ISA/Help2Buy advice please!

3mz0

Hello,
I'm a little confused and hoping someone can offer some advice!

I'm saving for my first home. I have an ISA with Barclays, opened in 2013/14 and this year maxed it out.

I'm interested in the new super Halifax Help 2 Buy ISA, and from my understanding am able to open one now as I've not opened an ISA in 2015/16.
But I have a couple of queries -
1. As I've already maxed out my Barclays ISA this year, can I put any money in the Halifax Help 2 Buy one?
2. I'm looking to save more than £200/month, which appears to be the max you can add to the Halifax Help 2 Buy, so can I open another ISA in April 2016 and add to this?
3. From April 2016 am I allowed to start saving an additional £15k? So as I've already maxed one ISA (and my Barclays rate isn't very competitive so I'm looking to change), could I open a new one with a better rate, move my £15k ISA savings over and start adding to it? So effecitively I could have £30k plus in an ISA? With my current barclays ISA, I've tried putting more money in there but my online banking doesn't allow it.

Thanks for any assistance! I'm sorry if it's pretty basic stuff, but I can't get my head around it!!

Thanks
3mz0

jimjames

If you've already opened and maxed out an ISA this year then you'll have to wait until April to be able to open a HTB ISA.


I'm assuming your interest rate on your ISA isn't 5% so you could do far better than cash ISAs if you are looking to maximise your deposit amount.

colsten

3mz0 wrote: »

out.

I'm interested in the new super Halifax Help 2 Buy ISA, and from my understanding am able to open one now as I've not opened an ISA in 2015/16.

it is irrelevant when you opened your ISA. What counts is whether you have made use of some or all of your ISA allowance.

3mz0 wrote: »

1. As I've already maxed out my Barclays ISA this year, can I put any money in the Halifax Help 2 Buy one?

No you cannot

3mz0 wrote: »

2. I'm looking to save more than £200/month, which appears to be the max you can add to the Halifax Help 2 Buy, so can I open another ISA in April 2016 and add to this?

No you cannot as Halifax do not offer a split ISA.

3mz0 wrote: »

3. From April 2016 am I allowed to start saving an additional £15k?

You can save as much as you like but your total annual ISA allowance is £15,240. So anything above that must go into non-ISA accounts. If you pay into a Halifax HTB ISA, you can only use £3,400 of your ISA allowance in year 1, and £2,400 in subsequent years. Saving in an ISA other than the Halifax HTB ISA is, quite frankly, a waste of money as you get much better interest in non-ISA accounts.

3mz0 wrote: »

could I open a new one with a better rate, move my £15k ISA savings over yes you can ask for an ISA transfer and start adding to it?no you cannot add to it if you pay into an HTB ISA

3mz0 wrote: »

So effecitively I could have £30k plus in an ISA? With my current barclays ISA, I've tried putting more money in there but my online banking doesn't allow it.

You can have many tens of thousands in an ISA, unless you got one with some weird limitations. But cash ISAs are a dreadful place to have your savings in these days.

Gemmalou123

Hi I'm confused on the help to buy isa. Me and my husband have both opened this moth our isa, we have both put in £1,200 am I right in saying we won't get the £3000?
This is the nationwide and they where useless in branch!

Looking at the info did we need to put £6000 in 1st month then £200max following months to get the £3000?

If so how can we rectify this as really wanted the max bonus? At least in 1 of the accounts as we originally saved £9000 in this account so why no one informed us of this was silly! So annoying!

Please help?

eskbanker

There is no way to achieve the maximum £3K bonus in less than 55 months (strictly speaking 54 months and one day but 55 separate calendar months), i.e. just over four and a half years.

You can only pay in up to £1200 in month 1 and then up to £200 per month thereafter, so after those 55 months of paying in as much as possible then you will have accumulated the requisite £12K on which to earn the maximum bonus.

So, you haven't done anything wrong but you just need to be prepared for the long wait to build it up!

colsten

Gemmalou123 wrote: »

no one informed us of this was silly!

Do you read papers? Do you watch telly? Do you look at ads in banks' windows? Do you google? If no to all of these, perhaps you should try one or more of them.

Please read up about the HTB ISA on http://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/

Gemmalou123

eskbanker wrote: »

There is no way to achieve the maximum £3K bonus in less than 55 months (strictly speaking 54 months and one day but 55 separate calendar months), i.e. just over four and a half years.

You can only pay in up to £1200 in month 1 and then up to £200 per month thereafter, so after those 55 months of paying in as much as possible then you will have accumulated the requisite £12K on which to earn the maximum bonus.

So, you haven't done anything wrong but you just need to be prepared for the long wait to build it up!

Thanks for the reply, could u not get any bonus before the 55 months? Prob silly question!

Eco_Miser

You can get the minimum bonus after just 3 months (£1600 contributed, £400 bonus)

jimjames

Gemmalou123 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, could u not get any bonus before the 55 months? Prob silly question!

Did you read the link posted? It might help you

clever20

Hello,
I am new to this and I cannot figure out yet how to make a new post (I know) so I am going to try on here. I have cash ISA which I have contributed to this tax year, therefore I can open HTB ISA after 5th April.

I understand that once I will open HTB ISA I won't be able to contribute to my cash ISA anymore (whilst having HTB ISA)
My question is will I still be able to transfer my cash ISA to a different provider for a better rate if needs be? (Obviously without depositing more cash in it)

Many Thanks

Archi_Bald

If you are happy with very low interest rates, you can get your existing ISA transferred to another provider. Once you start paying into your HTB ISA, you can't also pay into another cash ISA unless it is a split ISA with someone like Nationwide or Virgin. The rates for all these cash ISAs aren't very good.

Your best bet would probably be a Halifax HTB ISA, and cash in your existing ISA and put the proceeds into one of the best current accounts etc.