Can You Have ISAs With Different Providers?

Individual Savings Accounts: An Overview

An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a specialized savings and investment vehicle for UK residents. It allows individuals to save or invest money without incurring UK income tax, capital gains tax, or dividend tax on the returns generated, ensuring all earnings within the ISA are exempt from further taxation.

The Core Rule for ISA Contributions

Each tax year (April 6th to April 5th), individuals receive an annual ISA allowance. For the 2025/26 tax year, this allowance is £20,000 for adult ISAs. This limit applies to the total new money an individual can contribute across all their ISAs within that tax year. The allowance is “use it or lose it”; unused portions cannot be carried over. The overall allowance can be split across different ISA types, such as Cash, Stocks & Shares, and Innovative Finance ISAs. A Lifetime ISA (LISA) has a separate annual contribution limit of £4,000, which also counts towards the overall £20,000 annual ISA allowance.

Managing ISAs with Multiple Providers

It is permissible to hold ISAs with different providers, offering flexibility in managing your savings and investments. Rule changes from April 2024 allow individuals to open and contribute to multiple ISAs of the same type in the same tax year, provided total contributions remain within the annual allowance.

For instance, you could open multiple Cash ISAs with different providers in the same tax year. The only exceptions to this multiple subscription rule are Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs, where contributions are still limited to one of each type per tax year.

ISAs opened and contributed to in previous tax years can continue to be held with their respective providers indefinitely, allowing a portfolio of ISAs across various institutions to accumulate over time.

Transferring Your ISAs Between Providers

Transferring existing ISA funds from one provider to another is a distinct process from making new contributions and typically does not count towards your annual ISA allowance.

To maintain the tax-free status of the funds, it is crucial to use the official ISA transfer process rather than withdrawing the money yourself and re-depositing it. Withdrawing funds directly would cause them to lose their ISA tax wrapper and potentially exhaust part of your current year’s allowance if you tried to re-invest them.

Both current year’s contributions and funds from previous tax years can be transferred, either partially or in full. The new ISA provider typically initiates the transfer by requesting the funds from your existing provider.

Transfer times vary, typically up to 15 working days for cash ISAs and up to 30 calendar days for other types like Stocks & Shares ISAs. Some providers may levy fees or penalties for transferring out, particularly for fixed-term products.