Organising finances: 50k saved but badly help pls!

The Help to Buy ISA is perfectly reasonable, as long as the purchase price of the house will not exceed £250,000. If it did then you would not be able to use the HTB and claim the bonus. The alternative is uing a Lifetime ISA, which increases the permitted purchase price to £450,000. Both ISAs pay a 25% bonus, but the LISA bonus is credited directly to your account, rather than having to be applied for by your solicitor. There are, however, downsides with the LISA: you can't make use of the money before a full year is up, and you are too late to apply to transfer in your HTB ISA for this financial year. The maximum deposit in a LISA is £4,000 p.a. I think, in your case, that keeping the HTB ISA is the most sensible option.

The balance on your Halifax account is huge and, as you rightly say, is not benefiting you. You would be well-advised to move this money to interest paying current accounts. Most of these require you to have direct debits to get the interest, and this may not be as easy for you if you are staying with friends, but you may have other direct debits:

1) Switching to Nationwide FlexDirect would get you 5% interest for one year on £2,500 of the money and give you access to a 5% regular saver at £250 p/m (taking up another £3,000 of the lump). If you know someone with a Nationwide account then they can recommend you and you will both receive £100 bonus. No DDs needed.

2) You could combine this with a Tesco account, paying 3% on £3,000. Three DDs needed.

3) Add in Bank of Scotland Vantage, which pays 2% on £5,000. This requires two DDs. You can actually have three of these accounts, as long as you have 6 DDs available.

4) TSB Classic Plus will pay you 3% interest on £1,500. No DDs required, but if you had two paying out each month you would also earn £5 p/m cashback too.

5) Club Lloyds will pay you 2% on £5,000 and give you access to a regular saver paying 3% on £400 p/m. Two DDs needed.

6) Santander 123 will pay you 1.5% on £20,000 and give you access to a regular saver paying 5% on £200 p/m. There is a £5 p/m account fee, but also cashback on some DDs. The cashback is mostly on utility bills which you aren't likely to be paying at the moment, so your £5 fee won't be offset by the cashback (which is what most people do). Two "active" DDs needed, i.e. they have to have paid out in the last 13 months, but don't have to pay out every month.

However, be aware that each current account application will require a search on your credit file, so you need to be cautious as you intend to apply for a mortgage. If that application is likely to be around 12 months away then there shouldn't be a problem, but the closer the date gets the bigger the issue.

Alternatively, you could consider taking advantage of some of the switching bonuses. Often these will dwarf the interest you'll earn in the first year (and both of the ones below also give access to good regular savers):

1) HSBC Advance pays £150 for switching and another £50 if you stay with them for 12 months. The regular saver pays 5% on £250 p/m. No DDs are needed, but to ge the bonus there must be two DDs or standing orders set up on the account you are switching. This is easily sorted by setting up two SOs to pay money to another account you hold!

2) First Direct pays £125 for switching. The regular saver pays 5% on £300 p/m. No DDs are needed.

To take advantage of these, open a second account with Halifax (and set up two standing orders from you existing account to the new one). Switch the existing account to HSBC and the new account to First Direct.

The cash ISA is losing you a lot of interest. Move the money into either the current accounts listed above (if interest earning available balances exist) or an easy access savings account, e.g. Virgin Money Double Take E-Saver, which pays 1.3%. If you aren't going to need access to this money for at least a year, however, then you can earn more interest by opening a fixed rate 1 year savings bond with Investec, who will pay you 1.85%.

Have a look at these pages on MSE for further details of all accounts mentioned:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts