Help to Buy ISA

guitarman001

Official MSE Insert:

You may also find our fully researched Help to Buy ISA guide helpful.

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Just saw that the government will add 25% to your savings if it's in a Help to Buy ISA!?

Anybody know any more - what strings are attached? So if you've £50k saved for a deposit you magically get £12.5k!?

guitarman001

Aha!
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/414027/FTB_factographic_final.pdf

So the bonus is paid when you buy your first home, only up to the value of £250k outside of London. Max £1k deposit and £200 per month thereafter. Damn, this really assumes you're saving for a home - if you're thinking of emigrating..... nowt! Talk about trying to prop up a market! How about decent savings rates for everybody!?

jimjames

guitarman001 wrote: »

Just saw that the government will add 25% to your savings if it's in a Help to Buy ISA!?

Anybody know any more - what strings are attached? So if you've £50k saved for a deposit you magically get £12.5k!?

Limited to £3k.

botkin

So say you deposit 1k and then save 200 a month, it would take you 55 months (about 4.5 years) to save up the max 12k (and get the 3k bonus). Bit rubbish for those with a lump sum who don't want to wait that long.

HSVX

Seems like a bit of a confusing product to me to be honest. I wonder if you can transfer your existing Cash ISA into this one (so that it doesn't use up any of your allowance)?

guitarman001

botkin wrote: »

So say you deposit 1k and then save 200 a month, it would take you 55 months (about 4.5 years) to save up the max 12k (and get the 3k bonus). Bit rubbish for those with a lump sum who don't want to wait that long.

+1.
Useless!

Archi_Bald

HSVX wrote: »

Seems like a bit of a confusing product to me to be honest. I wonder if you can transfer your existing Cash ISA into this one (so that it doesn't use up any of your allowance)?

Given that the max you can put in is £1,000 initially and then £200 a month, the answer must be no.

Archi_Bald

botkin wrote: »

So say you deposit 1k and then save 200 a month, it would take you 55 months (about 4.5 years) to save up the max 12k (and get the 3k bonus). Bit rubbish for those with a lump sum who don't want to wait that long.

It is meant to help those that do need help, it's not just a free £3,000. Tens of millions of people (incl myself) will not benefit from it as they aren't FTBs, but I reckon thousands of people will qualify and will be grateful for the extra money.

kelpie35

Anything that will help FTBs seems a good thing to me.

We now live in a country where social housing is not available to many and the rents charged by landlords is horrendous.

Ed-1

I wonder if the Help to Buy ISAs will come with their own interest rates on top of the 25% government bonus.

Also, do Help to Buy ISA deposits count towards the overall annual ISA subscription limit (i.e. is this a 3rd type of ISA on top of Cash and S&S)?

natrapx

I know I shouldn't, but I feel annoyed now.

Just got through my Mortgage offer today. FTB with partner. An extra £6k between us would be a massive help! Guess I'm just stuck doing things in life at the wrong time...