How many ISAs can you have in the UK?

ISAs are individual savings accounts, secure tools to manage your savings tax-free. Every tax year you can invest money in a type of ISA, choosing between cash ISAs, stocks and shares ISAs, innovative finance ISAs and lifetime ISAs.

How many ISAs can I have? To know how many ISA accounts you can have in the UK, you must distinguish between the different types. There is no limit to the number of ISAs you can open over the years but there is a limit to the number of ISAs you can open in a single year.

For greater clarity, here’s everything you need to know about how many ISAs you can open in the UK. In this way, you can manage these tax-free investments in the best possible way, following legal standards to avoid any risks.

You can only open one ISA per type of ISA every tax year. As there are 4 types of ISA, you can open 4 ISAs per tax year, provided they are 4 different individual savings accounts (cash ISAs, stocks and shares ISAs, innovative finance ISAs and lifetime ISAs).

Also, you can deposit a maximum amount of £20,000 in all the ISAs. The total value of savings deposited in the ISAs must not exceed this amount for the 2021/2022 tax year. The deadline is the 5^th of April 2022, after which the new tax year begins, and it will go back to zero again.

There is no limit to the total number of ISAs you can have, in that the limitation is that only one type of ISA is to be opened each year. Indeed, ISAs can remain open for as long as you need and you can add new ISAs each year to the ones you already own.

Some people prefer to have few ISAs, for example one or two, as they are easier to monitor and manage. Others, however, like to have lots of ISAs, using each type of ISA for a different purpose. The choice is completely personal, you just need to respect the limitation of opening only one ISA of each type each year.

Here are some answers to the most commonly asked questions on the number of ISAs you can have:

• How many stocks and shares ISAs can I have?
• How many cash ISAs can I have?
• How many lifetime ISAs can I have?
• How many innovative finance ISAs can I have?

You can have many different stocks and shares, cash, innovative finance and lifetime ISAs over a certain number of years; however, you can only open one ISA of each type during each tax year.

In some cases, you may open two ISAs by mistake by depositing money in ISAs of the same type during the tax year. In this situation, you shouldn’t try to intervene yourself, for example by withdrawing money, but you must act calmly and without worrying too much, if it’s your first mistake.

If this happens, you must immediately contact the provider with which the ISA was opened, or call HMRC customer service. Usually, for the first mistake, this can be rectified without running the risk of losing your ISA benefits, whereas, in the case of repeat or incorrect behaviour, you may have to pay taxes on the money deposited in the second account.

Each tax year you can open up to 4 different ISAs, depositing up to a maximum of £20,000. This money can be divided between the various open ISAs, with a limit of £4,000 for lifetime ISAs, whereas there is no limit for the other ISAs.

In this way, you can deposit, for example, £4,000 in a lifetime ISA, £10,000 in a cash ISA and £6,000 in a stocks and shares ISA. Whereas there is no limit for transfers between ISAs and furthermore, this money is not included in the £20,000 limit maximum for the tax year.

Opening more than one ISA can be advantageous for various reasons. For example, you could find a better rate for a stocks and shares ISA with one provider and for a lifetime ISA with another. Having lots of ISAs also allows you to manage your savings in a particular way, using each ISA for a different purpose.

In any case, it’s important to respect ISA rules and always use a provider approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Should you have any doubts, you must contact an expert to find out what to do in order to follow the law and not lose the financial advantages offered by ISAs.