ISA Transfer Fees and Exit Charges: How to Check Before You Switch

Are There Fees for Transferring an ISA?

Usually not, but it depends on the provider you’re leaving. Most large UK investment platforms no longer charge to transfer out, and receiving providers don’t charge to accept a transfer. The charges that remain tend to sit with older platforms, fund supermarkets, wealth managers and fixed-rate cash ISAs.

The FCA’s platform market study pushed the industry to make switching easier, and the Consumer Duty now requires firms to avoid unreasonable barriers to leaving. That has squeezed exit fees out of most mainstream tariffs — but not all, so never assume. Here are the charges you might still meet:

Our step-by-step ISA transfer guide covers the process itself; this post focuses on what the switch might cost you.

How Do You Check the Fees on Both Sides?

Check four things before you press go: your old provider’s exit and re-registration fees, your new provider’s fees for receiving in-specie holdings, whether the new platform offers the same funds, and any refund offer. It takes ten minutes and avoids nasty surprises.

1. Download your current provider’s latest tariff. Search the PDF for “exit”, “transfer out”, “closure” and “re-registration”. If in doubt, ask them in writing — a written answer is useful if a refund offer needs proof.
2. Check the new provider’s transfer page. Look for any fee to receive holdings in specie, minimum balances, and whether they hold your exact funds and share classes.
3. Count your holdings. Per-holding fees add up. A portfolio of eight funds at a per-line fee costs eight times more to move than a single global tracker — one more reason simple portfolios are cheaper to run.
4. Read refund offers carefully. Some platforms will cover exit fees, usually up to a cap, if you claim within a set window and send proof. Some also run cashback offers tied to transfers above a minimum value with a lock-in period.
5. For a fixed-rate cash ISA, check the penalty and the maturity date. If the fix ends in a few weeks, waiting can be cheaper than paying the early-access charge.

Is a Small Exit Fee Worth Paying to Switch?

Almost always, if the new platform is meaningfully cheaper. A one-off fee of tens of pounds is trivial against an ongoing percentage charge that compounds for decades. Here’s a £100,000 Stocks & Shares ISA topped up with £20,000 a year for 20 years at 5% a year before charges, with different total annual costs:

Moving from 0.45% to 0.10% saves around £350 in the first year alone, so even a £100 exit fee is recovered within four months. The exception is a small pot: on £5,000, the same switch saves under £20 a year, so a large per-holding fee might take years to pay back. Our UK platform comparison for FIRE shows when flat-fee and percentage-fee platforms each work out cheaper.

How Do You Avoid Selling at the Wrong Moment?

The safest way to avoid out-of-market risk is an in-specie transfer, which moves your holdings without selling them. In a cash transfer, your investments are sold, the cash sits in transit, and it’s only reinvested once it lands — typically one to three weeks later.

On a £100,000 ISA, a 3% market rise while you’re in cash means rebuying £3,000 higher. A 3% fall works in your favour. It’s a coin toss rather than a guaranteed cost, but over a FIRE journey markets rise more often than they fall, so time out of the market has a negative expected value. To manage it:

• Go in specie for large pots in mainstream index funds or ETFs that the new platform also offers. Your money stays invested throughout.
• Watch for share-class conversions. If the new platform only offers a different share class, it may convert your units on arrival. A conversion between share classes of the same fund is generally not a disposal, but check how the platform handles it.
• Don’t sell before requesting the transfer. Selling first and waiting for the transfer just adds days in cash. Let the process handle it.
• Reinvest immediately on arrival. Set a reminder to check the new account daily once the transfer is under way — uninvested cash earns little.
• Never withdraw and redeposit. Paying the money into a new ISA yourself counts as a fresh subscription against your £20,000 allowance. Always start the transfer from the new provider.

Since 6 April 2024, you can also transfer part of your current year’s subscriptions and pay into more than one ISA of the same type in a tax year, which gives you more flexibility to switch gradually. HMRC sets out the transfer rules in its ISA transfer guidance on gov.uk.

How Long Should an ISA Transfer Take?

HMRC’s ISA rules set a maximum of 15 working days for cash ISA to cash ISA transfers and 30 calendar days for all others. In practice, cash transfers between large platforms often complete well within that, while in-specie transfers involving several funds take longer.

If your transfer stalls beyond those limits, complain to the provider holding things up. If you lose out because of the delay — missed interest or a market rise while your money sat idle — you can ask for redress and escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service if the response isn’t satisfactory. Keep a note of the date you requested the transfer. If you hold a flexible ISA, remember that withdrawals you replace must go back into the same ISA in the same tax year — replacing them elsewhere counts as a new subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Work Out Your Own Numbers

Charges are one of the few things in investing you can control. See how much a cheaper platform could add to your ISA over the long run:

• ISA Millionaire Calculator — see how long it takes to reach £1 million in your ISA, and how much difference a lower annual cost makes

Once your ISA is on a low-cost platform, our guide to the cheapest index funds in the UK can help you keep fund charges down too. And don’t forget the full new State Pension of £11,502 a year (2025/26) from 67 — check your forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension.