Is the coronavirus crisis a good time to start investing for the first time?

I have £16k to invest, and now seems like a good time to invest it. I have put £4k into a cash LISA already this tax year (2019/20) but nothing into general ISAs. If time is a probably I can put the £16k into cash now and move to S&S later. My feeling is that it won't be a bad thing to invest in an S&S ISA now but it may be a better idea to drip feed from cash into funds/stocks over the coming year in case the long term Covid-19 effect coupled with hard Brexit means the markets drop further. I have a small investment in Moneybox and whilst it would be easy to keep all my investments in one place, they are telling me that to transfer from cash to S&S on their platform takes weeks... Do you know of any S&S ISA platforms where I can pay cash in, but drip feed to S&S relatively quickly? I'm not looking to trade per se, so a platform that can move in days rather than weeks would be fine. Any additional commentary/opinion you can provide on that strategy would be gratefully received. Thanks!

Hi Malti,

There are many platforms which will let you pay cash into the Stocks and Shares ISA account now, and then set up regular instructions to invest in gradual amounts over the coming months.

Most platforms will accept payment if you use a debit card – and the cash will get there on the same day as you process it.

Our Best Buys tables will help you to decide – with £16,000 I suggest you look at AJ Bell Youinvest or Hargreaves Lansdown – both of which also offer Stocks and Shares Lifetime ISAs too should you want to avail yourself of this down the track. You can always take the money out of the Stocks and Shares ISAs (NB not the Lifetime ISA where penalties will apply) if you want to.

Both these 2 platforms will let you set up regular buy instructions which will support you to drip feed in.

Hope that helps.

Holly