ISAs
What is a Cash ISA?
An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a great way to save or invest without worrying about paying personal tax on the interest you earn or the growth of your investments.
The main difference between a Cash ISA and a regular savings account is how the interest is taxed. With a Cash ISA, all the interest you earn is completely tax-free, as long as your savings stay within the ISA. For regular savings accounts, basic-rate taxpayers can earn up to £1,000 in interest per year tax-free under the Personal Savings Allowance (£500 for higher-rate taxpayers, with no allowance at all for additional rate taxpayers). Any interest earned above these amounts (outside of an ISA) is considered income and may be liable to personal tax.
You can contribute up to £20,000 per year to your ISA, but remember, any unused allowance doesn’t roll over to the next year. However, there’s no cap on the total amount you can have in your Cash ISAs, so your interest on your Cash ISA balance remains tax-free no matter how much you have saved.
Is an ISA right for me?
An ISA might be right for you if:
- You want to receive any interest tax-free, regardless of your personal tax situation.
- You are happy to save in your own name only, rather than in joint names.
- You understand there is a personal contribution limit of £20,000 per tax year.
An ISA might not be right for you if:
- Utilising the tax-free Personal Savings Allowance allows you to get better interest rates elsewhere.
- You want to save in an account in joint names (ISAs can only be held in single names).
- You want to save more than the ISA contribution limit each tax year.
What is an ISA Transfer?
You can transfer existing ISAs from one ISA Manager to another, as well as making a deposit for the current tax year. There are many reasons why you may want to transfer, such as a better interest rate. There may be a fee to transfer though, so check with your ISA provider first. It’s crucial to follow the correct transfer process – to find out more about how to transfer your ISA to Castle Trust Bank, click here.
Our ISA rates
Our range of ISA Savings Accounts
*AER stands for annual equivalent rate and illustrates the interest rate if it was paid and compounded once each year.
Which annual allowances affect me?
There are two personal allowances which relate to tax-free interest on your savings:
The Annual ISA Allowance is the maximum amount of new money that can be saved or invested into ISAs each tax year. This limit is currently set at £20,000 per year.
You can spread your £20,000 across multiple ISA Managers, and different types of ISA if you want to during the year. ISA Transfers that relate to contributions from previous years do not count towards your Annual ISA Allowance.
Your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) is the amount of interest you are allowed to earn from savings (not including interest earned on ISAs) each tax year, before the interest is added to your personal income for the calculation of your income tax liability.
- Basic-rate taxpayers (20%) can earn up to £1,000 in interest per year tax-free
- Higher-rate taxpayers (40%) can earn up to £500 of savings interest per year tax-free
- Additional-rate taxpayers (45%) are not eligible for a PSA
Opening an ISA with us
Opening an e-Cash ISA with us through our website is simple – and existing customers can also do this through our mobile app, or our Self Service Portal.
Looking for some ISA help?
ISA stands for Individual Savings Account. ISAs are a way of holding savings or investments without paying personal tax on interest received, or on the growth of the investment.
The key difference between an ISA and a standard savings account is the tax treatment on interest received. All interest earned from a Cash ISA is free of personal tax, for as long as those savings stay within an ISA. For standard accounts, basic-rate taxpayers can earn up to £1,000 interest per year tax-free under their Personal Savings Allowance (£500 per year for higher-rate taxpayers, no allowance for additional-rate taxpayers), but any interest earned above that amount will be treated as earned income and could be subject to the payment of tax.
Annual contributions are limited to £20,000 per individual, and any unused allowance can’t be carried over to the following year, but there is no limit on the total ISA balance that can be reached. This means that for Cash ISAs, interest is tax-free regardless of the account balance.
You can now open as many ISA accounts as you like as long as you don’t subscribe more than £20,000 subscription limit in total, in the tax year. Your ISAs do not need to be opened with the same ISA Manager.
Money held within an ISA can be transferred between one ISA Manager and another.You must transfer an ISA using a specific transfer process; if the money is withdrawn from an ISA and then deposited elsewhere, it will lose its ISA status. You should contact the ISA provider that you wish to transfer to, to understand their process for transferring your ISA to them.
Yes, we do. You can provide details of your existing ISA as part of the account opening process. Please find more information here.
To transfer funds from more than one ISA provider, you will need to open new e Cash ISA accounts for each one. When opening the accounts please complete the ISA Transfer In section of your application.
We will then receive this the next working day after your account has been successfully opened and we will contact your existing ISA provider to arrange the transfer to your Castle Trust Bank account.
Yes, you can transfer out on maturity. Please contact your new provider and follow their process for completing this instruction.
You won’t need to provide any maturity instructions to us, as we will hold your ISA funds securely in a Maturity Holding ISA account until we can complete the transaction with the new Plan Manager.
You will need to open a new account via the self-service portal.
If the account you are opening is an ISA, as part of the application it will ask if you wish to transfer an ISA in, please select ‘no’ here. This section should only be used for an external ISA being transferred into Castle Trust Bank.
At the end of the application it will ask if you would like to fund the account with an existing Castle Trust Bank account, please select yes and enter the details of your matured account.
We will then receive a notification to complete the internal transfer and there is no further action which you need to take.
Yes, if you already have a stocks and shares ISA with a different provider, you can transfer this into a Castle Trust Bank cash ISA.