IFISA FAQs
An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a tax-free way to save or invest. For each tax year, there is a maximum allowance you can put into an ISA. For the 2017/2018 tax year, this amount is £20,000.
There are three main types of ISAs; Cash, Stocks & Shares and Innovative Finance.
The Innovative Finance ISA, or IFISA, is a new tax wrapper which allows investors residing in the UK to include peer-to-peer lending investments in an ISA. Only platforms which have full FCA authorisation have the ability to offer IFISAs and any interest earned is tax-free.
It will work in the same way our system does now. Once you open an IFISA with us, you will have a new section within your account for your ISA funds. This will be kept separate from any current money you have in your normal account or ongoing loans you have invested in. Once you have transferred funds into your IFISA, then you can begin to invest in loans, as you normally would.
To be eligible for an IFISA you must be an individual living in the UK and you must not have subscribed to another IFISA in the current tax year.
No, our ISA is not flexible. If you withdraw funds from your ISA account and then replace them, the money you put back will reduce your allowance for the tax year in which you replenish it.
You may only subscribe to one IFISA in a single tax year.
You can invest up to £20,000 in an IFISA or this can be spread across the 3 main types of ISAs. There is no limit on the amount of transfers from prior year cash or stocks and shares ISA's.
You can deposit funds into your IFISA by transferring funds from your main account into your IFISA. Alternatively, you can transfer in funds from another ISA, which will not affect your ISA allowance and the funds will be sent straight into your IFISA account.
Yes, you can transfer from your Cash ISAs, Stocks & Shares ISAs and Innovative Finance ISA's into your FundingSecure IFISA. If you opened an ISA in the previous tax year with another platform you may transfer all or part of the funds from there into our IFISA. For current year ISA's you are only permitted to transfer ALL (Not part) of the current year subscribed funds, including any interest or dividends.
No, there will be no fees for opening your IFISA or investing, nor will there be any fees for depositing, withdrawing and transferring.
As with our current system, the interest rates vary from loan-to-loan. However, typical interest rates are 12-13%pa.
Yes. Investors should be aware that the IFISA, like all other peer-to-peer activities, is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), therefore your capital is at risk if a loan defaults. For statistics on our loans, please visit our
statistics pageNo, your ISA earnings are exempt from tax.
You may not subscribe to more than one IFISA in a tax year. However if you hold an IFISA on a different platform you may open an IFISA with FundingSecure in the current tax year and transfer prior years funds into it.
No, we already have your details. There is a link in your account dashboard and the only additional information we require is your NI number.
As with the normal system, when you invest in a loan, you commit to lending to the term of that loan. During this time, it is not possible to withdraw the investment, unless you choose to sell on the Secondary Market. Any un-invested money in your account may be withdrawn at any time. The cash will then be sent to your main account and you can withdraw funds from your main account as you normally would.
Essentially nothing changes on the secondary market. You can buy and sell investments within your IFISA account just as you can with your regular account.
As with our regular account, the minimum amount needed to invest is £25.
