Transfer to S&S ISA

A question about : Transfer to S&S ISA

I have Ј60k in a Cash ISA which I was keeping in cash for a reason that no longer exists. I now want to invest it for better returns (expected investment period is 8-15 years), but I don't know how best to get from A to B. I've had a look at a few guides, but it's all either so vague that it's not helpful or really specific but for circumstances that do not match mine (what to do if you have Ј50 a month etc).

Although I am a newbie investor (I have a pension fund but I'm not exactly involved with it) I do understand the difference between drip-feeding my money in to a moving market and putting it all in at once. What I can't work out is how this interacts with the mechanics of transferring an ISA. Is it possible to transfer Ј1,000 a month from A to B for the next five years, even if I wanted to? What do people normally do in this position?

Also, I'm not clear on how drip-feeding vs lump sum affects the charges - this is an issue both for the Ј60k and for future contributions. Do you get charged per investment, so if I pay in monthly then I pay twelve times but if I put it in all at once I just get charged once? Or is the charge usually based on the amount of money, so that 12 x small is the same as 1 x large?

Does anyone have any gut feel on what a newbie like me should go for/avoid in terms of where to put this money? I don't want it to be in some fund-of-funds-of-funds where every layer is creaming off some massive hidden charge, but nor do I have the energy to micro-manage it and pick stocks and research companies and so on on a daily basis. Given that I'm currently getting 2% interest, something that just tracks the FTSE 100 would probably be perfectly fine in terms of returns. Who is the best provider/platform/whatever-it's-called for something like this? I can always come back to it at a later date if I find myself with more spare time and want to take a more active role.

And finally, and on a slightly different topic, should I start payng this year's contribution now and risk having to move it when things have settled after the rule-change in July, or should I wait until July and see what's available?

Thanks for reading!

Best answers:

• OK, I was waiting for some of the more experienced investors to reply, but over 100 views and no comments - here are some of my thoughts.
  Warning - I'm a fairly newbie investor
  Providing your cash ISA is instant access, you can transfer it all at once, or over as long a period as you wish, into a S&S ISA.
  There are arguments for and against both drip feeding and lump sum. My personal view is that I would not invest Ј60k all at once, especially as an inexperienced investor. No one knows if the markets will rise or fall in the short term, but how would you feel if there was a substantial correction and your investment dropped by 10% - 20% the week after you invested?
  Unless you do plan to invest your Ј60k all at once, there is also no point transferring it all into an S&S ISA while you decide, as rates on cash in them are even lower than on normal cash ISAs
  As for the charges on lump sum v drip feeding - it depends which platform you choose. Some charge per purchase/sale, others charge a fixed percentage of your holding. But your first decision should not be which platform, but rather, what you want to invest in .
  When you have made that decision, then you can decide which platform offers those investments, and which is the best value for your pattern of investing. A regular poster, snowman, has devised an excellent spreadsheet which compares the costs on various platforms.
  It doesn't sound as if you want to be too hands on, so probably the passive investing approach would suit you - at least to start with.
  A good place to start reading is the Monevator site https://monevator.com/category/invest...ing-investing/
  Personally, I like the Vanguard Lifestrategy range as a reasonable place to start building a portfolio. Fund charges are quite low and all the hard work of 'rebalancing' is done for you. Also, they have a much wider focus than a FTSE tracker. Again from Monevator for an overview https://monevator.com/cheap-vanguard-index-funds/
  I don't think there's any need to rush into a decision, but I wouldn't bother putting this year's ISA allowance into a cash ISA with rates as they are at the moment.
  Have you maximised all the high interest current accounts available? If not, that would be my first suggestion while you do a bit more research.
  Hopefully now I've started the ball rolling, someone else will comment -if only to disagree with me
• Remember that the protection for Shares is Ј50k, not the Ј85k that you get on cash. So you might eventually want to split the money between two different providers (though I admit that views seem to differ on this suggestion).
  If you want a tracker consider the range from Vanguard - they are a mutual owned by their investors so their pricing is sharp. Then choose a provider: buy on cost or competence.
  If you want to hedge your bets on equities you could put some of the money instead into an ISA with - for example - Personal Assets Trust, which owns a combination of shares, bonds, cash, and gold, intending to avoid share market crashes by means of this diversification.
  https://www.patplc.co.uk
  At the very least read their annual, interim and quarterly reports - they are a wonderful free education in investing.
• Why not have a chat with Axa Self Investor and check out their site. Their customer service is excellent and very helpful. They are offering Zero account charges this year - and the individual fund charges are completely transparent.
  I recently opened a Stocks & Shares ISA with them and I am very happy with them. Last year I was with Standard Life who are a nightmare and I'm still trying to get my money out of them. I aim to write more on that elsewhere.
• Reading your posts with interest. I've got about Ј9000 in a cash ISA I'm looking at moving over to an S&S ISA. I don't think it makes a difference whether I do it before April or not..? Should I transfer it as a lump sum or drip feed.. if the latter, how slowly is advisable?
• I don't understand why anyone would want to do multiple partial transfers from a cash to a S&S ISA. Some providers will not accept partial transfers anyway.
  If you want to drip-feed into equities, then the best way to do this is transfer the whole balance and invest it in a short-duration bond fund and then gradually switch into equities. For some stats around drip-feeding lump sums see this article.