ISA rules
ISA transfers: moving your savings without losing the tax shelter
Enter the balance you want to move, the rate it earns now and the rate on offer elsewhere. The tool shows the extra tax-free interest a year and the time limit for the move.
What switching your ISA is worth
Extra interest a year, tax free
£425
| Interest now | £625 |
| Interest after switching | £1,050 |
| Longest a cash ISA transfer should take | 15 working days |
A transfer does not use this year’s allowance. Withdrawing and paying in again does, unless the ISA is flexible.
An ISA transfer moves money from one ISA to another, with the same or a different provider, without it leaving the tax shelter and without using the current year’s allowance. GOV.UK says the investment can have been made this year or in previous years, and that all or part of an ISA can be moved at any time. The new provider handles it: you fill in its transfer form rather than withdrawing the money yourself. If you withdraw instead, that money loses its ISA status and putting it back in counts as a new payment, unless the account is flexible and you replace it in the same tax year. Transfers between cash ISAs should take no longer than 15 working days, other transfers no longer than 30 calendar days. From 6 April 2027, SI 2026/1018 stops anyone who is under 65 at the end of the tax year moving money from a stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA into a cash ISA. Moves from cash into investments stay open.
Sums checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the sums are done
How a transfer works
The GOV.UK page on transferring an ISA sets the sequence. You contact the provider you want to move to and fill in its ISA transfer form. The providers then deal with each other, which is what keeps the money inside the shelter: GOV.UK warns that withdrawing it yourself means you cannot reinvest that part of your tax-free allowance. You can move the whole ISA or only part of it, to the same type of ISA or a different one.
The time limits are set out by GOV.UK: 15 working days for transfers between cash ISAs and 30 calendar days for the other kinds. Innovative finance ISAs can transfer their cash, but some of their investments may not be movable. Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs have their own transfer limits.
What a better rate is worth
| Balance | Extra interest at +1 point | At +2 points | Tax if left outside an ISA (2027/28) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £10,000 | £100 | £200 | £0.00 |
| £25,000 | £250 | £500 | £0.00 |
| £50,000 | £500 | £1,000 | £220.00 |
| £85,000 | £850 | £1,700 | £528.00 |
The last column shows why the route matters. Withdrawing the money to chase a rate means the balance leaves the ISA. At £10,000 the interest would still be inside a basic rate taxpayer’s £1,000 allowance and cost nothing. At £50,000 or £85,000, the same interest would cost hundreds of pounds a year at the 22 % rate that applies from April 2027. And rebuilding that shelter would take years of allowances, since an under-65 saver can only put £12,000 of new cash into ISAs each year from 2027/28.
The 2027 restriction
From 6 April 2027, SI 2026/1018 amends regulation 21 of the ISA Regulations. A transfer of funds from a stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA to a cash ISA may only take place if the account holder is 65 or over at the end of the tax year. The HMRC newsletter of June 2026 described the same rule when the anti-avoidance measures were announced. The directions that stay open are these.
- Cash ISA to cash ISA: open at every age.
- Cash ISA to stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA: open at every age.
- Stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA to cash ISA: from 2027/28, only for those who are 65 or over on 5 April at the end of the year; see the page for savers over 65.
Until 5 April 2027 the current rules apply, so transfers from investment ISAs into cash remain possible at any age before that date. The wider reform is explained on the page on the April 2027 changes.
Transfer or flexible withdrawal
A flexible ISA lets you take cash out and put it back in the same tax year, but only into that account. Moving money to another provider is always a transfer if the shelter is to be kept. The allowance page shows what remains of the current year once transfers are set aside.