More than 85k in your ISA

[bermonths]

Just wondering if someone can advise what to do if your ISA is about to go over the 85k threshold, which is obviously the protected amount you can have with any one bank.

Would still like to keep the money in an ISA - but you can't have two active ones as far as I know?

You can have as many active ones as you like.

I have several.

Oh! Is that a new thing..? Can't believe I didn't know that. Thank you!

You can have as many active ones as you want. But you're still only protected for up to £85k in one bank.

Yes it's a new thing

Yes, spread them around to ensure you are covered.
Think my OH & I have four each, all opened and maturing in different years.

You can open a new one (with the same or different provider) with 'new' money each year.

For existing ISAs (ie opened in previous tax years) you can transfer them (using the official transfer procedure - do not withdraw the money as it will lose its tax-free status) to a different provider.

An ISA is only 'active' if you've opened it this tax year or paid money into it this tax year. After the end of the tax year in which the account was opened/last had money paid in, it is still an ISA but might be marked 'inactive' - which basically means you haven't/can't add more money to it. But it is still an ISA and earning interest.

What type of ISA do you have? You can probably make a partial transfer to a different provider, so you can move some of the money to keep the total under £85k.

No, it's not a new thing.

Thanks for this. I’d forgotten about the 85k thing. I have stupidly topped mine up to over 100, so I need to do something about that.

Definitely not a new thing. We've got several different ones and have done for over 15 years.

You've always been able to have as many as there are years as long as you stick to the rules

It is partly a new thing. The old rules were that you can have as many ISAs as you like, but only pay into one of each kind (S&S, cash) in any given tax year. Now you can pay into multiple ones of the same type per year. (LISAs are a bit different.)

Remember that the ISA limit (currently £20k per year) is a total, not per account!

When you have that much cash I'd be starting to think about putting some in stocks and shares.

Yes this!

I've got 3 ISAs with about 50k in each but they've been drip fed over a number of years.

I have 40k in an index fund at medium risk.

You can do it through an IFA or if you do your research, you can do it yourself. I did.

Yes this what I meant.