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Help to Buy ISA guide
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I know this has been mentioned many times on here but I am still confused and can't get my head around where the government bonus (currently £1000 between 2 of us) goes. On here it reads that it goes towards the mortgage amount, but Halifax and money advise service have told me it goes to the deposit (10%). I am a first time buyer so i find the whole thing really confusing anyway, I just want to know, do we give £1000 less when we transfer our deposit, OR do we borrow £1000 less from the mortgage provider? If it's the latter, that means speaking to the mortgage provider and changing the mortgage amount to less, is that correct? as otherwise we will be paying interest on the £1000 that was supposed to be free.
Really confused, hoping someone can explain in simple terms
thank you :T
I completely understand your question as we are in the same situation - I closed my H2B ISA today and the lady at the counter at Halifax handed me a certificate which I will be giving my conveyancer tomorrow. My wife, who has her H2B ISA with Nationwide, got told that she would have to wait for the certificate to arrive in the post (and they claim to be a modern bank?). They also refused to transfer the monies into our Halifax current account (we don't bank with Nationwide) but instead they handed her a cheque - this just further delays the exchange and completion pencilled for next week.
That said, I am currently reading the guidelines on helptobuyisaadmin dot org dot uk and it seems that we can ask our conveyance to expedite the bonus application. Fingers crossed we can all celebrate soon.
Best,
W.0 -
Hi me and my partner are both opening up help to buy isa's and depositing the maximum amount, we already save over £400 a month and have other savings, when opening further help to buy isa's will be able to close the previous ones transferring funds in to the new accounts AND make a deposit of £1,200 into each account upon opening?
If anyone could offer advice it would be greatly appreciated.0 -
I know this has been mentioned many times on here but I am still confused and can't get my head around where the government bonus (currently £1000 between 2 of us) goes. On here it reads that it goes towards the mortgage amount, but Halifax and money advise service have told me it goes to the deposit (10%). I am a first time buyer so i find the whole thing really confusing anyway, I just want to know, do we give £1000 less when we transfer our deposit, OR do we borrow £1000 less from the mortgage provider? If it's the latter, that means speaking to the mortgage provider and changing the mortgage amount to less, is that correct? as otherwise we will be paying interest on the £1000 that was supposed to be free.
Really confused, hoping someone can explain in simple terms
thank you :T
Hi Kate,
Are you any closer to finding out the answer to this? My partner and I are asking the exact same question at the moment after having an offer accepted on a house. There seem to be no clear guidelines on what the bonus money actually goes towards, apart from "the transaction on completion". If it does come off the mortgage amount we need to tell our lender asap, but we don't know when completion will be yet so we dont want to close the ISA early and lose out on more bonus money! It's pretty confusing.
Thanks,
Maria0 -
In response to the queries about where the money goes, perhaps the best way to think of it is that when you complete the purchase there are three pots of money that make up the remaining purchase price (i.e. what's left to pay after any earlier payments made at exchange of contracts or advance reservations, etc).
These three pots are:- The mortgage funds from your lender
- The Help To Buy ISA money including 25% bonus
- Whatever savings you are contributing to the purchase
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alexthomp1992 wrote: »Hi me and my partner are both opening up help to buy isa's and depositing the maximum amount, we already save over £400 a month and have other savings, when opening further help to buy isa's will be able to close the previous ones transferring funds in to the new accounts AND make a deposit of £1,200 into each account upon opening?
If anyone could offer advice it would be greatly appreciated.
I don't quite know what you mean. Opening further Help To Buy ISAs? You can only have one each.
If you're opening a brand new HTB ISA (which you can't do if you've already got one), you can deposit £1200 in the first month. It doesn't matter if that money comes from a previously held cash ISA or other savings. But it can't come from a HTB ISA.
If you're planning on transferring your HTB ISA to a new provider, you can transfer the balance from your old HTB ISA but (obviously) cannot add another £1200 deposit, as the account is already open, it's just being transferred. Otherwise that would be a way to launder £14,400 of savings per year into a HTB ISA and get the full govt bonus in less than 12 months, just by transferring your ISA to a new provider each month.0 -
I have a quick question about HTB ISAs myself. I can't find anything about this in the T&Cs.
It's clear that two FTBs can open the ISAs and save twice as fast and get twice the bonus. My sister-in-law is interested in buying a house with my wife and I. So I assume we can use 3 HTB ISAs when buying a property if the 3 of us will be buying the house together?0 -
I have a quick question about HTB ISAs myself. I can't find anything about this in the T&Cs.
It's clear that two FTBs can open the ISAs and save twice as fast and get twice the bonus. My sister-in-law is interested in buying a house with my wife and I. So I assume we can use 3 HTB ISAs when buying a property if the 3 of us will be buying the house together?
Yes - if you are all on the mortgage.
Will you all be living there?0 -
Yes - for a few years, at least.0
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Hello,
I see the highest AER for any bank currently is 3.00% with the majority of the rest of the banks offering 2.00/2.50 ect.
Are banks likely to raise this figure over the coming months or is it likely stay the same or always go lower?
Many thanks!0 -
There will often be one bank that feels like raising the rate to attract new customers, but we don't know exactly when or what the rates will be. You're free to switch your ISA to be best deal at any time.
If you got in on a 'teaser' 4% rate that Halifax or Santander offered, then you're still getting that rate - for now. They have to tell you if it's going to go down and that'll give you a chance to change to a different provider if you want.0
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