Help to buy ISA - how can you pay in?

laurierosee

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I have transferred money into my Help to buy ISA twice now through my online banking with no issues.

My partner however has tried to tranfer his £200 this month through his online banking and he is getting an error message. He called his bank and they have informed him it HAS to be payed by standing order.

I got the impression you could pay into these accounts however you wanted, at any point of the month and however much you wanted as long as it wasn't above £200.

I bank with Santander and he banks with Lloyds, is it something to do with that?

Both ISAs are with Halifax.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

Darksparkle

Don't know who the ISA is with but Halifax do say it needs to be a standing order.

Can't they just set one up on their online banking?

laurierosee

Both ISAs are with Halifax its just confusing how its allowed me to transfer money.

He will have to set one up yes, I hadn't been told you could only pay in by standing order so thought I would try and double check.

Thanks for your help.

Darksparkle

laurierosee wrote: »

Both ISAs are with Halifax its just confusing how its allowed me to transfer money.

He will have to set one up yes, I hadn't been told you could only pay in by standing order so thought I would try and double check.

Thanks for your help.

If you are just transferring money it wouldn't be an issue.

Just wouldn't set up as a direct debit.

A standing order is a regular payment that you can set up to pay other people, organisations or your other bank accounts. A Direct Debit can only be set up by the organisation to which you're making the payment.

YorkshireBoy

laurierosee wrote: »

I hadn't been told you could only pay in by standing order

It's stipulated in the account T&Cs, and all over the account features pages on their website. Surely you've read them? If not, now might be a good time.

laurierosee

Thats what he has been trying to do, transfer the money from his Lloyds current account to the Help to buy which they say he is not allowed to do.

He preferably doesn't want a standing order - transferring it is the easier option.

Darksparkle

laurierosee wrote: »

Thats what he has been trying to do, transfer the money from his Lloyds current account to the Help to buy which they say he is not allowed to do.

He preferably doesn't want a standing order - transferring it is the easier option.

Sorry, I must be seeing things, I thought you mentioned direct debit.

I personally think standing orders are easier, then you don't need to think about it.

laurierosee

No worries. He gets paid at different points of the month so I think thats why would would prefer to transfer in when he could rather than a set date.

I think he will probably have to anyway since his bank are adamant you cant transfer in.

Thanks for your help

eskbanker

laurierosee wrote: »

No worries. He gets paid at different points of the month so I think thats why would would prefer to transfer in when he could rather than a set date.

I think he will probably have to anyway since his bank are adamant you cant transfer in.

His bank (Lloyds) are right but it's not their decision, it's Halifax's call not to accept payments that way for that product. Odd that you've been able to do so from Santander but don't expect that to continue....

colsten

The Halifax HTB T&Cs stipulate, afaik, that the monthly deposit must be made by SO. Therefore it is not surprising if they turn down payments that are not made by SO.

It is possible that Santander and Lloyds pass different information to Halifax. As Halifax and Lloyds use essentially the same system, Halifax may be able to tell that the money didn't arrive by SO. Whilst, when the money comes from Santander, Halifax may never know whether it has been sent by SO or by FP (both, SOs and FPs do get processed by the Faster Payments infrastructure).

I don't see an issue with setting up an SO as the account holder has 100% control over it. You can set up an SO so that it executes just once. You can cancel an SO any time you like. You can change the next payment date to whatever date you like. Just about the only restriction of an SO is that the earliest it can execute is the next working day.


NB. All talk about Direct Debit in this thread should be ignored as it is impossible to pay into the Halifax HTB ISA with a DD.

Darksparkle

colsten wrote: »

NB. All talk about Direct Debit in this thread should be ignored as it is impossible to pay into the Halifax HTB ISA with a DD.

Which was the point I made.

I could be wrong but I think the OP originally mentioned direct debit and that's why I mentioned it. However it's been edited since so either was removed or I'm seeing things.