ISA

[sparkellie]

Can anyone help me out?
I have a fixed rate ISA (opened in September), and £30k in a bond account which matures in April. Can I add the annual allowance of £20k into my ISA once my bond account matures, as it will be in a new tax year? Or does anyone know if I have to wait until September, which will mean needing somewhere to put the money until then.. if I have to wait any suggestions on where best to put the money until I can add it to my ISA?

Usually fixed rate ISA’s only have a limited time to make deposits (anything from 7 to 30 days) so you’ll need to check the terms and conditions you got when opening it in Sept. Also check if it accepts ‘transfers in’. Again, i think that would be very unusual for a fixed rate product.
Check the Moneysaving expert website for rates on accounts for where you can put your matured bond.
You could also open a new ISA for £20k of the bond in April

Thanks. That's what I thought regarding the existing ISA, but I will check. But I am OK to open a new ISA in April as its a new tax year, even though the existing one has only been open 6 months? Is there a limit on how many ISAs you can have? (As long as you only put £20k in per tax year).
I've had a quick look at rates but they've obviously all gone down quite a bit since this time last year, which has left me unsure of whether to lock into another bond account or not

Yes you can open as many ISA’s as you like but can only invest a total of 20k each tax year

I'm in a similar position in that I have 2 fixed rate ISAs, one April and one May, and I want to combine the 2 and add £20k in May. According to Nationwide, my April one will need to go in to an Easy Access ISA in April until the May one matures, when I can move it over to join the other one in a new fixed-rate ISA and add the £20k. The important thing is not to let any ISA come out of 'the ISA wrapper'. So, you could open a new Instant Access ISA in April and then, if you want to, move it with your existing one when it matures, into a fixed-rate one. Or, you could just open another FR ISA in April and run 2 of them.
(Not sure if that's clear, I've had a stressed Saturday! X)

You can open an ISA with 20k on 5 April if you have not added any money to an ISA in that tax year then add another 20k or open a new one on 6 April. There does t have to be a year between the deposits they just need to be in different tax years.

Thanks, I think the problem is if my current isa transfers automatically into an easy access isa the interest rate is 2.5% (at the moment - it may go down further before April, or between then and Sept) and it would have to stay there til Sept and its such a low rate with no guarantees it's making me consider whether its worth keeping in there :(

There are other easy access ISA's you can move it to which do t have such a low rate. Have a look on MSE or other comparison sites

@sparkellie You said it is a fixed rate ISA, so the rate shouldn’t change before September. That’s the purpose of the fixed rate. You can’t normally close them early and if you do, you will probably be penalised by a loss of interest.

If you open a new ISA after 5th April, using £20k of your bond, you may be able to transfer the existing ISA into it when it matures in Sept. (if that makes sense?)

Remember that if you close the ISA yourself you will lose the tax free protection of an ISA. Whether that would be worth it for you depends on other factors i.e. if you are a higher rate taxpayer, how much interest you earn from other savings etc.

@Kangarude sorry that was me getting the 2 mixed up. The bond account will mature in April so I can open a new isa then and then transfer the existing isa into the new one in September. The interest of the remaining 10k then won't take me over the savings limit.
Thank you all!