ISAs are 25 years old this year and to keep them up to date, there have been a number of changes to the rules which should make opening ISAs and benefiting from ISA tax benefits even easier.
You can now pay into multiple ISAs of the same type in the same year
Up until now savers could only save into one of each type of ISA in each tax year. From April 2024, you will be able to save into multiple ISAs of the same type. So for example you can now open two or more stocks & shares ISAs with different providers in the same tax year. You might want to do this as providers offer different investment choices or to create two separate pots for different purposes.
The other benefit is that you no longer need to transfer in an ISA that you have already subscribed to in the tax year when you want to open a new ISA of the same type.
Both changes make it simpler to open an ISA, so opening a Beanstalk ISA is even easier. The only thing you need to do is to manage your contributions across your various ISAs, so that you keep within the yearly contribution limit, which remains at £20,000 for 2024/25.
Partial transfers between providers
The previous “only one ISA of the same type” rule also meant that you had to transfer over the whole balance of an existing ISA that you had subscribed to in the tax year when you opened a new ISA. The new rules change this so you can now do partial transfers.
If, for example, you have £20,000 in an existing stocks & shares ISA and you wish to only transfer £10,000 to a different provider such as Beanstalk, you can now do so from April 2024.
No need to reapply for existing ISAs each tax year
There is a little known rule that if there is a gap of more than one tax year between making subscriptions into an ISA, then you have to reapply for the ISA even though it is already open. This bit of red tape has now been abolished meaning that it’s easier to make contributions after taking a break.
Beanstalk’s great value ISA
Opening an ISA for yourself with Beanstalk is really simple whether you are saving for your kids with Beanstalk or not. We are known for our award-winning Junior ISA, but our ISA shares many of the same features such as a simple investment choice, easy access through the Beanstalk app and round ups.
My kids are all now over 18, so I just have an ISA on Beanstalk with round ups enabled, so I can invest my spare change. It’s one of the best value round up apps out there as we don’t charge a regular monthly app fee unlike many bigger providers.