Common ISA enquires

The maximum amount you can invest in the current tax year is £20,000. You can choose to use your ISA allowance in a cash ISA, a stocks and shares ISA, an innovative finance ISA, a lifetime ISA (depending on your age and circumstance and up to the lifetime ISA limit) or any combination of the four as long as you don't exceed the annual allowance. For more information view the guide to ISA limits and rules.

The Help to Buy: ISA allowance is lower than the £20,000 cash ISA allowance, as you can only save up to £200 per calendar month. If you invest in a Help to Buy: ISA you can invest any remaining annual allowance into a stocks and shares ISA, an innovative finance ISA, a lifetime ISA (depending on your age and circumstance and up to the lifetime ISA limit) or a combination of the three.

Bear in mind; you can only save into one cash ISA in a tax year. This includes the Help to Buy: ISA and cash ISAs held outside the Halifax.

Tax years run from 6th April one year to 5th April the following year.

Cash ISAs let you save without having to pay any income tax on the interest you earn. Your money is at no more risk than any other savings account.

Stocks and Shares ISAs are an option if you're looking to invest for at least 5 to 10 years. They let you save without paying Capital Gains Tax on any potential profit you make, plus there is no further tax to pay on any income you receive from your investments. Unlike cash ISAs, the value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you originally invested.

A cash ISA is tax-free. This means that you pay no income tax on the interest you earn. Stocks and shares ISAs are tax-efficient, which is a term used to describe investments that offer tax benefits or tax relief. Any increase in value of the investments in your stocks and shares ISA is free of any personal liability to Capital Gains Tax and no income tax is payable on interest earned on investments or dividends received on shares held in an ISA.

There are limits on how many ISAs you can subscribe to in each tax year.

You can only put money into one cash ISA and/or one stocks and shares ISA and/or one lifetime ISA and/or one innovative finance ISA, and you must make sure you don’t exceed the total ISA allowance for the tax year.

Bear in mind that cash ISAs include the Help to Buy: ISA and any cash ISAs held outside the Halifax.

The only exception is if you have opened a separate ISA to pay in an Additional Permitted Subscription allowance following the death of a spouse or civil partner.

There are four main types of ISA:

• cash ISAs – where you don’t pay tax on the interest you earn (tax-free)
• stocks and shares/investment ISAs – where growth in your investment is free from income tax and capital gains tax (tax-efficient)
• lifetime ISAs – which allow you to save up to the lifetime ISA allowance each tax year and receive a government bonus of 25% of what you have saved. You can use some or all of the money to buy your first home, or keep it until you’re 60.
  - We don’t offer this ISA however you are able to transfer in from and out to a lifetime ISA subject to product rules.
  - If you want to transfer your Help to Buy: ISA to a lifetime ISA , special rules apply. Please ask your lifetime ISA provider for details.
• innovative finance ISAs – which allows interest and gains from peer to peer loans to qualify for tax advantages.
  - We don’t offer this product however you are able to transfer in from and out to an innovative finance ISA.

There are also junior cash ISAs and junior investment ISAs for children under 18 years old. A child can have both types of Junior ISA, provided they don’t exceed the annual Junior ISA allowance of £9,000 this tax year, which covers both cash and stocks and shares. Please note that we’re not currently accepting new applications for our Junior Stocks & Shares ISA.

Halifax will not charge you for transferring into an ISA, but your existing ISA manager may make administration charges for the transfer, such as for supplying information. Unfortunately, we’re not able to refund any charges made by your existing provider or refund any interest and/or bonus you may lose by transferring. You’ll need to check with your existing ISA provider.

You can transfer your ISA at any time; you don’t have to wait until the end of the tax year.

Absolutely. Just sign one form for each ISA you want to transfer to Halifax.

The money will show as a credit on the day we receive it from your previous provider.

Yes you can if you have a Help to Buy: ISA with another bank or building society. Your Help to Buy: ISA must be transferred to us in full. Remember you are only allowed to have one Help to Buy: ISA.

No, unless you are transferring current tax year ISA savings. Apart from this it’s up to you – you can transfer as much as you like from previous tax years. You could, for example, transfer your savings from the year before to the new cash ISA and leave your current tax year savings where they are.

From April 2015, the full balance in an existing Child Trust Fund can be transferred to a Junior Cash ISA, as part of the application process, which must be completed in branch. Existing Child Trust Fund holders can’t hold a Junior Cash ISA at the same time.

Yes you can. For example, if you’ve saved £2,000 in a ISA with another provider, you could transfer your ISA balances to Halifax and save the further £18,000 this tax year with us.

Yes, you can transfer it all to a new Halifax ISA. And as long as you haven’t already topped up your ISA in the current tax year, you can add the full £20,000 you get as your ISA allowance.

ISAs cannot be opened jointly. Please note, Help to Buy: ISA is no longer available for new customers from 1 December 2019. If you are an existing Help to Buy: ISA customer you can still claim the Government bonus or transfer your Help to Buy: ISA to us from elsewhere.

Save up to £200 a month (including the month you transfer your account to us from another provider), however the 25% bonus has a cap of £3,000 which would be reached when you have saved £12,000.

No, the scheme and 25% bonus is administered by a 3rd party on behalf of the Government and the money is transferred to your conveyancer.

You'll need to close your account in one transaction and provide your Help to Buy: ISA closing documents to your conveyancer at the time of purchasing your home and they will claim the bonus on your behalf.

No, only conveyancers/solicitors registered with the scheme can be used. So, you will need to ask this when appointing a conveyancer/solicitor.

No, the scheme is designed for first time buyers to live in their homes here in the UK.

We'll set your Help to Buy: ISA back up with the savings you had in at the point you claimed the bonus, but you’ll need to visit your local branch to start the process. The bonus will return to the scheme administrator but can be claimed again when you find another home.

If your house sale has fallen through due to Covid-19 (up to 30 June 2020) you will have 15 months (rather than the normal 12) to reinstate your Help to Buy: ISA from the date you first closed the account and your conveyancer should give you a Purchase Failure Notice stating 15 months.

You need to visit a branch to close your Help to Buy: ISA. If you withdraw or transfer any money to another account before closing your Help to Buy: ISA, that amount will not be eligible for the bonus.

Yes you can. Remember, you can’t claim the Government bonus on any money you withdraw, therefore if you make withdrawals it may take you longer to save towards your first home as you can only pay in a maximum of £200 a month.

No you can’t renew an existing ISA into a Help to Buy: ISA. You can only transfer your existing Help to Buy: ISA to us from another provider.

Yes you can, however, the Government bonus cannot be claimed if you move to a non Help to Buy: ISA.

Yes, as long as you meet all the other eligibility criteria. Anyone that is not a first time buyer would not be eligible for a Help to Buy: ISA bonus.

No. You must pay into your account by standing order. This should reach us by the 25th of the month.

Yes. Flexible ISAs allow you to withdraw and replace funds from some of our cash ISAs without affecting your yearly ISA allowance, providing you replace funds in the same tax year that you withdraw them. So, say you pay £20,000 into an ISA and then take out £500, you can top it up with £500 before the end of the tax year. The allowance resets every tax year on the 6th of April.

Please note: Your ability to withdraw and replace funds may be limited by the particular conditions of your ISA, for example, if you have a Help to Buy: ISA

Flexible ISAs allow you to withdraw and replace funds from some of our cash ISAs without affecting your yearly ISA allowance, providing you replace funds in the same tax year you withdraw them.

Your ability to withdraw and replace funds may be limited by the particular account conditions of your ISA, for example, if you have a Help to Buy: ISA.

The flexible allowance from the withdrawal of prior year funds cannot be transferred between ISA providers. If you do not replace withdrawals before a transfer, the allowance will be lost.

The ISA limit for the year still applies so you can only hold a maximum of £20,000 across your cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA, lifetime ISA and innovative finance ISA.

Instant ISA Saver, ISA Saver Variable, Variable ISA Saver and ISA Saver Online are fully flexible.

ISA Saver Fixed and Help to Buy: ISA do not have full flexibility as this is limited by product rules. See individual product conditions for full details.

Flexibility does not apply to Junior Cash ISA.

Yes, as long as you replace it in the tax year that it was withdrawn. You can also deposit up to the annual ISA allowance (less any amount invested in a stocks and shares ISA, lifetime ISA or innovative finance ISA).

Any previous years’ subscriptions that have been withdrawn must be replaced before you request an ISA transfer. Current year’s subscriptions can be replaced following the transfer as long as they are replaced in the same tax year that they were withdrawn. You can also deposit up to the annual ISA allowance (less any amount invested in a stocks and shares ISA, lifetime ISA or innovative finance ISA).

No, any funds withdrawn must be replaced in the same tax year otherwise you will effectively lose the allowance and the replaced funds will count towards the following year’s tax allowance.