Cash ISAs

ISA stands for ‘Individual Savings Account’ – it’s a tax-efficient savings or investment account. 

Usually, interest earned on savings accounts is taxable if it exceeds your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA). With an ISA, interest you earn doesn’t count towards your PSA. You won’t pay income tax, tax on dividends or Capital Gains Tax on an ISA, so any returns your ISA makes won’t be taxed. Terms, conditions and ISA rules apply.

If you think you’ll save more than your PSA this year or in the near future, an ISA might be right for you.

If you’re looking for a savings account that’s not an ISA but still allows instant access, you could try our Reward Saver account which rewards you with a higher interest rate in months you don’t make withdrawals. Barclays Blue Rewards members and Premier customers can open our easy-access Rainy Day Saver and Blue Rewards Saver accounts too.

Or, if you have more money to save, you could try our fixed-rate savings bonds.

You can open and manage our cash ISAs in the Barclays app⁽²⁾ or Online Banking⁽³⁾. Alternatively, you can open an account in a branch or over the phone.

ISA rules allow you to pay into more than one cash ISA in the same tax year, as long as you don’t pay in more than £20,000 across all of your ISAs. However, you can only pay into one cash ISA with us each tax year right now. 

You can also split your allowance across cash and investment ISAs.

With our Instant Cash ISA and Reward ISA, interest is calculated daily using your statement balance and is paid on the first working day of each month.

With flexible cash ISAs, monthly and end of term interest payment options are available. 

Monthly interest can’t be paid back into an ISA or directly to any other ISA or bond. It can be paid into a Barclays account in your name or held jointly with someone else, or it’ll be sent to you by cheque. 

Monthly interest doesn’t compound in your ISA. End of term interest is compounded annually and added to the funds deposited in your ISA when it reaches the end of its term. For terms longer than one year, the actual interest you receive at the end of the term will be higher as it includes compounding from year to year.

You can do this in our app and Online Banking. With flexible cash ISAs, you’ll need to do this within the first 30 days of opening the ISA. 

In our app, go to ‘Products’ and scroll down to ‘Our services’, then tap ‘Transfer-in an existing ISA’ and ‘Get started’.

In Online Banking, select ‘Save’ in the top menu, then ‘Transfer an ISA in’ from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, you can speak to us and we’ll help you do this.

Any interest earned in a cash ISA doesn’t impact your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA).

Your PSA is the total amount of interest you can earn each tax year, across all your accounts (except ISAs) with any bank or building society, without paying tax. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

For basic-rate taxpayers, the PSA is £1,000 and for higher-rate taxpayers, it’s £500. Additional rate taxpayers don’t have a PSA.

You’ll need to start paying tax on any interest you earn above your PSA. Go to HMRC’s site to find out how to do this.

With Premier Banking, you can enjoy exclusive accounts, benefits and rewards, and get support from our Premier Financial Guides whenever you need it. Terms and conditions apply. 

Wealth Management offers a personal and proactive approach to managing your wealth. We take the time to get to know you, understand your ambitions and create unique solutions for every stage of your life. Terms and conditions apply.