Help to Buy ISA guide

Kelvinlikesthis

Me and my partner are looking at buying a home, yet we are unsure what kinds of things a help to buy bonus can assist us with. Anyone who could help shed some light on this?

Kelvinlikesthis

Would anybody know what the help to buy bonus cash can actually contribute towards? Me and my partner have seen that it cannot be used towards solicitors fees and were unsure how useful it can be.....

eskbanker

Kelvinlikesthis wrote: »

Me and my partner are looking at buying a home, yet we are unsure what kinds of things a help to buy bonus can assist us with. Anyone who could help shed some light on this?

Kelvinlikesthis wrote: »

Would anybody know what the help to buy bonus cash can actually contribute towards? Me and my partner have seen that it cannot be used towards solicitors fees and were unsure how useful it can be.....

As per post #2043 above, the bonus must be put towards the purchase price of the property itself.

laineybabes

Hi, Come March 20120, my daughter will have saved just over £12000, the maximum allowed for the £3000 bonus. She has been saving £200 per month. She is with the Halifax and gets 2.25% rate. Question is, can she continue to save the £200 per month to gain the decent interest rate, understanding that she will only ever get £3000 bonus no matter how much extra she saves, or will the interest rate drop once she reaches the magic figure of £12000? She doesn't want to transfer to another bank but likes the idea of saving to get decent rate. Thanks

bowlhead99

laineybabes wrote: »

. She is with the Halifax and gets 2.25% rate. Question is, can she continue to save the £200 per month to gain the decent interest rate, understanding that she will only ever get £3000 bonus no matter how much extra she saves

Yes she can put more in, knowing it won't increase her government bonus but she'll still earn the advertised rate.

or will the interest rate drop once she reaches the magic figure of £12000?

Halifax's adverts and key information published doesn't put an upper limit on the amount on which they'll pay interest, so should be fine.

She doesn't want to transfer to another bank but likes the idea of saving to get decent rate. Thanks

She should be fine, but if unsure, she could ask them.

If there's any doubt: as she's an adult, encourage her to look into it herself rather than asking her mum to ask online...

laineybabes

I'm well versed on asking this kind of financial question so decided to do it for her. She is a confident saver but thought I would try and find a quick answer since Halifax don't really state anything on their website about this. Thought it would be "nice" to do a little groundwork for her since she is currently sitting exams.:::smiley: Thanks anyway

Pabman

My son and his partner had Help to Buy ISAs with Halifax and had almost saved the full amount to get the maximum government bonus.
In October they had found a flat they wanted to buy and called into their Halifax branch to asked how to proceed with the ISA because their solicitor didn’t know. They were told to close their accounts and put the money into current accounts until their solicitor needed the money to apply for the bonus. However, in November, the purchase fell through.
Halifax has said that the only way they can restart the ISA is if the solicitor fills in a Purchase Failure Notification. However the solicitor can’t/won’t do that because they hadn’t got round to applying for the bonus as the purchase was in the early stages and the form states that they had applied for the bonus. They are now being told that they cannot restart the ISA by Halifax without this form. This seems to be a loophole that they were either given bad advice by Halifax to close the ISAs before the solicitor applied for the bonus or that the solicitor had failed to apply for the bonus on time. What should they do as they have saved for a number of years to get this bonus and through no fault of their own will be denied it if they manage to find a property to buy.
I look forward to your advice.

masonic

Pabman wrote: »

My son and his partner had Help to Buy ISAs with Halifax and had almost saved the full amount to get the maximum government bonus.
In October they had found a flat they wanted to buy and called into their Halifax branch to asked how to proceed with the ISA because their solicitor didn’t know. They were told to close their accounts and put the money into current accounts until their solicitor needed the money to apply for the bonus. However, in November, the purchase fell through.
Halifax has said that the only way they can restart the ISA is if the solicitor fills in a Purchase Failure Notification. However the solicitor can’t/won’t do that because they hadn’t got round to applying for the bonus as the purchase was in the early stages and the form states that they had applied for the bonus. They are now being told that they cannot restart the ISA by Halifax without this form. This seems to be a loophole that they were either given bad advice by Halifax to close the ISAs before the solicitor applied for the bonus or that the solicitor had failed to apply for the bonus on time. What should they do as they have saved for a number of years to get this bonus and through no fault of their own will be denied it if they manage to find a property to buy.
I look forward to your advice.

The process is:
1) Have offer on property accepted and agree provisional completion date
2) Close HTB ISA, obtain closure letter/statement
3) Provide solicitor with said closure document
4) Solicitor should, without delay, apply for the bonus citing expected completion date (which should be no more than 3 months in the future)
5) If purchase later falls through, solicitor should return bonus money and provide purchase failure notice so that HTB ISA can be reinstated

Hard to say who is at fault. On the face of it Halifax gave the correct information, as the HTB ISA must be closed in advance of your solicitor applying for the bonus. While the solicitor clearly didn't understand the process, but is correct that reinstatement is not possible if no bonus application has been made. The solicitor should have advised them as to what they needed to do, and when, so ultimately there appears to be grounds for complaint.

They have 12 months to complete on a property post-closure of the ISA. How long has it been so far? Since they are close to the maximum bonus, and could simply instruct their solicitor to apply for the bonus when they find somewhere else, there may be little lost by the error above.

redux

Now that it's no longer possible to open an account, though still transfer if desired, the amount or quality of information seems to be fading.

Perhaps some websites have removed some pages.

For instance, try to find the Nationwide rate, and the top search result is a press release from Nov 2018 - which may or may not have been superseded.

Possibly as a consequence, it also seems to be a bit harder to find online comparison tables of rates and be confident they are up to date.

Even the MSE article might be doing this, currently listing 2.25% at Halifax as the best available nationally, yet I can still find 2.58% on the Barclay's website. I wonder which of these is inaccurate, and I don't know whether Nationwide is still 2.5% or not.

Or is it perhaps the case that not all accept transfers in?

eskbanker

redux wrote: »

Now that it's no longer possible to open an account, though still transfer if desired, the amount or quality of information seems to be fading.

Perhaps some websites have removed some pages.

For instance, try to find the Nationwide rate, and the top search result is a press release from Nov 2018 - which may or may not have been superseded.

Possibly as a consequence, it also seems to be a bit harder to find online comparison tables of rates and be confident they are up to date.

Even the MSE article might be doing this, currently listing 2.25% at Halifax as the best available nationally, yet I can still find 2.58% on the Barclay's website. I wonder which of these is inaccurate, and I don't know whether Nationwide is still 2.5% or not.

Or is it perhaps the case that not all accept transfers in?

Yes, the article explains that "Though many providers have now withdrawn their Help to Buy ISAs from the market, a few still allow transfers in for those who already have one", and so their reference to Halifax being the best is in that context, hence "Halifax offers the joint top rate if you're looking to transfer your existing Help to Buy ISA from another provider".

Some other providers may theoretically accept transfers but if you can't open them for that purpose then this is effectively irrelevant.

Nationwide do list their rate as 2.5% via a search at https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/rates-fees-charges/view-savings-rates but the linked page confirms that "This account no longer accepts new applications".

Barclays rate seems harder to find but https://www.barclays.co.uk/savings/interest-rates/help-to-buy-isa/ also confirms "This ISA is no longer available to new savers."

So, to be fair to MSE, their article does seem oriented to the reality of what can actually be done currently, rather than summarising rates for accounts that can no longer be opened, which is consistent with their approach to other savings accounts....