How your account works
Interest, rates and fees
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Once your ISA is open your payments will start to earn interest as detailed below:
Debit card – will start to earn interest two working days after your payment is authorised (eg deposits authorised on a Saturday will start earning interest on a Tuesday).
Cheques – will start to earn interest from the day we receive the cheque. Please note, we only accept deposits by cheque on working days.
A transfer from a cash ISA – will start to earn interest from the earlier of either the date on the cheque or the date the electronic transfer payment is sent to us from your old provider (depending on the method of transfer), but no later than the 8th working day after we received your application.
A transfer from a stocks and shares ISA – will start to earn interest from the working day we receive the transfer cheque and valid Transfer History Form from your old provider.
A transfer from another Post Office ISA – if you’re transferring from an existing Post Office cash ISA, the transfer value will start to earn interest two working days after your application or transfer instruction is accepted. For a transfer from a Post Office stocks and shares ISA this would be three working days after your application or transfer instruction is accepted.
Funding from another product within the Online ISA – on the same (working) day that it is processed.
Please note, working days do not include Saturdays, Sundays or English bank holidays.
Please be aware, if we've asked for proof of identity or any other information before we can open your account, then no interest will be earned until we've received the required information.
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Please note this information is available in the Summary Box, which are available before you apply for a product. A copy of the Summary Box can also be found for any products you hold in your Online ISA "My Documents" area.
Holding Account
Funds in the Holding Account will earn a variable rate of interest. Interest will be calculated daily and paid annually into the Holding Account on 20 March each year.
Easy Access products
Funds in the Easy Access product will earn a variable rate of interest. A fixed bonus may also be paid as detailed in the Summary Box. Interest is calculated daily and will be paid annually on 20 March each year. Interest may also be paid on closure of your product.
Fixed Rate products
During the fixed term, funds in a Fixed Rate product will earn a fixed rate of interest. Interest is calculated daily and will be added to the Fixed Rate products on the anniversary of the start date each year and also on the date the fixed term ends.
After the end of the fixed term the full value of the Fixed Rate product, including interest received, will be paid into the Holding Account, which earns a variable rate of interest.
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If you already have an Online ISA with us, you can see the current interest rates that apply to your products on the ISA Overview page once you're logged in. For more information on how your interest rates work, please refer to the Key Information Pack and Summary Box saved in your 'My Documents' area.
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We don’t charge for any of our standard services (as described in the Online ISA Terms and Conditions).
A Breakage Charge will be applied for early closure of a Fixed Rate product. Early closure includes closing a Fixed Rate product during its fixed term, or transferring or closing your Online ISA while you have funds in a Fixed Rate product still within its fixed term. Early closure does not include closure within the first 14 days of having opened a Fixed Rate product within your Online ISA.
If a Breakage Charge is applied, it will be deducted from the any interest earned. In the instance where not enough interest has been earned to cover the Breakage Charge, it will be deducted from the balance of the product. This will reduce the total balance in the product to be returned to you.
Details of the Breakage Charge can be found in the Summary Box. The Breakage Charge equals 90 or 180 days' loss of interest, depending on the length of the fixed term. The Breakage Charge will be calculated assuming a 365-day year.
Charges may change in the future. For more details about charges and changes to charges, please see the Key Information Pack, which contains the Terms and Conditions of the Online ISA.
Managing your account
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A Holding Account will automatically be set up for you when you open the Online ISA. You can use the Holding Account to consolidate funds before paying into a product, or to distribute one lump sum deposit across multiple products of your choice within the Online ISA.
The Holding Account is also where your savings will be placed when products within your Online ISA are closed, eg when a Fixed Rate product comes to the end of its term.
Consolidating funds
Some products within the Online ISA only accept a single deposit (such as Fixed Rate products). If you have ISAs with several different providers, you could transfer all the funds to the Holding Account. This would then offer you a single, larger sum that could be paid as a single deposit.
Splitting funds
If you wish to use a lump sum deposit to fund multiple products, you have the option of paying this into the Holding Account. You can then split the funds in the Holding Account to fund the opening of one or more products. For example, if you had £20,000 available, you could split this according to your needs, and choose to pay in £1,000 into product A, £5,000 into product B, and £14,000 into product C.
Please note, the products or rates of interest on offer can be changed or withdrawn at any time. If you’re using the Holding Account to consolidate or split your ISA savings before opening a specific product, there is a risk the product or rate of interest you wanted will no longer be available by the time any funds are received.
Practical points
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For more information about how savings in the Online ISA are protected, please read the Deposit Information Sheet. This sets out details of how your money is protected with Bank of Ireland UK, who is the "deposit taker" for the Online ISA.
If you make payments directly to us, we will initially pay these into an account held with NatWest. We will then transfer this money to Bank of Ireland UK. This is also what happens if we receive a transfer cheque from another ISA provider. Please note that any money you hold in other accounts with NatWest will count towards compensation limits.
You can find out more about how your money is protected when it's held in a bank or building society account by going to the "What we cover" section of the FSCS website at www.fscs.org.uk.
Read further information about compensation arrangement.
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We'll notify you 14 days prior to the end of your fixed term.
At the end of the fixed term the product will close and your funds, including any interest earned, will move into your Holding Account within your Online ISA. You can then manage these funds from the Holding Account by choosing whether to reinvest into another Fixed Rate product, move it into an Easy Access product, spread it across these products or withdraw it.
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A fixed bonus may be paid as detailed in the Summary Box. We'll notify you when your fixed bonus comes to an end 14 days prior to the end of your fixed bonus.
When the fixed bonus comes to an end your product will only earn the variable rate of interest.
Accessing your account
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To log in to your Online ISA you'll be asked to provide your username and password that you selected when opening the account. You'll then be asked to confirm some information from your memorable questions.
You can reset your password by selecting "I have forgotten my password" on the login page. If you can’t remember any of your login details, please call 0345 602 3409.
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If you can't remember your username please select 'I have forgotten my username' from the log in page. If you can't remember your password please select "I have forgotten my password" from the log in page. If you can’t remember any of your login details, please call 0345 602 3409.
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To change your email address, residential address, telephone number or marketing preferences please log in to your Online ISA and visit your "Personal Details" page. If any other of your personal details need updating, you can contact customer services by sending a secure message.
Please note that for a change of name or date of birth we'll require certified evidence of the change (see below). Once certified, please send your documents to us at:
Post Office Savings
PO Box 5179
Brighton
BN50 9UY -
We can only accept photocopies of documents where each page has been certified in the style described, ie each page must be certified in original ink (we can’t accept photocopies of documents after they’ve been certified) and the certifier can’t appear as a named person within the document.
Any documents that aren’t correctly certified will be returned to you for re-certification.
Please don’t send original documents as we're unable to guarantee their safe return.
Please send the required information to:
Post Office Savings
PO Box 5179
Brighton
BN50 9UYA relative cannot certify your identification but the following people can:
- Accountant
- Barrister or solicitor
- Bank or building society official
- Commissioner of Oaths/Notary Public
- Justice of the Peace
- FCA registered broker/introducer
- Post Office official (UK only)
- Attorney
The certifier must:
- Write on each photocopy: “I certify this is a true copy”
- State their profession
- Print their name, address and phone number (staff number or authorised signatory number if appropriate)
- Sign and date the photocopy
Acceptable forms of identity are as follows:
- Current valid signed passport/EU National identity card
- Firearms certificate
- Electoral ID card (Northern Ireland only)
- Current full old-style UK driving licence (non-photo card type driving licence)*
- Current UK/EU photo card driving licence*
- Correspondence from the Department of Work and Pensions)/Benefits agency (dated within the last six months)*
Acceptable proof of address:
- Current electricity bill (dated within the last three months)
- Current gas bill (dated within the last three months)
- Current landline telephone bill (dated within the last three months)
- Current water/sewerage bill (dated within the last three months)
- Current full old-style UK driving licence (non-photo card type driving licence)*
- Current UK/EU photo card driving licence*
- Correspondence from the DWP/benefits agency (dated within the last six months)
- Bank/building society/mortgage/credit union or credit card statement (dated within the last three months)**
- Local authority correspondence valid for the current year, eg rates/council tax (dated within the last 12 months)
- HM Revenue & Customs/Revenue Commissioners correspondence, eg tax coding notice (dated within the last 3 months). Note P60 and P45 are not acceptable
* These items may be used to evidence identity or address, but not both.
** This item may be used to evidence address and nominated bank accounts.
Deposits, withdrawals and transferring ISAs
Deposits and withdrawals
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Once your Online ISA is open and you've logged into it, you can make additional deposits into either a new product (when available) or into existing products held in your Online ISA (if they accept additional deposits) by debit card payment online or by cheque.
The minimum deposit amount can be found in the Key Information Pack (for existing products) or the Summary Box (for new products).
You can see your remaining subscription allowance for the current tax year (subject to any contributions to other types of ISAs) on your "ISA Overview" page.
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Once your Online ISA is open, you can withdraw funds from it at any time by accessing your account online. You can either select the product you'd like to make the withdrawal from on your 'ISA Summary' screen or you can select the "Withdrawals and closures" area of your account.
Please note this ISA does not have flexible features. This means that once withdrawn, your money will lose the tax advantages of ISAs and cannot be replaced within this ISA without affecting your annual ISA allowance.
Whether there is a charge depends on which Online ISA product(s) your savings are held in. There are no restrictions on the number of withdrawals that can be made from Easy Access products or the Holding Account.
Withdrawals are not permitted during the fixed term of the Fixed Rate product. If you need access to your money during the fixed term, you'll need to close the product, which will incur a Breakage Charge. If the interest you've earned doesn't cover this, you'll get back less than you put in. Please note, the Breakage Charge will not be applied if you close your product within 14 days of opening.
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If you need to access funds held in a Fixed Rate product before the term has ended you'll have to close your product. If the Fixed Rate product has been open for more than 14 days, there will be a Breakage Charge to close your product. If the interest you've earned doesn't cover this, you'll get back less than you put in.
You can request to close a product by accessing your account online. You can either select the product you'd like to make the closure from on your "ISA Summary" screen or you can select the 'Withdrawals and closures' area of your account.
You can request to close a product in your Online ISA at any time. Payments can either be sent to the Holding Account of your Online ISA, where the money can be moved to other products in your account, or to your Nominated Account, where the money will lose its tax advantages.
The Online ISA does not have flexible features. This means that once withdrawn to your Nominated Account, your money will lose the tax advantages of ISAs and cannot be replaced within your Online ISA without affecting your annual ISA allowance. If you have already used your full allowance in a tax year, you will not be able to make further deposits into your Online ISA in that tax year, even if you've made a withdrawal from a product in your account.
You can’t close your Holding Account unless you transfer or close your entire Online ISA, although you can withdraw from the holding account.
Transferring funds
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If you have existing Post Office ISAs these can be transferred in the same way as any other ISA. When you’re given the option to select how you wish to fund a new or existing product, select ISA transfer and then choose "Post Office" as the provider and follow the on-screen instructions.
If you're unsure whether you'll be charged a fee for transferring your existing Post Office ISA, please contact us.
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Yes, you can transfer your Online ISA in full to another provider. Partial transfers are not permitted. To transfer your Online ISA please contact your new provider. You'll need to supply your Online ISA number, which can be found on your ISA Overview page.
If you’ve paid into multiple products within your Online ISA you cannot transfer out a single product. You'll have to close your whole Online ISA and transfer out the total value. This may mean that you'll incur Breakage Charges, depending on the products you hold within your Online ISA.
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If you already have an existing ISA with another provider, you can transfer your savings into your Online ISA. Transferring funds from a previous tax year's ISA will not affect your ISA limit for this tax year.
You can choose whether to use the transfer to pay into an existing product (if the product allows additional payments), fund a new product or transfer the ISA into the Holding Account and then split your funds across the products of your choice.
Before making a decision to transfer your existing ISA to us you should check if your current provider will charge a fee.
Closing your ISA
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Once withdrawn your money will no longer benefit from the tax advantages of ISAs.
If your request includes closing a Fixed Rate product which is in its fixed term, a Breakage Charge will be applied to that product, which will be detailed in the Summary Box. This will also be confirmed before you complete your closure request.
If you haven’t yet verified your Nominated Account details, you’ll need to provide proof of your Nominated Account before we can proceed with your Online ISA closure. This means we'll need you to send us a photocopy of one of the following from your bank, dated within the last three months, showing your name, the bank sort code and your account number:
- A statement
- An online statement
- A letter from your bank
Finally, please write your Online ISA number on the back and post it to us at:
Post Office Savings
PO Box 5179
Brighton
BN50 9UY -
Yes, you have 14 days from the date your Online ISA opens to cancel your account. You can let us know you'd like to cancel by sending us a secure message. If you decide to cancel, your Online ISA and any products you've opened within it will be closed and you'll receive a full refund of any deposits made plus tax-free interest. Any returned deposits will not be regarded as having been paid into the ISA, and so will not count towards your ISA allowance for the current tax year.
If you don’t cancel within the 14-day cancellation period and request to close your Online ISA after this date, your money will no longer benefit from the tax advantages of an ISA.
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You cannot "cancel" individual products you've opened within your Online ISA. This means that, unless you cancel your entire Online ISA within the 14-day cancellation period, any deposits you've made into your product(s) will count towards your annual ISA allowance.
Although you can't cancel individual products, you can request to close any product held within your Online ISA at any time. Some products will also allow you to take partial withdrawals from them. You can request a withdrawal or to close a product by accessing your account online. You can either select the product you’d like to make the withdrawal or closure from on your "ISA Summary" screen or you can select the "Withdrawals and closures" area of your account. Any associated withdrawal restrictions or Breakage charges will apply. You can find information about these within the Summary Box.
When you request a withdrawal or to close the product, you can ask to have the money paid either to your Nominated Account or to the Holding Account of your Online ISA. If you've requested to have the money paid to your Nominated Account, the money will lose its tax advantage; however, if the money is paid to your Holding Account you can reinvest these funds into other products within your Online ISA and it will retain its tax advantages.
Please note, if the product you've selected to open has a Breakage Charge associated with early closure, this will be waived providing your request to close is received within 14 days of the product opening. If this is an option for your product, it will be stated in the Summary Box.