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ISA guide

schedule 5 min read

ISAs can be a great way to save money and reach your savings goals. Find out everything you need to know about tax-free savings with our ISA guide.

What's an ISA?

An ISA is an Individual Savings Account. It’s a great way to save money without paying tax on the interest you earn, helping you to make the most of your savings.

What's an ISA allowance?

Every tax year, the government sets a maximum amount that you can save tax free in an ISA. This is called an ISA allowance.

What's the current ISA allowance?

The ISA allowance for the current tax year is £20,000.

What’s a tax year?

The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. On the 5 April each year, your ISA allowance will renew, and you can’t carry any of your allowance over from the last year.

What are tax-free savings?

You won’t pay tax on the interest you earn from your account. You’ll receive 100% of the interest you earn from the money you save in your ISA.

Different types of ISA

Cash ISA

A cash savings account which can have a fixed or variable interest rate.

Stocks and Shares ISA

You can also use your ISA allowance to invest in a Stocks and Shares ISA. Unlike cash ISAs, the value of a Stocks and Shares ISAs can go down as well as up.

Innovative Finance ISA

Allows investors to lend to businesses or projects through a peer-to-peer lending platform.

Lifetime ISA

Helps you buy your first home or save towards retirement. The government pays a bonus on the money you pay in.

Types of Cash ISA

There are a few different types of Cash ISAs to choose from, depending on how often you might want to access your money.

Fixed rate

A fixed rate ISA lets you put money away with the certainty of knowing your interest rate won’t change whilst your account is open.

Variable rate

The interest rate on this type of account could go up or down at any time.

Easy access

You can take your money out whenever you need it, without letting us know in advance.

Notice account

If you’re able to let us know in advance that you want to take money out of your account, you could benefit from a higher interest rate with a notice account. If you needed access to your money and couldn’t let us know in advance, we’d charge you loss of interest.

Additional Permitted Subscription (APS) ISA

If you were married or in a civil partnership with someone who passed away on or after 3 December 2014, you can benefit from their ISA allowance with an APS ISA.

How many ISAs can I have?

You can choose to use your ISA allowance however you’d like, you don’t have to pay it all into one type of ISA. For example, you could split the allowance into different types of ISAs

Different types of ISA

From 6 April 2024, you can pay into more than one of the same type of ISA in the same tax year, as long as you don’t go over your yearly ISA allowance. At West Brom Building Society, you can pay your £20,000 allowance into as many different Cash ISAs with us as you’d like.

Paying into the different types of ISA

FAQs

If you have any more questions, take a look at our ISA FAQs.