ISAs explained

ISA stands for Individual Savings Account.

The main difference between an ISA and any other savings account is that it offers tax-free interest payments. So you could get more for your money.

There are 4 types of ISA:

• cash ISAs
• stocks and shares ISAs
• innovative finance ISAs, and
• lifetime ISAs.

At Nationwide we offer cash ISAs and stocks and shares ISAs. Find out more about what ISAs are and the types we offer in our handy video.

Cash ISAs are tax-free savings accounts. You pay no tax on the interest you earn. You can open some ISAs with as little as £1.

We currently offer 3 types of cash ISA:

You can only have one 'active' cash ISA every year. This means that you can’t open multiple cash ISAs in a single tax year and benefit from the tax-free savings allowance in each of these cash ISAs.

But when you open a cash ISA with us, it’ll form part of a portfolio cash ISA. This means you can split your cash ISA across multiple products. So you can open more than one cash ISA product with us in a tax year.

You can think of a stocks and shares ISA as a wrapper that sits around a portfolio of investments. This wrapper means you have no tax to pay on any dividends, growth, interest or income you get from the investments.

If you're happy to invest for at least 6 years, a stocks and shares ISA could help you beat inflation and build a nest egg for the future. You'll need to be 18 or over and a Nationwide member.

You can open our Stocks and Shares ISA with a lump sum, or make regular contributions from as little as £20 per month.

Keep in mind, the value of your investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you first put in.

The amount you can put in your ISA is set by your ISA allowance.

Your ISA allowance is the most you can save in an ISA in each tax year. For 2022/23, the allowance is £20,000. Some non-ISA savings accounts let you save up to £5 million in total.

You can split your allowance across the different types of ISA. For example, you could save some in a cash ISA and invest some in a stocks and shares ISA.

You can only open one of each type of ISA within a tax year. So one cash ISA and one stocks and shares ISA.

However, when you open a cash ISA product with us, it'll form part of a portfolio cash ISA.

This means you can split your cash ISA across multiple products. So you can open more than one cash ISA product with us in a tax year.

For example, you could start the tax year by opening a fixed rate ISA with us. Then, choose at the end of the year to open a limited access cash ISA with us. Both accounts become part of one single portfolio cash ISA.

Although you can pay money into your individual ISA products, you'll only be paying into one portfolio cash ISA.

We've set up our cash ISA in this way so you can spread your annual ISA allowance across different products. Our portfolio cash ISA also has ISA flexibility.

ISA flexibility allows you to replace any money you take out of your cash ISA during a single tax year without it counting towards your annual ISA allowance.

Your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) is set by the Government. It means that, depending on the income tax rate you pay, you could earn up to £1,000 in interest in a non-ISA savings account during a single tax year, without having to pay tax on your interest.

Interest you earn on any ISA you hold doesn't count towards your PSA, because it's already tax-free.