Making a large withdrawal from Cash ISA

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1

Hello… as soon as the new tax year starts I need to make a large withdrawal from my flexible cash ISA. It will be in the region of 80k to temporarily help fund a house purchase.

Is there any issue with making large withdrawals? Would the money still be transferred within 3 days or should I be breaking up the request into smaller amounts if they use the faster payments system and arrive the same day.

I’m completing on the 11th so don’t have long to get the funds in place so want to make sure there’s no delays!!!

Thanks

2

The amount you withdraw does not affect the transfer time. Whether you’re withdrawing 1 GBP or 80,000 GBP, you can expect the funds to arrive within 3 business days.

3

What about a large cash ISA transfer to another provider? 3 days or much longer?

4

Cash ISA transfers typically take around 15 working days.

5

So a withdrawal takes 3 days yet a transfer takes up to 15 working days? Decent banks are as quick as 2 days so are you simply holding onto someone’s cash for the maximum regulated period just to be annoying because you are losing cash to those that now give better rates?

6

Bank transfer and Portfolio transfer are two fundamentally different types of transfers.

So let me explain the differences and why the latter takes longer:

  1. A bank transfer is a simple & straightforward process of moving cash from a personal bank account to another one and takes from a few hours to 3 business days.

  2. Unlike a standard bank transfer, the Cash ISA portfolio transfer requires coordination between the old and new ISA providers. The receiving provider initiates the transfer, ensuring the funds remain within the ISA framework to avoid affecting the annual ISA allowance. We aim to complete these transfers as quickly as possible, but due to the communication between brokers and the exchange of account information, the process is more complex and may take up to 15 working days.

7

Fundamentally they are the same. You withdraw cash from your bank(s) and transfer it to another bank (i.e. the new cash ISA provider). The only difference is you need to complete a form for the new provider. Do you really need 12 extra working days to fill in a form? It’s not “complex” - it’s straightforward as clearly demonstrated by other decent financial institutions you can fulfil a transfer in 2-3 days.