The only restrictions on transferring ISAs are those placed by the ISA providers. An important concept is that transferring an old ISA to a provider that you've not used before does not count as a "new" ISA.

Yes, you can open a new ISA for this year's contributions and, if the provider allows it, you can transfer your old ISAs to the same provider. Transfers do not count against the annual limit so you can put £5k into a cash ISA each and every year and you can transfer the old cash ISAs between providers as much as you wish.

I guess that rules out my third option then. In that case, do I have to open a new ISA, and then potentially consolidate the money into this new one, or could I just continue adding money into the ISA I currently have.

Lastly, I guess that if I do open a new ISA and transfer the money in, that doesn't count against the new tax year limit?

I'm a little confused by thw whole ISA thing for each tax year. I currently have an ISA with the maximum £5340 in it. This was opened this tax year (2011/12), having transferred some of the money from an old NatWest ISA (originally opened in 2008/9) that was giving me a rubbish interest rate of 0.05%, into one with a much more decent interest rate of 3.05%.

My question is this: when the new tax year starts in a couple of days, how do I go about saving then? Am I allowed to -

1. Put another £5640 into the same ISA over the year as that is the 2012/13 allowance max? Or,

2. Do I have to open up a new ISA if I want to make any more tax free savings, and put up to £5640 in the new ISA? Or finally,

3. Am I only allowed to save another £300 (5640-5340=300) in the original ISA?

Many thanks in advance moneysupermarketers, as I'm sure I'm not alone in this confusion and any help would benefit me and hopefully a few others too.

Al