isa

[banth]

Am I right in thinking you can only have one mini ISA at a time, or can you have the �3000 per year spread over two. Would I have to close my current ISA which I haven't put any money in this tax year so I could open an online ISA which has a better savings rate?

Thanks

[stevie21]

You CAN have two but possibly a better option would be (while opening or after opening the new ISA) to "transfer" your old ISA to the new provider.

If you have �2000 in the old one then the new provider takes over this balance, it's in your new account but doesn't count towards this year's contributions, allowing you to pay in another �3000 until April 06.

This way, your balance in the new ISA could be �5000 and all your money gets this higher interest rate. ANOTHER benefit of this is that some providers have tiered interest rates and you might get even more interest than you'd bargained for. Smashing, eh?

Don't you just love finance? Nah, me neither.

[dzug]

You can have as many ISAs as you want with as many different providers as you want.

However, in any one tax year you can only open and contribute to one. Each year is technically a separate ISA, even if it is with the same provider.

So last year you could have had an ISA with say C&G.

This year you might have one with Leeds BS.

Next year you might have one with the Woolwich.

You can keep them all going - what you have to remember is that you cannot add any more contributions to the old ones - only roll up the interest.

The only thing to remember about transferring old ISAs is that some (not all) providers charge an exit fee which you'd have to weigh against the extra interest.