ISAs

Frequently asked questions

ISAs

Types of ISAs

A cash ISA is an “Individual Savings Account”, with tax free interest. This type of account is for individuals to save money without incurring tax on the interest earned.

It is not possible to have a joint Cash ISA as they are Individual Savings Accounts.

No, we currently only provide two types of Cash ISAs (Fixed Rate Cash ISAs and Easy Access Cash ISAs)

Yes, you can open a combination of ISA’s in each tax year across different providers as long as you don’t exceed the overall annual ISA allowance of £20,000.

Eligibility

The tax year runs from April 6th of one year to April 5th of the following year.

Current tax year funds are new financial contributions that have been deposited into a Cash ISA in the ongoing tax year.

Previous tax year funds are old contributions that were deposited into a Cash ISA in previous tax years.

No, your ISA allowance will be used in the tax year that we receive your deposits. Any deposits received in a new tax year, for an ongoing ISA will count for the new tax year.

Opening and funding your ISA

You can open multiple cash ISAs each tax year as long as you do not deposit more than £20,000 allowance across all of your ISA accounts in a tax year.

Only if you have Power of Attorney over their financial affairs. To open an account through Power of Attorney, you need to first submit an application for an account in the Donor’s name and then contact us on [email protected] afterwards to complete the process of registering an Attorney on the customer’s account.

Upon account approval of your ISA, you will have 30 calendar days to fund your account via a new deposit and/or Cash ISA transfer before your account will expire and be closed. For Fixed Rate ISAs, after this period, no further funding is permitted. For Easy Access ISAs, additional deposits are permitted up to the current ISA subscription limit.

In the case of ISAs, the nominated account referred to during the application form is the account that withdrawals will be sent to. It is also the account that you will deposit new contributions to this tax year’s ISA allowance from (if you choose to). This account is separate to the ISA account you may transfer your accumulated ISA balance from.

Once your application is complete and your account has been approved, you will receive an email which will include your account details, such as the account number and sort code for you to deposit any funds via bank transfer or cheque. Once the initial deposit has been applied to your Cash ISA, you will receive a confirmation email of the deposit applied to your account and a registration link for Online Banking so that you can view your account in Online Banking. If you are funding your Cash ISA with an ISA transfer, we will submit the transfer request to your existing Cash ISA provider and contact you via email if we require any further information.

Transferring ISAs

No, we can only accept ISA transfers from a Cash ISA account. We cannot transfer funds from a Stocks and Shares ISA even if the money is held as cash.

Yes, you can transfer up to six existing Cash ISAs that you hold with different providers. Please note that we are only able to request Cash ISA transfers from Cash ISA providers that use the electronic ISA transfer service.

Transfers may take up to 15 business days to be completed. Once the transfer has been completed, you will receive a deposit confirmation email and you will also be able to view your account balance in Online Banking.

For Fixed Rate Cash ISAs, your existing ISA provider may charge you a penalty fee for withdrawing funds prior to the account maturity date. You will need to confirm this with your existing ISA provider, as each provider may have different rules.

You will need to give your transfer instructions to your new ISA provider, who will forward the request to us on your behalf. We will then process the request and send the funds and relevant information to the new ISA provider after we have confirmed that the transfer should take place, and there is no reason for the transfer to be stopped. To ensure you do not lose the tax benefits of your Cash ISA, you must not initiate a transfer yourself. If your Fixed Rate cash ISA has not yet reached maturity, an interest penalty will be applied to complete your transfer prior to your maturity date as shown below:

12 Months- 90 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
24 Months- 180 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
36 Months- 270 days of interest on the amount withdrawn

If you have a Cash ISA that has been transferred in from an existing ISA provider, an Easy Access Cash ISA will be opened and the funds from the cancelled Cash ISA will be transferred into the Easy Access Cash ISA allowing withdrawals and transfers to take place easily. If you have a Cash ISA that has been funded from your nominated bank account, you can cancel within the cooling off period and these funds will be returned to your nominated bank account. If you cancel an ISA within the cooling off period, you can still open an ISA and your full annual subscription limits will remain, provided that the cooling off period is within the same tax year. If you close an ISA after the cooling off period, the withdrawn subscription will count as a subscription to an ISA for the current tax year.

Withdrawals

If you withdraw funds prior to the maturity date of your Fixed Rate Cash ISA, the money withdrawn will lose its tax-free wrapper; you will not be able to replace the money withdrawn and count it towards your ISA allowance for the current tax year; and you will be penalised with a loss of interest as shown below.

12 Months- 90 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
24 Months- 180 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
36 Months- 270 days of interest on the amount withdrawn

This withdrawal charge will be deducted from the balance in your Fixed Rate Cash ISA when the withdrawal or transfer is made, therefore you may receive less than you originally deposited. There is no penalty if you access your funds in your Easy Access Cash ISA account.

Yes. You can withdraw at any time from your OakNorth Cash ISA.

Easy Access Cash ISA: There are no penalties if you withdraw funds. No notice of withdrawal is required and withdrawal requests can be made at any time. The funds will be credited back into your nominated account the next business day.
Fixed Rate ISA: You will be charged a penalty as per below:
- 12 Months- 90 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
- 24 Months- 180 days of interest on the amount withdrawn
- 36 Months- 270 days of interest on the amount withdrawn

The OakNorth Cash ISA is not a flexible ISA, meaning that you cannot replace the money withdrawn. Any future deposits will count towards your annual ISA subscription limit.

No. For example, if you open a Cash ISA on 28th March 2025 and cancel the ISA account within the cooling off period of 14 days (i.e. after 5th April 2025 but before 12th April 2025) then you will not be eligible for the £20,000 allowance for the 2024-2025 tax year as that tax year has now passed.

At least 14 days before your account matures, we will send you an email confirming the date your Fixed Rate Cash ISA matures. You will need to submit your maturity instructions in Online Banking by logging into your account online or the mobile app. The maturity options are:

Reinvest the full or partial balance in a new OakNorth Cash ISA. Any remaining balance will be transferred back to your nominated account.
Return your full original principal investment and interest earned back to your nominated account. (Funds that are transferred to a non-ISA account will lose their tax status)
Transfer your full Cash ISA balance to another ISA provider (in this case, you will not need to submit maturity instructions, but will need to give transfer instructions to your new ISA provider who will forward the request to us on your behalf)

If we do not hear from you before your Fixed Rate Cash ISA maturity date, the total amount including interest will be automatically transferred to a variable rate Easy Access Cash ISA with us and you will receive the new account details on the day of the account opening.

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