Help to Buy ISA guide

vernall

The ISA i just opened is with Coventry Building Society,I was intending closing this in favour of opening the split deal with Nationwide.
If I just go for a H2B ISA Barclays is the current best option.
Any suggestions with regards to a home for cash without using (I admit a pitiful) ISA and I'm all ears 😀

Arambbiz

Hi, I've opened a Help to Buy: ISA with Santander when they were offering 4% but after 3 months it dropped to 2% so I decided to switch to Barclys who offer %2.27. When I switched, my account had £1,800 but Barclys moved £600 into my current account claiming that when I open a HTB I can only put in the initial £1,200 and the fact that I moved my HTB from a different provider doesn't matter.

I'm quite confused as this site, as well all government guidelines, claim that this scheme is competitive. What am I missing here?

eskbanker

Arambbiz wrote: »

Hi, I've opened a Help to Buy: ISA with Santander when they were offering 4% but after 3 months it dropped to 2% so I decided to switch to Barclys who offer %2.27. When I switched, my account had £1,800 but Barclys moved £600 into my current account claiming that when I open a HTB I can only put in the initial £1,200 and the fact that I moved my HTB from a different provider doesn't matter.

I'm quite confused as this site, as well all government guidelines, claim that this scheme is competitive. What am I missing here?

When you say you 'switched', did you actually follow Barclays' ISA transfer process?

If so, then they should have transferred your entire balance into their HTB ISA product, not just £1,200, so if this is the case then open a complaint with them.

However, if you just opened a new one without going through the transfer process then they would (rightly) only allow a £1,200 initial payment....

Ed-1

Arambbiz wrote: »

Hi, I've opened a Help to Buy: ISA with Santander when they were offering 4% but after 3 months it dropped to 2% so I decided to switch to Barclys who offer %2.27. When I switched, my account had £1,800 but Barclys moved £600 into my current account claiming that when I open a HTB I can only put in the initial £1,200 and the fact that I moved my HTB from a different provider doesn't matter.

I'm quite confused as this site, as well all government guidelines, claim that this scheme is competitive. What am I missing here?

Santander's 4% Help to Buy ISA only dropped for new customers. It's still 4% for those who opened it then. If your Santander Help to Buy ISA has now been closed then the damage has been done and you can't get the 4% account back.

However, going forward, if you filled in a Help to Buy ISA transfer form and sent it to Barclays, then they should have transferred the full amount into your new Help to Buy ISA. The monthly limit does not apply to a transfer from a Help to Buy ISA. Complain to them.

vernall

Looking at Barclays HTB ISA

It says the monthly interest is paid on the !st of the month and paid back into the ISA...........so does this mean the ammount I can put in each month will vary and be less and less each month?.......I get that it will still add up to the £200,I will have to see how much interest has been paid and then deduct that from £200 and pay in the difference?

Also does anyone know if the £200 has to go in in one go?planning on adding the interest from other accounts as they are received( at varying times of the month) then making it unto £200 before month end

eskbanker

vernall wrote: »

Looking at Barclays HTB ISA

It says the monthly interest is paid on the !st of the month and paid back into the ISA...........so does this mean the ammount I can put in each month will vary and be less and less each month?.......I get that it will still add up to the £200,I will have to see how much interest has been paid and then deduct that from £200 and pay in the difference?

No, ISA contribution limits exclude interest so you can pay in £200 of new money each month.

vernall wrote: »

Also does anyone know if the £200 has to go in in one go?

There's nothing in the product Ts & Cs that suggests this being necessary.

gerjomarty

I've read the scheme guidelines around the purchase price limits, they state the property must be "not more than £250,000" outside London.

I'm reading this to mean "less than or equal to £250,000", but can anyone confirm this interpretation? Putting an offer in for £250,000 and I just want to be sure I won't miss out because it needed to be £249,999 or something.

bowlhead99

If you're not happy and confident with your reading of the rules (I agree that £250,000 is not more than £250,000) and you have taken the rules that you read directly from the official help to buy: ISA operating manual, then why not just offer £249,999 for your own peace of mind.

That way you have a pound, plus stamp duty on the pound, available to put towards buying yourself something nice. And the vendor is unlikely to turn it down to hold out for another pound from someone else.

This is a money saving expert site after all

Of course if I was the seller I would probably go "jeez, this buyer is a bit quirky and penny-pinching, wonder what other strange superstitions they are going to throw at me when they get the survey, or last minute before exchange... maybe I'll just hold out for another offer at the same rough price from someone sane..."

Siannie

My understanding is that you can pay into the HTB ISA as pften as you like, during the month, up to a maximum of £200. However, the payments have to be made by standing order (after the initial month) so this sounds a little messy to me. Maybe just wait until you have £100/£200 and pay it in lump sums?



We closed our HTB ISAs this weekend...fingers crossed everything runs smoothly and our bonus is received in time.

cookie365

Is there any benefit to saving beyond £12000?

I know the government bonus will stop at that point, but since interest rates seem to be higher than other ISAs I'm thinking of using one purely as a cash ISA.

I know it'll take a few years to get to that point