The tax free allowance for your 2020/21 ISA is £20,000. You want to invest in a stocks and shares ISA. So how do you go about it?
Wondering how to buy a stocks and shares ISA?
With the deadline quickly approaching, if you want to open an Investment ISA now is the time to act. Your £20,000 tax-free ISA allowance for this year is very much a ‘use it or lose it’ situation – so if you want to maximise your money for this tax year, you should be looking to open an ISA in the next week.
Lucky for you, we’ve broken down a step-by-step guide to buying a Stocks and Shares ISA.
Step One: Pick a Platform
In order to open a stocks and shares ISA, you’ll need to choose a platform to do this with. Examples of providers which offer competitive Stocks and Share ISA deals are:
Step Two: Give your Details
In order to set up a Stocks and Shares ISA, you’ll need to give your ISA provider some of your personal details to verify who you are. This will vary between providers, but likely details you’ll need to provide are:
- Proof of ID
- Proof of address
- Nationality
- Date of birth
- Contact number
- National insurance number
Step Three: Account Set Up
This is where you need to sit down and look at what you want your money to do: do you want to put all your money in one lump sum? It might be the case that since it’s so close to the ISA deadline, you don’t have any other option. But if you’ve more time, e.g. you’re reading this blog at the beginning of tax year 2020/2021, then you need to consider if you want your money to be invested month-by-month.
Or – you could do both, if that suits your needs!
This is the stage where you’ll set up your payment details and the provider will verify your details. All being in order, your account will bet set up – make sure you take a note of your login details!
Step Four: Pick your Investment Funds
This is where you’ll set up your investments – or choose a fund manager who will do this for you. You can choose what type of investments you want to put your money behind (e.g. you can choose ethical or climate crisis ISAs).
Step Five: Fine-tune your Account
This is the final step of the process – you can finalise your settings, details and preferences. Our top tip is to set up fund alerts, this way you’ll be kept up-to-date with what’s going on with your account and funds you may be interested in.