Changing from GIA to ISA

[markjordan]

Hi does anyone know if you can change a GIA to a ISA account ? and if so how?

Also is it worth upgrading to a plus account?

[beermoneytrader]

You cannot change them. You can have both. Shares cannot be moved between an ISA and a GIA directly, if that’s your desire. This is for tax reasons; if it was possible, anyone could avoid Capital Gains Tax this way.

I can’t decide for you as to whether or not Plus is right for you. No one can. It depends on what you wish to invest in, if you value being able to set limit orders and such. If you’ve decided that you want to have your 2021/22 tax year ISA with and are happy to pay the £3 monthly fee for that, it’s down to whether or not you feel the Plus features are worth £7 a month.

[leannetp]

other platforms offer something like this through a ‘bed and isa’ which is affectively selling down in the GIA and buying in the isa at the same time but I don’t think Freetrade offer this atm. Hopefully in the future

[markjordan]

Thanks very much. that’s really helpful

[ralf]

If you have a spare £4000 to leave in the account as cash, you can think of Plus as giving you £36 a year interest on that money (as that’s what you’d save in the ISA fees). That works out to 0.9% APR which is better than most savings accounts at the moment, plus you can easily dip into the money if you see a good opportunity to buy bargain stocks (and lose some of the interest).