISA).

Even if you have paid new funds into a Cash ISA this tax year and don’t wish to transfer those, while you can’t pay new funds into an ISA with us in the same tax year you can still transfer funds from other ISAs from previous tax years.

Note that the maximum amount your savings are protected for under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is £85,000 for individual account holders, and £170,000 for joint accounts. Go to www.fscs.org.uk for more information.

What do I need to be aware of?

• Before you initiate an ISA transfer just double check that your new provider will accept a transfer IN to your new ISA.
• If you have a fixed rate ISA, and want to transfer your savings before the fixed period has come to an end, you may incur a hefty loss of interest. So it’s usually worth waiting until the end of this period.
• If you have opened your existing Cash ISA within the current tax year, you have to transfer the whole amount to your new provider as you can only subscribe to one Cash ISA per tax year. This also is the case for any money you have paid in to any ISA (old or new) within the last year.
• If you’ve already subscribed to a Cash ISA with another ISA provider in this tax year, you shouldn’t make a deposit into an ISA with us for this tax year until the ISA has been transferred in full.
• When filling in an ISA transfer form, ensure that the details you’ve provided are correct to save time through the process – such as your name, address, ISA reference number and national insurance number.

We hope this guide has helped you to find out more about ISA transfers, but for queries about operating any of your accounts, including more information around paying in and opening accounts, check out our ISA FAQs.