Help to Buy ISA or LISA with a 3-5 year time limit?

Question

Boring Money · Accepted Answer

Hi Balwant,

If you plan to keep the Virgin Money ISA and continue to pay in monthly while investing in the new Stocks and Shares ISA, then the answer is no. You are able to transfer the Virgin ISA to the new ISA provider and then contribute to it, but you would not be able to pay into both the Stocks and Shares ISAs in the same tax year. A more detailed explanation of the rules are below:

You can only invest money as a lump sum or monthly contribution into one Stocks and Shares ISA provider in a tax year but you can hold a Stocks and Shares ISA with more than one provider for ISA balances built up in previous tax years. There are now a number of ISA solutions to save into, including:

Stocks and Shares ISA

Cash ISA

Innovative Finance ISA

Lifetime ISA

You can save into a combination of these but you cannot save into more than one of the same type of ISAs in the same tax year.

So, in the example you have given above you would not be able to save into both Stocks and Shares ISAs monthly in the same tax year if the money is invested with different Stocks and Shares ISA providers. If you stop the monthly contribution on your existing ISA before the next tax year then you can decide to start a new Stocks and Shares ISA with another provider on the 7th of April 2019, as long as you only save into this Stocks and Shares ISA for the next tax year.

It’s worth considering what your objectives are before you go ahead and use more than one provider. If you are looking to save into different providers to invest in different funds or stocks then you could consider using what is referred to as a platform or online provider that offers a variety of investments almost like a ‘investment supermarket’. This is effectively a way of buying more than one fund or stock in one place allowing you to save into different investments on a monthly basis with one provider. The downside of this is that they normally charge you, but Boring Money has a Best Buys table that you can refer to with reviews and ratings on all the players.

I hope this helps.