How many ISAs can you have? Multiple ISA rules explained

There's no limit on how many ISAs you can have. Since 6 April 2024 you can also open and pay into more than one ISA of the same type in a single tax year, including two or more cash ISAs, as long as your total new deposits across all of them stay within the £20,000 annual allowance. The exceptions are the Lifetime ISA and the Junior ISA.

That's the short answer. The detail matters more than it used to, though. Not every provider will let you pay into two of its own ISAs in one year, keeping under the limit is your job rather than the bank's, and from 6 April 2027 anyone under 65 can only put £12,000 of their £20,000 into cash ISAs. We know this can be confusing, with the rules changing in 2024 and again in 2027, so we've broken it down in everyday language: how the rules work in 2026/27, what changes next April and what to do if you've paid in too much.

At a glance (2026/27 tax year)

• ISAs you can hold: no limit. Accounts from previous years stay open and tax-free.

• ISAs you can pay into this tax year: no limit for cash, stocks and shares or innovative finance ISAs. Only one Lifetime ISA.

• How much you can pay in: £20,000 in total across all your ISAs, not £20,000 per account.

• From 6 April 2027: under-65s can pay up to £12,000 into cash ISAs. The overall £20,000 stays.

How many ISAs can you have?

As many as you like. There's no cap on the number of ISA accounts you can hold, and ISAs don't close when the tax year ends. Money you sheltered in earlier years stays tax-free for as long as you leave it in an ISA.

The limit is on what you pay in, not on how many accounts you have. Each tax year (6 April to 5 April) you can save up to £20,000 in one ISA or split it across several. GOV.UK's own example: £10,000 in one cash ISA, £3,000 in another cash ISA and £7,000 in a stocks and shares ISA, all in the same tax year.

How many ISAs can you open in a year?

As many as you want, of any type except the Lifetime ISA and Junior ISA. That's been the case since 6 April 2024, when the old "one ISA of each type per tax year" rule was scrapped.

Before then you could pay into only one cash ISA, one stocks and shares ISA, one innovative finance ISA and one Lifetime ISA each tax year. Paying into a second cash ISA in the same year made that subscription invalid. The April 2024 reforms changed four things:

1. More than one ISA of the same type. You can pay into two or more cash ISAs, stocks and shares ISAs or innovative finance ISAs in one tax year. You can still pay into only one Lifetime ISA a year, and a child can have only one Junior ISA of each type.

2. Partial transfers of this year's money. You can move part of what you've paid in this tax year to another provider, rather than all of it.

3. No reapplying after a gap. If you skip a year, you no longer need a fresh application to start paying into an existing ISA again.

4. Cash ISAs from 18. The minimum age for a cash ISA rose from 16 to 18, in line with every other adult ISA. Transitional rules for 16 and 17-year-olds ended on 5 April 2026.

The catch: providers don't have to play along. The multiple-ISA rule isn't mandatory. HMRC lets each provider limit you to one ISA of a given type with them per tax year. So a bank can refuse to open a second cash ISA for you this year, but it can't stop you opening one somewhere else.

And nobody's checking the total for you. Each provider only sees what you pay into its own accounts. HMRC is explicit that managers can't know what you've paid in elsewhere, and that keeping under the overall limit is your responsibility.

Multiple ISA rules by ISA type

The four adult ISAs share one £20,000 allowance. The Junior ISA has its own, separate limit that belongs to the child. New to ISAs? Our simple guide to cash ISAs covers the basics.

A few things the table doesn't show:

• The Lifetime ISA eats into your £20,000. Pay £4,000 into a LISA and you have £16,000 left for everything else. GOV.UK's example splits it as £11,000 cash, £2,000 stocks and shares, £3,000 innovative finance and £4,000 LISA.

• One LISA a year means one you pay into. The rule is about paying in: only one Lifetime ISA can receive new money from you in a given tax year. Moving a LISA to another provider is a transfer, not a new subscription.

• Junior ISA money doesn't touch your allowance. Paying £9,000 into your child's Junior ISA leaves your own £20,000 untouched. The money belongs to the child, who can take control at 16 and withdraw at 18.

• The Lifetime ISA is on its way out. The government plans to offer a new first-time buyer ISA in its place. Until that launches, you can still open a LISA, and existing holders can keep paying in under the current rules indefinitely. Under HM Treasury's proposals, you could hold both a LISA and the new ISA but pay into only one of them each tax year.

Can you have two cash ISAs with £20,000 in each?

Only if the money went in across different tax years. The £20,000 is a cap on new deposits each tax year across all your ISAs combined, not a cap per account. In 2026/27 you can pay £20,000 into one cash ISA, £10,000 into each of two, or £5,000 into each of four. You can't pay £20,000 into each of two.

Balances are a different matter. Pay £20,000 into cash ISA A last tax year and £20,000 into cash ISA B this year and you'll have two cash ISAs with £20,000 each, entirely within the rules. Interest doesn't count towards the allowance either, so a balance can grow past £20,000 without any problem.

Use the transfer form, not your bank app. To move ISA money between providers, ask the provider you're moving to for an ISA transfer. If you withdraw the money and pay it in yourself, it's treated as a new deposit and uses up allowance, unless it's this year's money from a flexible ISA (see below). Cash ISA transfers should take no more than 15 working days.

Aiming to fill the whole allowance this year? That's about £1,667 a month, and our guide on how to save £20k in a yearlooks at whether that's realistic for you.

Transfers and flexible ISAs when you hold several

Two rules make running more than one ISA much easier than it was a few years ago.

You can transfer part of this year's money. You can move all or part of an ISA to another provider at any time, into the same type of ISA or a different one, whether the money went in this year or earlier. Current-year money that you transfer is treated as if you'd paid it into the receiving ISA, so it doesn't use your allowance twice. Providers don't all accept partial transfers, so check with both sides first.

Flexible ISA withdrawals can be replaced in a different ISA. If your ISA is flexible, you can take money out and put it back in the same tax year without using extra allowance. Since a rule change on 15 July 2025, money you paid in this tax year and then withdraw from a flexible ISA can go into another ISA instead, with no extra restrictions. Money from previous tax years still has to go back into the account it came from.

Here's how that works with two cash ISAs:

Without flexibility, the same moves would have used £30,000 of allowance and broken the rules. Not every provider's terms have caught up with the 2025 change, so confirm with both before relying on it. Our flexible cash ISA guide lists which providers offer flexibility.

Paid into two ISAs by mistake?

If it happened on or after 6 April 2024 and your total stayed within £20,000, it isn't a mistake. Paying into two cash ISAs, or two stocks and shares ISAs, in the same tax year is allowed. The multiple-ISA errors that still count are:

• paying more than £20,000 in total across all your ISAs in one tax year

• paying into two Lifetime ISAs in the same tax year

• paying more than £4,000 into a Lifetime ISA

When you've paid in more than a limit allows, HMRC's fix is called a "repair": the excess comes out and the rest of the ISA stays tax-free. What happens next depends on when you spot it.

If it's this tax year, tell the provider that holds the excess. It can remove the extra deposit and any growth on it, and you tell it which payments to take out. Your valid deposits keep their tax-free status.

If it was an earlier tax year, the provider shouldn't try to fix it. HMRC will write to you, give you the chance to query its figures, then tell the provider what to remove. If HMRC finds the overpayment first, it contacts you and the provider.

What it costs you. Interest or gains on the excess lose their tax-free status up to the date of the repair. Interest taken out of the ISA counts towards your personal savings allowance: £1,000 for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher-rate and nothing for additional-rate. For scale, £3,000 over the limit earning 5% makes £150 a year, well inside a basic-rate taxpayer's £1,000.

If a Lifetime ISA is involved, the excess comes out of your other ISAs first, in date order, even if you paid into the LISA later in the year. That lets you keep the LISA and avoid its 25% withdrawal charge. If you paid more than £4,000 into the LISA itself, the extra is removed without the charge, but any government bonus on it goes back to HMRC.

Not sure whether you've gone over? Add up every deposit you've made into every ISA since 6 April, excluding transfers and interest. If it's above £20,000, call HMRC's ISA helpline or tell your provider. Overpayments are about to get easier to spot, too: from 6 April 2027, providers must collect your National Insurance number before accepting a new ISA deposit, which the government says will help HMRC police the limits.

The 2027 cash ISA cap: what changes for multiple ISAs

From 6 April 2027, if you're under 65 you can pay no more than £12,000 a year into cash ISAs. The overall ISA allowance stays at £20,000, so the remaining £8,000 can't go into a cash ISA. It's no longer just a Budget promise: the Individual Savings Account (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 were laid before Parliament on 14 September 2026 and take effect on 6 April 2027.

You'll still be able to spread cash ISA money across several accounts. The £12,000 works like the £20,000 does today: one combined cap across every cash ISA you pay into that year, not a limit per account.

Who counts as 65. The higher £20,000 cash limit applies from the start of the tax year in which you turn 65, not from your birthday. In 2027/28, that means anyone born on or before 5 April 1963 keeps the full £20,000 for cash.

Why the extra rules. Without them, an under-65 could pay £8,000 into a stocks and shares ISA, leave it as cash or switch it into a cash ISA, and sidestep the cap. So from April 2027:

• under-65s can't transfer money from a stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA into a cash ISA

• interest paid on uninvested cash in a stocks and shares or innovative finance ISA carries a flat 22% charge, deducted by the provider, whatever your age or tax band

• a stocks and shares ISA can't be invested entirely in money market funds (Junior ISAs are exempt from this rule)

Your existing ISAs aren't affected. The cap applies to new deposits. Money already in your cash ISAs stays where it is, tax-free.

Tax outside an ISA goes up at the same time. From 6 April 2027 tax on savings interest above your personal savings allowance rises to 22%, 42% and 47%. Less cash allowance plus higher tax outside it makes each pound of cash ISA allowance worth more.

What it means if you're under 65:

1. 2026/27 is your last year to put £20,000 into cash ISAs. The deadline is 5 April 2027, and the money can be spread across as many cash ISAs as you like.

2. If you hold cash in a stocks and shares ISA that you'd rather have in a cash ISA, transfer it before 6 April 2027. After that date the route is closed to you until the tax year you turn 65.

3. From 2027/28, saving more than £12,000 tax-free a year means holding at least two types of ISA. The cash part can still be split across several cash ISAs.

We cover the money market fund rules and the 22% charge in more detail in New ISA rules 2027.

Should you have more than one ISA?

For most savers with more than a few thousand pounds, yes. One account rarely does everything well. The usual reasons to split:

• Access and rate pull in different directions. Fixed-rate cash ISAs pay the most but lock your money away. On 13 October 2026, the 12 best-paying cash ISAs in our Cash ISA table were all fixes, led by a five-year fix at 5.25% AER. Keeping an emergency pot in an easy-access ISA and fixing the rest gets you both.

• Fixes often close to new money. Many fixed-rate ISAs only take deposits for a short window after opening. If you have allowance left later in the year, a second ISA is the only way to use it.

• A better rate turns up mid-year. Since April 2024 you can open a new cash ISA when a better deal appears, rather than transferring this year's whole pot to chase it. Our monthly savings rates roundup tracks the best new deals.

• FSCS protection is per banking licence. Cash ISAs with UK banks and building societies are protected up to £120,000 per person, per banking licence, and that limit covers your ISA and non-ISA savings with the firm combined. Brands that share a licence share the limit. Once your ISA savings near that figure, spreading them across providers keeps every pound covered. Our FSCS checker shows which brands share a licence.

The downsides are mostly admin. Every extra account is another rate to watch, and variable rates drift down once you stop paying attention. And with deposits spread across several providers, nobody but you is adding them up against the £20,000 limit (£12,000 for cash from April 2027 if you're under 65).

A simple way to stay on top of it: keep one running total of what you've paid into ISAs since 6 April, and set a rate alert so you know when a better rate appears.

Best cash ISA rates right now

If you still have allowance left for 2026/27, these are the top-paying cash ISAs in our live table. Rates are AER and checked daily. The flexible label tells you whether you can take money out and put it back without losing allowance.

Moving an existing ISA instead? Our switch offers page lists current ISA transfer bonuses.

Our Cash ISA table ranks every account we track by rate and labels each one flexible or non-flexible. Use the ISA calculator to see what your allowance is worth over time, and our ISA hub to compare the other ISA types.