What is an ISA?
An Individual Savings Account (ISA) lets you save or invest money in a tax-efficient way.
You can grow your savings in a cash ISA, and the interest you earn won’t count towards your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA), so you won’t pay any tax on it.
Investing money into our award-winning Investment ISA (also known as a Stocks & Shares ISA) means any returns you make won’t be liable to UK income tax, tax on dividends or Capital Gains Tax.
What is an ISA allowance?
It’s the amount you can pay into your ISAs each tax year, without paying tax on the money they make. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. The government sets the maximum ISA allowance – it’s £20,000 for this tax year.
You can use your allowance to pay up to £20,000 into an ISA. Or, you can split it across different ISAs, as long as you don’t pay in more than £20,000 across them all in the tax year.
Keep in mind that this allowance could change in the future, so it’s a good idea to use as much of it as you can now.
Our ISAs
Cash ISAs
Grow your cash savings with tax-free(1) interest with our Instant Cash ISA, Reward ISA and flexible cash ISAs.
Investment ISA
Start investing from as little as £50 with our low-cost Investment ISA and watch your money grow tax-free over time.
Terms, conditions and ISA rules apply.
The value of investments can fall as well as rise so you may get back less than you invest. Tax rules can change and their effects vary depending on your individual circumstances.
Can I open an ISA?
You can open an ISA if you’re:
- 18 years old or over
- A UK resident.
Crown employees, and members of the armed forces based overseas and their spouses, can also open an ISA.
ISA FAQs
Putting money in an ISA helps protect the interest or returns you make from tax. It’s good to consider this along with what interest rate you want to earn and how often you need to take money out.
The ISA allowance is the amount you can add to your ISAs each tax year.
You can use the full £20,000 annual ISA allowance to pay into an ISA. Or, you can split the allowance across different ISAs (subject to individual account limits) as long as you don’t pay in more than £20,000 across all of them. Any money you pay into your ISAs will count towards your overall annual ISA allowance.
If you don’t use your allowance, you’ll miss out on protecting any interest or returns from tax that tax year. Any allowance you don’t use will be lost because it won’t carry forward into another tax year.
Your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) is the total amount of interest you can earn each tax year across all your accounts (except ISAs), with any bank or building society, without paying tax. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. Any interest earned on a cash ISA, or returns from an Investment ISA, won’t impact your PSA.
For basic-rate taxpayers, the PSA is £1,000 and for higher-rate taxpayers, it’s £500. Additional rate taxpayers don’t have a PSA.
You’ll need to start paying tax on any interest you earn above your PSA. Go to HMRC’s site to find out how to do this.
Following a change to the ISA rules on 6 April 2024, you can now open and pay into more than one cash or Investment ISA in the same tax year.
However, you can only open and pay into one cash ISA you have with us each tax year right now. You can still open and pay into ISAs with different providers, as long as you don't pay in more than £20,000 across all the ISAs you have.
Yes, you can transfer balances between ISAs using our ISA transfer-in service to make sure you keep earning tax-free interest and your ISA allowance isn’t affected.
You can transfer between our Instant Cash ISAs, Reward ISAs and Investment ISAs at any time. With flexible cash ISAs, you’ll need to transfer within the first 30 days of opening the ISA.
Complete the ISA transfer form in the Barclays app(2) or Online Banking(3) to do this. Alternatively, you can call us or visit a branch.
The interest you earn on money in a cash ISA will be tax-free for the life of the ISA, providing all ISA conditions are met. The interest rate might change, but the interest paid willl still be tax-free. Keep in mind that ISA rules could change in the future.
As long as you transfer your ISA using our ISA transfer service, it won’t count towards your current tax year allowance. You can transfer previous years’ ISA savings into a new cash or investment ISA and it won’t count towards the current year’s allowance.
For example, if you have £18,000 in previous ISAs, you can transfer some or all of this balance into your new ISA and still have your £20,000 allowance for the current tax year. The interest on the combined balance will also be tax-free. Remember to complete the ISA transfer form in the app or Online Banking. Alternatively, you can call us or visit one of our branches.
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Other helpful ISA guides
ISA flexibility explained
In this one minute video Clare Francis explains how ISA flexibility works, to help you get the most from your ISA allowance.
Five myths exposed
We dispel five of the most common ISA myths that might be preventing you from making the most of your ISA allowance.
Why you should use your allowance
You have a £20,000 ISA allowance to use by 5 April. Here are four reasons to consider using, rather than losing, your allowance.
Rates and allowances
Here’s our rundown of all the key tax rates, limits and allowances you need to know for the current tax year.
Important information
‘Tax-free’ means interest is exempt from UK income tax provided all ISA conditions are met. The level and basis of tax can change, and the value of tax relief depends on your personal circumstances.(Return to reference)
You need to be 18 or over to access this product or service using the app. Terms and conditions apply.(Return to reference)
To register for Online Banking, you’ll need to be 16 or over, live in the UK and have a Barclays current or savings account with a bank card.(Return to reference)