Can You Have More Than One ISA Account?

If you’d like an overview of the different ISA types and rules, we’ve included some further information below.

Understanding ISA Types and Contribution Limits

For the tax year 2025/26 there are four types of ISA available in the UK:

Cash ISA (and Junior Cash ISA)
Cash ISAs are similar to standard savings accounts except for the tax treatment. You won’t pay or be liable for any tax on interest earned in an ISA but you may pay tax on interest earned in non-ISA savings accounts.

Stocks & Shares ISA (and Junior Stocks & Shares ISA)
A Stocks & Shares ISA is an investment account which allows you to invest money (up to your personal allowance) into a range of investments and is seen as a longer-term investment. This form of ISA potentially offers a higher return but also comes with a potentially higher risk as investments can go up or down in value meaning you could receive less than you pay in.**

Lifetime ISA
This ISA is designed for longer-term saving and is for those looking to buy their first home or saving for later life. You must be over 18 but under 40 years of age to open a Lifetime ISA. You can invest up to £4,000 (per year) of your annual allowance into one of these accounts and the government will add a 25% bonus to your savings, up to £1,000 per annum. You can only open and subscribe to one Lifetime ISA per tax year. You can withdraw money (without a charge) if it is to buy your first home, or you are over 60 years old, or you are terminally ill with less than 12 months to live.* Full details including further terms and conditions can be found on the government website.

Innovative Finance ISA
Sometimes shortened to IFISAs, they are accounts that contain peer-to-peer loans (where a Cash ISA would contain cash, or a Stocks & Shares ISA would contain stocks and shares). This type of ISA is explained in more detail on the government website.

The maximum amount that can be saved and invested during a tax year is referred to as your ISA allowance. This allowance refreshes each year, allowing you to save or invest further funds into an ISA account. For the tax year 2024/25 (and the same for 2025/26), the ISA allowance is £20,000.

You are free to divide this annual allowance between multiple ISAs of the same or different types, and across different providers. Within this, you can only open one Lifetime ISA in any tax year and you may only contribute a maximum of £4,000 per year into a Lifetime ISA. You are also responsible for keeping the total of all investments into ISA accounts within your annual personal allowance, so the more accounts you have, the more complicated this may become.

Examples of dividing up savings across multiple ISAs can be seen below.

• You could save £10,000 in a Cash ISA, £6,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA and £4,000 in an Innovative Finance ISA in one tax year.
• You could save £15,000 in a Cash ISA, £1,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA, and £4,000 in a Lifetime ISA in one tax year.
• You could save £6,000 in one Cash ISA, £4,000 in another Cash ISA and £10,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA in one tax year.

Junior ISAs

The Cumberland also offers a Junior Cash ISA for under 18s. Junior ISA rules are slightly different and a question we get asked is ‘Can you have more than one Junior ISA?’. There are 2 types of Junior ISA (a Cash ISA and a Stocks & Shares ISA). A child can have one or both of these, but cannot have more than one of each at any one time. The ISA allowance for Junior ISAs is £9,000 for the tax year 2025/26 and if you choose to open both types, the total combined must not exceed this.

How To Manage Multiple ISAs Effectively

In the case that you have an ISA with one provider and decide that you would prefer to hold that with a different provider, a transfer may be possible. This could allow you to hold all your ISAs of the same type, with one provider, or it could allow you to take advantage of the best ISA rates. Each provider has its own terms & conditions for facilitating this. We’ve created a page that includes relevant information on transferring an ISA to The Cumberland.

Transferring from one ISA provider to another does not affect your ISA annual allowance but may incur a fee. You should take appropriate advice on the process as it needs to be completed correctly as there is a risk that you may lose your tax benefits.

If holding your ISAs with one provider isn’t the best option for you, a simple spreadsheet may be a good option for keeping track of your investments and not exceeding your allowance. While different providers may have facilities within their customer account areas to show how much has been invested with them and how much is remaining of your annual allowance, it will usually not take into account investments elsewhere.

ISA providers are required to supply ISA contribution information to HMRC who run checks to ensure that annual ISA allowances are not breached. If they discover that you have made a mistake and saved more than your annual ISA allowance, they will contact you with instructions for how to proceed.

What Are The Advantages/Disadvantages Of Having Multiple ISAs

While saving and/or investment strategies will vary according to individual preferences and needs, there are some general points for consideration when considering the approach of having multiple ISAs:

• Allows for some of your savings to be in an instant-access Cash ISA account with the remainder saved in a different Cash ISA account with a potentially higher rate but less accessible.
• Allows you to diversify the risk by having a lower risk Cash ISA alongside a potentially higher risk Stocks & Shares ISA.
• Different interest rates might be available at different times of the year so you might want to take advantage of a higher rate by opening an additional Cash ISA.
• You may wish to save for different projects eg A Lifetime ISA could help toward a first house but a different type of ISA may be better for saving towards a holiday.
• Having multiple ISAs could mean that they mature at different times, which may be advantageous for your cash-flow.
• If you have more than £85,000 saved into ISAs, you may want to split them between providers for protection reasons. If you hold money with a UK-authorised bank, building society or credit union that fails, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) automatically compensates you up to £85,000 per person, per authorised firm (which could include a bank, building society, credit union or provider.

Disadvantages:

• Multiple ISAs require more managing to ensure that you stay within your annual personal allowance.
• Each account will have its own terms and conditions regarding such things as withdrawal fees, transfer fees etc.
• Having more than one provider means having multiple log-ins and multiple contacts.

What To Remember When Holding Multiple ISAs

• You can hold more than one of each type of ISA (with the exception of Junior and Lifetime ISAs) and these can be spread across multiple providers.
• The Lifetime ISA has a maximum investment limit of £4,000 per tax year. You need to be between the ages of 18 and 40 and you can only open and subscribe to one Lifetime ISA per tax year.
• You must remain within your ISA allowance for all ISAs combined.
• Each ISA will have its own unique terms and conditions.