Help to BUY ISA queries

badders82

Hi all,

Novice poster so please forgive any daft sounding questions. I have two questions if you don't mind....

1. I'm on the verge of buying my first house. I have an ISA with HSBC and a help to buy isa with the halifax. I am paying in to my help to buy isa but not by standing order, otherwise i cannot get the government bonus. Halifax told me that my payments would be bounced back if they were not made via standing order but this has not happened. I have checked my balance and all the money is there...... Is it true you have to pay into a HTB isa via standing order? Halifax said in this case, i've been lucky and may have dodged a bullet here

2. My hsbc isa has been open for a number of years but has no balance at the moment. I was transferring money back and forth from this account but this stopped in june (before i opened my htb isa). Is it true you can't pay into two isas in the same year? I've heard conflicting stories about this.

I've got a feeling I'm not going to get this bonus but the fact that my money has not been returned from Halifax for not paying by standing order gives me a bit of hope....

any help would be great

thanks in advance

jimjames

1. It's entirely down to the provider to set their own conditions on payments so that is Halifax requirements. I'm not sure why you can't get the bonus if you pay in by standing order?


2. You can't pay into cash ISA and HTB ISA with different banks in the same year and in most cases you can't pay into both at the same bank, a few companies offer a split ISA where you can pay into both with them. You can't do that for 2 separate cash ISAs with different banks.

Ed-1

badders82 wrote: »

Hi all,

Novice poster so please forgive any daft sounding questions. I have two questions if you don't mind....

1. I'm on the verge of buying my first house. I have an ISA with HSBC and a help to buy isa with the halifax. I am paying in to my help to buy isa but not by standing order, otherwise i cannot get the government bonus. Halifax told me that my payments would be bounced back if they were not made via standing order but this has not happened. I have checked my balance and all the money is there...... Is it true you have to pay into a HTB isa via standing order? Halifax said in this case, i've been lucky and may have dodged a bullet here

2. My hsbc isa has been open for a number of years but has no balance at the moment. I was transferring money back and forth from this account but this stopped in june (before i opened my htb isa). Is it true you can't pay into two isas in the same year? I've heard conflicting stories about this.

I've got a feeling I'm not going to get this bonus but the fact that my money has not been returned from Halifax for not paying by standing order gives me a bit of hope....

any help would be great

thanks in advance

Paying in by standing order is a condition of Halifax's Help to Buy ISA as their terms and conditions available here which you agreed to when you opened the account state on page 14 and 15:

The following special conditions also apply if you have a Halifax Help to Buy: ISA

• Can pay in up to the Government’s maximum amount. This is the ‘monthly deposit’.
• Must pay your monthly deposit by one standing order, to be received on or before 25th of the month. 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.
• Can change the amount of your monthly deposit, and you do not have to pay in every month.
• If you transfer your Help to Buy: ISA to or from another ISA provider, you can choose to pay your monthly deposit either into your existing Help to Buy: ISA before transfer or your new Help to Buy: ISA after transfer, but not both. Please remember that your
monthly deposit to your Halifax Help to Buy: ISA must be made by standing order received on or before 25th of the month.

Having said that, if Halifax are not enforcing it with their systems then if the money's in the Help to Buy ISA, it will receive a bonus when closed in the usual way.

As for your 2nd question, you can only pay new money into one cash ISA per tax year (which runs from 6th April to 5th April the next). A Help to Buy ISA is a cash ISA so you can't also pay new money into another cash ISA in the same tax year unless the provider treats all ISAs held with them as a single cash ISA.

You say you were transferring money back and forth from your HSBC cash ISA but stopped in June (before you opened your Halifax Help to Buy ISA). If you had paid new money into the HSBC cash ISA after 6th April then you can't pay into a Help to Buy ISA until 6th April the next year unless you fill in an ISA transfer form transferring a balance less than £1,200 to a Help to Buy ISA or close the HSBC cash ISA before paying into a Help to Buy ISA.

As you've already paid into a Help to Buy ISA since 6th April, if you had already paid into your HSBC cash ISA since 6th April then you've broken the ISA rules. If I were you I'd close the HSBC cash ISA ASAP and hope HMRC don't decide to void your Help to Buy ISA (which strictly speaking they should do in this situation as the Help to Buy ISA is the invalid account, having been paid into after another still active cash ISA) when they recieve the information on what ISAs you've paid into after the end of the tax year.