What is a Stocks and shares ISA?

A Stocks and shares ISA (also referred to as an investment ISA) lets you hold shares, funds and other investments, as well as cash. You're in complete control of how and where your money is invested, making the decisions that determine how your ISA performs.

With our Stocks and shares ISA, you’ve access to a market-leading range of investments, including bonds, shares from 21 markets, around 2,000 funds, investment trusts, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and exchange traded commodities (ETCs).

How do Stocks and shares ISAs work?

1. Setting up an ISA

Once you’ve opened an ISA, you can easily add money to it by debit card, bank transfer or Direct Debit (to fund it regularly). You can also transfer an existing cash or Stocks and shares ISA to us from another ISA provider, free of charge.

Learn more about transferring to us

If you have investments outside your ISA that you’d like to transfer into your ISA, you could use our Bed and ISA service. This involves selling your investments and immediately buying them back in your ISA. Just remember that you’ll pay stamp duty and dealing charges (and foreign exchange charges for international shares), as well as lose the difference between the market buying and selling price. You could also be liable for capital gains tax on the sale, depending on your circumstances.

We also accept shares you’ve acquired through a Save as You Earn (SAYE) or Share Incentive Plan (SIP). That’s as long as you have some remaining ISA allowance, the shares are in your name, and they’re eligible to be held in an ISA. And you need to make the transfer within 90 days of exercising the SAYE option or release from the SIP.

You also need to make sure you don’t pay in more than your ISA allowance each tax year. The ISA allowance is currently £20,000 and covers all your ISAs together. You could choose to split your allowance between different ISAs, or put it all in a Stocks and shares ISA if you’d prefer. Just take care not to go over the annual limit.

2. Managing your account

You’re in control of managing your ISA, and our easy-to-use website and award-winning app give you all the tools you need to do it. You can monitor your portfolio 24 hours a day, and place deals on our website or app. Our regular investment service is a great way to build your portfolio by investing monthly. You can start from as little as £25 per month, and buying investments costs just £1.50.

You’ve also a wealth of research information at your fingertips, including funds and share screeners, investment videos and articles. And if you're an AJ Bell customer, you can read Shares magazine online for free.

Need help at any point? We’ve two UK-based customer support teams for you to contact, as well as web chat.

3. Accessing your account

With a Stocks and shares ISA, you can withdraw money whenever you like, offering you greater flexibility than other accounts – such as a pension, which you can only access once you turn 55 (rising to 57 from 6 April 2028).

You can also set up a regular withdrawal from your ISA – monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually. You should remember that with our ISA, once you take money out, you can’t pay it back in if you’ve reached the annual ISA allowance limit for the current tax year.

What are the tax benefits?

Pretty good ones! Any investments you hold in an ISA are free from capital gains tax and income tax. And when you come to take money out of your ISA, you’ll pay no more tax. This makes ISAs a great way to save for the future, as you keep 100% of your investment gains and income.

• No further tax to pay on any income from your investment ISA
• No capital gains tax
• Shelter up to £20,000 each tax year
• Use your allowance by 5 April each year, or lose it!

If you’re a UK resident, you don’t even have to declare your ISA on your tax return, which makes managing your investments even easier.

Who can open a Stocks and shares ISA?

You need to be at least 18 to open an AJ Bell Stocks and shares ISA and you must be resident in the UK or be a Crown employee or their spouse or civil partner who is working overseas. There's no upper age limit and you can withdraw funds from your ISA when you choose.

What are the charges?

There are zero set-up fees or charges to transfer an ISA to us. You can deal online from just £1.50 for funds and £5.00 for shares. See our Stocks and shares ISA charges for full details.

What other types of ISA are there?

There are several different ISA types besides our Stocks and shares ISA. These include:

• Cash ISA – also lets you grow your money tax-free, but you can only hold cash in it.
• Lifetime ISA – lets you save for your first home and your retirement.
• Junior ISA – useful for saving for your child’s future until they turn 18.
• Help to buy ISA – helps you save for a home (but now closed to new savers).
• Innovative finance ISA – lets you put your savings with peer-to-peer lenders or invest in companies through crowdfunding websites.

See our full range of ISAs

Cash vs investment ISA

With a cash ISA, your provider pays interest on the amount you put in, rather than investing it into stocks, funds and other types of assets.

A cash ISA involves less risk of loss than a Stocks and shares ISA, though generally has lower potential for gains. A cash ISA may be more suitable for you if you’re looking to access your money in the short term, as generally with a Stocks and shares ISA, it’s best to keep any money invested for at least 5 years. We don’t offer a cash ISA at AJ Bell. Read more about the differences between a cash and a Stocks and shares ISA.