Cash Isas Transfer discussion

A question about : Cash Isas Transfer discussion

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20 April the article above has been fully rewritten

Best answers:

• Hi,
  I currently have an Abbey Postal ISA at 5.35%, but noticed that now A&L have the best payer at 5.4%. I have held my ISA since November 2004.
  Looking at the T&Cs, Abbey don't charge for transferring their ISA to another, but A&L will in the future if I transfer again.
  Does anyone know what the charge is for transferring from the A&L Direct ISA as I couldn't find any info on it?
  I know it seems a bit silly to think so far ahead after only finding out about this ISA this morning, and the interest rate is only 0.05% more. Is it worth the hassle, since I can wait for the money by post if I wanted it.
  Cheers.
  Michael.
• A&L are currently charging Ј25 to transfer to a different provider so the 0.05% difference in rate isn't worth it (over a year) unless you have Ј50,000 in the account, which is impossible.
  I also have an Abbey Postal ISA, as I'm sure do lots of users of this forum. I am staying put for now, need something more impressive than 0.05% to shift!!
• It simply is not worth transferring for 0.05% You will lose money for the days your money is in transport, and this will be more than any gain you will make in the short term, which is all you can be certain of (ie the rates will change, so dom't say 'over 10 years I will make it back'!). Also you will be moving to an account with an exit penalty!
• Quick question... if you have already put money into an Abbey mini-cash ISA this tax year, but hold previous year's ISAs with another provider, can you only transfer into this year's ISA? - ie. you cannot open another ISA this year (e.g. First Direct 6.35%) to transfer old ISAs into because even though you are not putting more money into your ISAs overall (because you are transferring) you would be subscribing to more than one ISA in a tax year.
  ???
• I dont know, I'm in the same boat. Halifax said you have to pay in to open their account - so not with them. In general though?
• My hubby and I both have Halifax fixed rate cash ISA's at 4.7% with approx Ј6000 in each and are wondering whether we should transfer to another bank etc when we go to invest another Ј3000 for 05/06. Any advice on what our best option might be?
• Up to how much can you transfer to another ISA? How many times can you transfer to another ISA in a given year? How long does the transfer take i.e how much notice would you have to give the bank you transfer to, etc? If I have more than Ј3000 how much difference would this make, if any? For example, if I were to transfer money in this financial year over Ј3000 and were to invest this in the same or another bank would there be consequences?
  What difference would this make?
  Please help.
• You can transfer a Mini equity into to provider where you hold a Maxi equity and have it on the same account number.
• You could mention CAT standard ISAs are not allowed to charge any fees for transfers. Non-CAT ones you should read the small print before taking it out to see. I don't trust anything with an exit penalty - it suggests to me they plan to drop their rates later.
• Mini and Maxi (and past years where there really is no mini/maxi tag) Stocks & Shares ISAs can sometimes be transfered to a money supermarket using "re-registration" rather than selling/buying. They can then be switched into other funds and this should be cheaper. You can usually do this through a discount broker to save even more money.
• I'm wanting to transfer a TOISA from Leeds and Holbeck to my Abbey Postal Isa, so I got the form from Abbey to do the transfer.
  I contacted L&H asking what I should do with my passbook and they said that they would do the transferring - send a letter, the passbook and the filled in Abbey Transfer form to them and they would sort the transfer.
  This seems slightly irregular from what other people have said, but on the other hand, I was happier that L&H were sorting it out (who have provided excellent service for a number of years) rather than Abbey, who anecdotally have messed up a number of isa transfers.
  T
• Hi,
  I invested 3k last tax year in the abbey postal ISA and now want to invest 3k this year in the first direct 6% odd ISA however, as the rate ends in October am I right in thinking that I can have them both open simultaneously then when the bonus rate runs out I can just transfer across from the 1st direct to the Abbey?
  I dont particuarly want to move the 3k out of the Abbey and into the first direct as the interest only gets paid on 1st March & I only opened it up after this so it wont have earnt me anything.
  Any help much appreciated.