• Cash ISAa are tax-free savings accounts available to UK residents.A heap of british pounds image by kaleff from Fotolia.com
  
  A Cash ISA (Individual Savings Account) is a financial product available to all residents of great Britain. It was introduced in 1999 in order to make saving more appealing to a broader variety of the population than the previous, more complicated, products. They enable customers to save money without having to pay tax on the interest accrued on the capital. They are only available for saving cash, as opposed to a Stocks and Shares ISA.
  
  

Limits

• There are limits to the amount of money an individual is allowed to place into a Cash ISA each financial year. Prior to April 2010, there were different limits for those over 50 years of age and those under. However, now the limit is the same. Each tax year, a UK resident can invest £5,100 in a Cash ISA.
  
  

Withdrawls

• An individual is allowed to withdraw as much of their capital held within a Cash ISA as they wish. However, if they have used their allowance for the year, they cannot reinvest in their Cash ISA.
  
  

Unused Allowance

• An individual can invest up to the Cash ISA limit in a single lump sum, or several smaller deposits. However, if an individual does not invest the entire amount within the single financial year, they are prohibited from taking that unused allowance over to the next financial year.
  
  

Transfers

• While an individual saver is allowed to transfer funds from a Cash ISA to a Stocks and Shares ISA, they are prohibited from transferring funds held in a Stocks and Shares ISA to a Cash ISA. An individual can transfer their savings--including money from previous years--between Cash ISA products, but the transfer must be effected by the managers of the institutions offering those functions. If the individual manually withdraws their money, they cannot invest this in another Cash ISA if their limit for the financial year has been reached. Within a tax year, only total transfers can be conducted. Partial transfers are only permitted on ISAs from previous financial years