Insights 7min(s)

What is the 2024/25 Cash ISA Allowance?

Thinking of opening a Cash ISA? With the opportunity to earn tax-free interest on your savings, it can be a smart choice. But before you open an account, it’s important to know the ISA rules.

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Cash ISA Allowance and how it works

You can save up to £20,000 into Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) this tax year

This covers all types of ISAs, including Cash ISAs, Lifetime ISAs and Stocks and Shares ISAs. Any interest that you earn is tax-free as long as you do not exceed the maximum £20,000 across your ISAs. Junior ISAs are an exception, and the limit for these this tax year is £9,000.

The current tax year runs from 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025 — so if you’ve already deposited into an ISA this year, this amount of money forms part of your annual ISA Allowance. If you don't use the £20,000 allowance by 5 April 2025, it will be forfeited. The ISA Allowance renews every year, allowing you to build up your tax-free savings.

You can spread your £20,000 Annual ISA Allowance across multiple types of ISAs

This includes Cash ISA and a Stocks and Shares ISA. Although some types of ISA have smaller maximum allowances, they are cumulative to your total limit of £20,000 (excluding Junior ISAs).

For example, if you maxed out the Lifetime ISA, which has a £4,000 limit, you could only deposit a maximum of £16,000 in your Cash ISA. However, you could deposit up to £20,000 in a Cash ISA if that was your only ISA deposit for the year.

Having more than one ISA could give you more flexibility, but it could also lead to you saving more than £20,000 across your ISA accounts and not realising. This might mean you have to declare your savings in a tax return, even though they’re in an ISA.

You can open and fund as many Cash ISAs as you like at one time with different providers in the same tax year.

This means you aren’t limited in the number of ISAs per year. You just have to make sure that you don't exceed your yearly ISA limit of £20,000 for all your ISAs. Although you can now open and save in two or more Cash ISAs in the same tax year, you can only open one Cash ISA with Shawbrook per tax year.

Does transferring affect my ISA Allowance?

An ISA transfer enables you to move money from one ISA to another without losing your tax-free benefits. To protect your ISA tax benefits and avoid duplicating any contributions to your allowance, you should carry out a transfer, not withdraw the money and redepositing it. If you withdraw your funds and redeposit them yourself, it will count towards your ISA Allowance.

If you’re considering transferring your ISA, make sure you go through the ISA transfer process to protect your tax-free allowance.

For more information about withdrawing money from your ISA, visit our Withdrawing Money from ISAs page.

Transferring your Cash ISA to Shawbrook

To transfer an existing Cash ISA account from another provider to Shawbrook without affecting your allowance, you can request a transfer when opening a new account. Simply provide us with your current Cash ISA details when you apply for a new Cash ISA. We’ll then get in touch with your existing provider and complete the transfer for you.

Transferring from a Shawbrook ISA to another Shawbrook ISA

You can transfer your Shawbrook ISA to another Shawbrook ISA without affecting your allowance. This might be useful if you want to switch from easy access to a fixed term account. Just let us know and we’ll sort this out. You can also swap from a fixed term to an easy access account, but this will incur a fee.

For more information about transfers, visit our Transferring an ISA to Shawbrook Bank page.

What are the different types of ISA?

There are several types of ISA that contribute to your ISA Allowance, but not all providers will offer all of them. For example, at Shawbrook we only offer Easy Access Cash ISAs and Fixed Rate Cash ISAs.

The six main types of ISA available on the market are: 

Cash ISAs 
Stocks and Shares ISAs 
Innovative Finance ISAs 
Lifetime ISAs 
Help to Buy ISAs
Junior ISAs

Cash ISAs

Cash ISAs involve you saving money and receiving interest on this amount. Interest rates can be fixed or variable, and accounts can either be easy access, fixed term, or notice ISAs. From 2024, you can open and fund as many Cash ISAs as you like within the same tax year. Please note, Shawbrook do not offer Notice ISAs.

Easy Access ISA

With an Easy Access ISA, you can withdraw or transfer money whenever you like — subject to minimum withdrawal requirements. However, if you withdraw, you will lose the tax-free benefits on the withdrawn funds. If you redeposit the cash you have withdrawn, it will count towards your allowance twice — unless it’s a flexible ISA. We do not offer flexible ISAs at Shawbrook, so if you initially deposit£20,000 and later withdraw £1,000, you could not redeposit this within the same tax year as this would exceed your limit.

Fixed Term ISA

With a fixed term ISA, you agree to lock your funds away for a set amount of time. You can make withdrawals before maturity, but this will be subject to an early exit charge. Fixed term ISAs may pay a higher interest rate.

Notice ISA

A notice ISA requires you to tell your provider in advance when you want to withdraw your money. Once you let your provider know you want to withdraw money, you’ll have to wait for your notice period to pass before you’re paid. You’ll agree to the length of your notice period when you first sign up for an account. This can vary, but you’ll typically earn a higher interest rate for a longer notice period. Please note, Shawbrook does offer Notice Accounts but does not offer Notice ISA.

Stocks and Shares ISA

Stocks and shares ISAs can pay higher rewards but usually carry greater risks. As the name suggests, your money is deposited in stocks and shares. Your capital is at risk as these can go up or down. We do not offer Stocks and shares ISAs at Shawbrook.

Innovative Finance ISA

Sometimes known as an IFISA, an innovative finance ISA involves peer-to-peer lending. With this kind of ISA, you deposit our money through an online portal and agree to lend your money to individuals or businesses. It works by borrowers paying your money back with interest. This can offer a higher interest rate than traditional ISAs but comes with more risks, such as a borrower failing to pay. We do not offer Innovative finance ISAs at Shawbrook.

Lifetime ISA

Lifetime ISAs (also known as LISAs) can only be opened by adults aged 18-39, although you can continue to save in them until you’re 50. After then, you can keep the account open, but you can’t make any more payments into it.

These ISAs are for saving for two major life events — buying a property and retirement. Because of this, you can only withdraw money when purchasing a first home or reaching retirement (when you’re 60 or over).

This different type of ISA forms part of your overall allowance but has a smaller limit. You can deposit a maximum of £4,000 in each tax year. The government will add 25% bonus to your savings, so you can get a bonus of up to £1,000 a year. We do not offer Lifetime ISAs at Shawbrook.

Help to Buy ISA

Help to Buy ISAs closed to new savers in November 2019 but if you have an existing account, you can continue to save in it until November 2029.

Help to Buy ISAs are for saving for your first property purchase. With these, the government will pay £50 for every £200 saved up to £3,000 (which is £12,000 of savings). You will need to claim your 25% government bonus by November 2030.

You can deposit a maximum of £200 per month, which is £2,400 over the whole year. We do not offer Help to Buy ISA at Shawbrook.

Junior ISA

Unlike the above, junior ISAs (also known as JISAs) are separate from your ISA Allowance. This is because junior ISAs belong to the child, not the adult saving into the account.

They are available as Cash ISAs or Stocks and Shares ISAs.

In the current tax year, the limit for junior ISAs is £9,000. The child cannot withdraw money until they turn 18 when the account automatically becomes an adult ISA. We do not offer Junior ISAs at Shawbrook.

Start saving with a Cash ISA today

Want to use some or all of this year’s tax-free allowance to save in a Cash ISA? At Shawbrook, we offer Easy Access Cash ISAs and Fixed Rate ISAs.

With either option, you can open an account from £1,000 and deposit up to £20,000 in a tax year — ensuring your total ISA deposits for the year do not exceed £20,000.

If you are transferring previous tax years’ savings from existing Cash ISAs, you can hold up to a maximum of £250,000 in a Shawbrook Cash ISA.

Learn more about our Cash ISA options

View our Cash ISAs

Find out more about our cash ISAs and the rates available.

View Our Cash ISA Accounts