How to earn £250 extra on your Isa this tax year

Whether you opt for cash or stocks and shares, you can give your Isa an easy boost with this top tip.

A new tax year means a new Isa allowance. If you're going to open a stocks and share Isa you might want to consider boosting your returns using a nifty little trick.

Open your Isa via a cashback site such as Quidco or TopCashback and you could earn up to £250.

Here's how it works.

What are cashback sites?

Cashback sites are handy shopping sites which take advantage of the way commercial payments from one website to another work.

Affiliate links allow retailers to track where the traffic is coming from and then pay other websites for the lead. Cashback sites simply give their customers some of the money they’re paid.

Note that you'll have to set up an account with a cashback site to get the money. On most purchases you’ll earn a few pounds at most but there are some categories of spending where the rewards are much higher.

For example, you might earn over £100 for switching your car or life insurance.

Isas are another type of product where you can earn three-figure rewards. But be aware that the deals on offer are just for stocks and shares Isas, not cash Isas.

Quidco deals

Here are some of the deals on offer from cashback site Quidco.

Provider	Cashback	Rules
Nutmeg Stocks & Shares Isa	£105	New customers who make an investment deposit of £1,000 with a minimum of £100 monthly contribution for Isas below £5,000.
Fidelity Stocks & Shares Isa	£120	New customers who open a new Isa and make an initial deposit of £5,000.
Wesleyan Assurance Society With-Profits Isa	£110	New ISA with a minimum £100 contribution.
Shepherds Friendly Stocks & Shares Isa	Up to £250	Cashback from £100 to £250 depending on the monthly premium.
Foresters Friendly Society Stocks & Shares Isa	£65	New customers opening a stocks & shares Isa and making a minimum of three months’ contributions.
Scottish Friendly My Tracker Options Isa	£80	Application with £80 or more invested and set up for more than 30 days.

Shepherds Friendly’s £250 cashback offer is the highest but you have to commit to a high monthly contribution of £900 to get the cash. However, you can get £100 cashback with a monthly direct debit of £30.

Another deal for those with not much cash to spare is Scottish Friendly: you'll need to set up a new Isa, invest £80 for more than 30 days and you get £80. Simple.

Find out more at the Quidco site

TopCashback deals

Provider	Cashback	Rules
Fidelity Stocks & Shares Isa	£101	Minimum £5,000 lump sum which remains invested for three months. New customers only.
Shepherds Friendly Stocks & Shares Isa	Up to £227.25	Cashback from £90.90 to £227.25 depending on monthly premium.
Standard Life Savings Stocks & Shares Isa	£50.50	£50 a month contribution or £500 lump sum.
Nutmeg Stocks & Shares Isa	£106.05	Investment of a minimum £1,000 plus a £100 direct debit.
Wesleyan Assurance Society With Profits Isa	£101	Three months direct debits of £100.

Again, Shepherds Friendly is offering the most cashback but you’ll need to commit to £900 monthly premiums to get the money – and Quidco pays more for the same Isa.

If you don’t have much cash then Wesleyan is a better option: three months’ £100 contributions, so £300 in total, will net you £101 in cashback. But, again, Quidco pays more for the same deal.

Find out more at the TopCashback site

Read the small print

Before you sign up for an Isa cashback deal read the small print in detail and look out for the following.

Is there a minimum lump sum investment? How long do you need to leave it there to get the cashback?
Is there a minimum monthly premium? How many months do you have to pay it for to get the cashback?
What are the fund management charges? Will these outweigh the cashback you earn?
Which funds will your money be invested in? Are you happy with the risk level?
Are you a genuinely new customer? All the cashback deals are for new customers only so check what this means and whether you meet the criteria.

However, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind.

Firstly, cashback is not 100% guaranteed. Rarely, affiliate links fail or the retailer doesn’t pay the cashback site.

If this happens you’ll have to take it up with the cashback sites, but you have few consumer rights.

Secondly, stocks and shares Isas are risky and you could lose your money. How risky depends on the funds or stocks your money is invested in.

It’s best to have some cash savings before you dabble in the stock market.

Want to earn up to 5%? Compare high-interest current accounts