Can't pay into Help to Buy ISA?

thrashx

Hi guys,

I set up a Help to Buy ISA in December with Halifax, a few days ago I tried to make the initial payment of £1200 into it but this failed saying the account could not be credited and to contact the beneficiary.
I spoke to Halifax to ensure everything was set up correctly, they were my first port of call because I bank with Barclays and make a number of payments every month which have never been rejected so thought it might be to do with that. Halifax said theres no issues with my account, its fully open and ready to go, they said should I contact Barclays and see if its to do with them or if they could do it over the phone instead.

I spoke to Barclays who said they weren't sure why it would fail, I had sufficient funds and the sort code and account number was definitely correct; I copy and pasted from a welcome email from Halifax and verified on the phone so no issues there. Barclays said to speak to Halifax because its not an issue on their end, all other payments from my account were fine.

I've since gone over the 21 day limit to make the first payment, I was able to put £200 in but not £1,200 so ive lost out on quite a big bit of the bonus. The woman at Halifax said they cant do anything about it and ive just lost out on it.

So, is there anything I can do? Who am I supposed to contact regarding this with both banks saying its nothing to do with them? I will only be paying in £200 a month in future so its not an issue from here on in but ive still missed out on 6 months worth of bonus(or equivalent to anyway).

Thanks in advance.

Ed-1

thrashx wrote: »

Hi guys,

I set up a Help to Buy ISA in December with Halifax, a few days ago I tried to make the initial payment of £1200 into it but this failed saying the account could not be credited and to contact the beneficiary.
I spoke to Halifax to ensure everything was set up correctly, they were my first port of call because I bank with Barclays and make a number of payments every month which have never been rejected so thought it might be to do with that. Halifax said theres no issues with my account, its fully open and ready to go, they said should I contact Barclays and see if its to do with them or if they could do it over the phone instead.

I spoke to Barclays who said they weren't sure why it would fail, I had sufficient funds and the sort code and account number was definitely correct; I copy and pasted from a welcome email from Halifax and verified on the phone so no issues there. Barclays said to speak to Halifax because its not an issue on their end, all other payments from my account were fine.

I've since gone over the 21 day limit to make the first payment, I was able to put £200 in but not £1,200 so ive lost out on quite a big bit of the bonus. The woman at Halifax said they cant do anything about it and ive just lost out on it.

So, is there anything I can do? Who am I supposed to contact regarding this with both banks saying its nothing to do with them? I will only be paying in £200 a month in future so its not an issue from here on in but ive still missed out on 6 months worth of bonus(or equivalent to anyway).

Thanks in advance.

You can only make an initial deposit of up to £1000 in the Halifax Help to Buy ISA - anything more will be rejected by their system. The £200 payments need to come from standing orders. This is all in their terms and conditions.

If you really want the £1000 initial deposit back, you can close the ISA, open another with them and start again (you can do this once in a tax year).

Dan83

Could you shut it and open another?

Darksparkle

The Halifax website does say the initial payment should only be £1 to £1000.

Then £200 per month there after.

Westie983

You need to pay in £1000 in one transaction, and then send the £200 after.

£1000 - Is the first amount allowed when first opened
£200- Is the monthly amount accepted by the HTB isa.

thrashx

Well that makes perfect sense so thanks for all the replies!
It would've been nice if Halifax told me that when I rang them!

Darksparkle

thrashx wrote: »

Well that makes perfect sense so thanks for all the replies!
It would've been nice if Halifax told me that when I rang them!

Probably didn't realise.

The whole thing seems to be a bit of a mess.

Think they have made it overally complicated for no reason. We looked at it but we might be buying in the next few months so didn't see the point.

But Help to Buy Scotland still hasn't been announced for 2016/17 so hard to plan anything at this stage.

Abby23

thrashx wrote: »

Well that makes perfect sense so thanks for all the replies!
It would've been nice if Halifax told me that when I rang them!

I'd say there is a very good chance whoever you spoke to didn't know the solution to your problem!

I stupidly didn't realize I needed to set up a standing order and thought I could just transfer clicking top up ISA every month so when I tried to transfer it told me I couldn't and to call them (would have saved me some time if the error message simply said set up a standing order!).

I then rang them and then proceeded to explain my issue to five separate advisers all who advised I was through to the wrong department and needed to go elsewhere (with two of them transferring me back to a department I'd already been to). And then finally the sixth person said you need a standing order straight away when I told them the problem.

I realise it was my own stupid mistake but I couldn't believe it took six advisers to say that lol.

pinkdalek

thrashx wrote: »

Well that makes perfect sense so thanks for all the replies!
It would've been nice if Halifax told me that when I rang them!

If you had read the account opening it actually says you can open it with £1000 within 21 days and then save £200 per month.

colsten

There is clearly no excuse whatsoever for Halifax staff to give customers naff information, and I would file a complaint if they did.

There is equally no excuse for Halifax HTB holders not to know that the T&Cs say:

• You must pay your monthly deposit by one standing order, to be received on or before 25th of the month.

You can pay in a ‘monthly deposit’ in the month you open your Help to Buy: ISA as well as your initial deposit. This must be received by standing order on
or before 25th of the month.

You can only complain to yourself if you have forgotten that you agreed to these terms, or if you never read them.
http://static.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/isas/pdf/cash-isa-account-conditions.pdf

EDIT: I gather that other HTB ISA providers offer a more flexible implementation of the HTB ISA rules than Halifax do. You are free to transfer your HTB ISA to one of these others but you'd have to accept a significantly lower interest rate. Also, there has been at least one report of an HTB ISA transfer gone wrong because the new provider was clueless.

clur84

We had the same problem we bank with halifax and opened a help to buy isa. I thought it would be simple to top it up online between the two accounts. When trying to put the initial amount in we had to do 2 separate transactions one of £1000 and then one of £200