The tax year ends Sunday 5 April 2026, Easter weekend. So, before the eggs are hidden and crafting begins, it’s worth checking if you’re making the most of your ISA allowance and planning ahead for the next tax year.
What to think about if you have a Cash ISA
If you have a Cash ISA there are a few simple things to consider to maximise your ISA allowance before the end of the tax year. It’s important to know if you don’t use your full ISA allowance in a tax year, you lose it. It can’t be rolled over from one tax year to another.
How to maximise your ISA allowance
Use your full ISA allowance
Have you used your full allowance this tax year? If not, consider topping it up before the tax year ends, as making use of your full allowance means more of your savings can grow tax-free.
You can spread this allowance across different types of ISAs, such as a Cash ISA, a Stocks and Shares ISA or an Innovative Finance ISA, as long as the total contributions don’t exceed £20,000 in a single tax year.
The ISA allowance is currently £20,000 for the 2025/2026 tax year and will remain the same for 2026/2027. From the 2027/2028 tax year, the overall allowance will still be £20,000, but the amount that can be held in a Cash ISA will reduce to £12,000, meaning savers may wish to consider a mix of cash and investment ISAs if they want to use the full allowance.
Please note: Hodge currently only offers Fixed Term Cash ISAs.
Review your ISA options
Depending on your savings goal, you may want to think about where your savings are currently held.
If you’ve been holding cash in a non-ISA account, moving savings from non-ISA accounts to a Cash ISA before the deadline, means you earn tax-free interest.
Consider Stocks & Shares ISA
Cash ISAs offer tax-free interest and can suit different short and long-term savings goals. Stocks & Shares ISAs offer the potential for higher growth and tax-free gains, which may suit longer-term goals such as retirement planning. Investments can go down as well as up. And because returns stay within the ISA tax wrapper, any growth can compound over time.
Please note: Hodge currently only offers Fixed Term Cash ISAs.
Plan ahead for 2026/2027
It’s a good idea to review your finances before the end of the tax year and make sure your savings accounts align with your savings goals. You can also think about setting up regular contributions into an ISA (if it allows) as contributing earlier in the year gives your money more time to benefit from compound interest. Please note, with a Hodge Fixed Rate Cash ISA, you will need to pay your deposit into your account within 14 days of account opening, no further funds can be added after this date.
What are the ISA rule changes?
From 6th April 2027, there will be changes to Cash ISA limits for savers under 65 years old. The Cash ISA allowance will be £12,000. Any additional ISA contributions would need to be held in another type of ISA.
The overall ISA allowance will remain £20,000, meaning savers can still use investment ISAs, such as Stocks and Shares ISAs, if they want to make full use of their allowance.
The Cash ISA limit for savers aged 65 and over will remain £20,000.
How does interest work with Cash ISAs?
As an example, if you deposit £5,000 into a Cash ISA at 3% interest, you could have around £5,150 by year-end (tax-free).
By contributing early in the tax year you can increase your long-term growth potential thanks to extra months of compounding interest.
Application deadline for Hodge ISAs
To ensure your Hodge ISA can be opened within the current tax year, please complete your application online by 26 March 2026. Funds must be received in your account by 5 April 2026.
View our Hodge ISA options.
Find out more about ISAs
ISA FAQs
Here you will find answers to popular questions about ISAs.
For the 2025/2026 tax year, the ISA allowance is £20,000 across all ISA types, including Cash ISAs, Stocks and Shares ISAs and Innovative Finance ISAs. The allowance will remain the same £20,000 for the 2026/2027 tax year.
From the 2027/2028 tax year, the overall ISA allowance will still be £20,000, but the amount that can be held in a Cash ISA will reduce to £12,000 for savers under 65. This means savers may want to consider a mix of cash and investment ISAs if they want to use the full ISA allowance.
Consider your time frame, risk tolerance, and savings goals. Cash ISAs often suit short to long-term goals; Stocks & Shares ISAs suit long-term growth.
Compound interest is interest earned on your initial savings plus interest earned on the interest each year. For example, in year one, money invested will earn interest. In year two, interest will be earned on money invested plus year one’s return and so on.
There are no planned ISA rule changes for 2026/2027 tax year. The new Cash ISA limit reduces to £12,000 for savers under 65 from April 6 2027.
No, you can’t do this. If you want to take advantage of a higher rate of interest your options are explained below. Both options will incur a penalty fee if you close your account before it reaches maturity.
You can:
- Find another provider and complete an application with them, telling them you’d like to transfer your existing Hodge ISA to them. They’ll send us a Transfer Authority Form, notifying us of your request. We’ll then close your Hodge account and transfer the money to your new provider. This process means you’ll keep the ISA tax efficiencies against the full amount in your ISA account.
- Close your existing Hodge ISA early and have your money repaid to your nominated account. You can then open a new ISA account with Hodge and fund it online. However, this will mean you’ll lose the ISA tax efficiencies against your money from previous tax years, and you’ll only be able to invest the remaining balance of your current tax year allowance.
Yes, you can close your ISA early if you need to access your money, however there will be a penalty fee.
To do this, you’ll need to contact us and we’ll calculate the penalty fee as shown in our Terms and Conditions. Once confirmed, we’ll start the process to transfer the funds to your new ISA provider or into your nominated bank account. This must be a full withdrawal and account closure, you cannot make a partial withdrawal from your ISA.
When you apply online, you’ll have 14 days from the account opening date to make as many deposits to your account as required. After that, you won’t be able to add any more money to the account.
If you’d like to take money out of your ISA account before the end of the fixed rate period, you’ll have to pay an exit fee. You’ll have to take the full amount out at once, and you can let us know that you’d like to do this at any time.
The tax year runs from 6th April to 5th April the following year. The current ISA allowance is £20,000 which can be saved in any combination of cash, stocks and shares and/or innovative finance ISA. Hodge only offers cash ISAs. If you close your account and withdraw your money, you will lose your tax wrapper on the funds.
No. If you don’t use your annual ISA allowance, you can’t roll it over into future years.
You can subscribe to multiple ISAs of the same type within the annual subscription limits, except investors with a LISA (Lifetime ISA) who are restricted to subscribing to one LISA a year, and investors with a JISA (Junior ISA) who are restricted to subscribing to one JISA a year. Those under 17 are not permitted to subscribe to more than one Cash ISA per year.
With Hodge, you can only have one Fixed Rate Cash ISA per tax year. We also don’t offer JISA, LISA or Cash ISAs to those under 18 years old.
To open an ISA, you must be over 18 and a resident of the UK (excluding the Channel Islands and Isle of Man).