ISA Transfer

An ISA transfer is the ability to move assets held with one ISA manager to another, keeping the investments within the tax-efficient wrapper. Brokers must allow a client to transfer their ISA freely, however, are not obliged to facilitate the transfer in every way possible (many, like Freetrade, offer just cash transfers out).

If the stocks in your existing ISA are in our universe, you can transfer them without selling. If not, you’ll need to sell them for cash. Then that cash can move over too in the same transfer.

Cash ISA – Up to 4 weeks generally.
Stocks and shares ISA – Up to 6 weeks on generally.
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The time a transfer takes can vary on the above times, with various factors affecting the progress (sale instructions, broker working timeframes, conversations between broker and client to confirm information). There seems to be an industry-wide delay at the moment due to COVID, with certain brokers having longer hold-ups than others.

Shares can only be transferred into your ISA with Freetrade if they are currently held in an ISA elsewhere. 
When the client instructs the transfer, we send this to the current provider requesting a valuation of assets. Once received, we review what can and cannot be held, then contact the client on any that cannot. If applicable, sale instructions are made, and for stock coming across in-specie (as stock), trade and settlement dates are requested. On trade date, matching messages between the two brokers are entered into the market, and then the shares are transferred on settlement date. Following the settlement, we send cash balances to clients, alongside completion documents.

If you are transferring an ISA from previous years, you can partially transfer your holdings. Current year subscriptions are not able to be split, so it must be transferred in full.

No, transferring an ISA keeps investments in the tax wrapper, and so will not count further toward your allowance.