Transferring LISA

lambert91

Hi,

I have a H2B isa with halifax and have been paying in 200pcm since they started. I also opened a LISA with nutmeg in April (£100) to get the clock started. It was suggested that it would be better to transfer the nutmeg LISA into a cash LISA (Skipton) so the value of cash in the account cannot go down like it can with nutmeg.

A few queries...

1) When is best to transfer the nutmeg LISA into a skipton LISA?

2) Somebody mentioned that you cannot pay into 2 LISA's in the same tax year is this correct?

3) What order would i transfer the accounts?
H2b>nutmeg lisa>skipton lisa?
Nutmeg lisa> skipton lisa > transfer h2b in March 2018?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Ed-1

lambert91 wrote: »

Hi,

I have a H2B isa with halifax and have been paying in 200pcm since they started. I also opened a LISA with nutmeg in April (£100) to get the clock started. It was suggested that it would be better to transfer the nutmeg LISA into a cash LISA (Skipton) so the value of cash in the account cannot go down like it can with nutmeg.

A few queries...

1) When is best to transfer the nutmeg LISA into a skipton LISA?

2) Somebody mentioned that you cannot pay into 2 LISA's in the same tax year is this correct?

3) What order would i transfer the accounts?
H2b>nutmeg lisa>skipton lisa?
Nutmeg lisa> skipton lisa > transfer h2b in March 2018?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Yes - you can't pay into 2 LISAs in the same tax year. Either way round would be OK although if you transfer Nutmeg to Skipton first, it may speed up the H2B ISA transfer as you'd be transferring it to a cash account rather than stocks.

I'd wait until March 2018 to then transfer the H2B ISA to the LISA.

lambert91

For the 25% bonus which can only be claimed 1 year from LISA opening, would that be from when i opened the nutmeg account or would the 1 year start again if i was to open a skipton LISA and transfer my nutmeg LISA in?

Ed-1

lambert91 wrote: »

For the 25% bonus which can only be claimed 1 year from LISA opening, would that be from when i opened the nutmeg account or would the 1 year start again if i was to open a skipton LISA and transfer my nutmeg LISA in?

For transferred LISAs it goes from the date of the original transferred LISA (so Nutmeg).

eskbanker

lambert91 wrote: »

For the 25% bonus which can only be claimed 1 year from LISA opening, would that be from when i opened the nutmeg account or would the 1 year start again if i was to open a skipton LISA and transfer my nutmeg LISA in?

Just to be clear, the 25% bonus is applied in April 2018 for all LISAs opened any time during tax year 2017/18 (i.e. right up to 5 April 2018) - the significance of the year from opening the first LISA is that this is the earliest date that the LISA funds can be used for a property. With HTB ISAs the withdrawal of funds and application of bonus are around the same date, but for LISAs these are completely separate and unrelated milestones....

Also, it's been pointed out on here before that Skipton's LISA Ts & Cs do permit them to cease accepting transfers ("We reserve the right to withdraw this facility at any time") - I think most agree that it's a low risk but it's a possibility that has encouraged some to transfer into Skipton sooner rather than later.

Alexland

I agree move the Nutmeg to Skipton first. There is no point moving the HTB to Nutmeg when they will invest the money in the stock markets before asking them to sell out again to move as cash to Skipton.

I am really pleased with our Nutmeg LISAs but will sadly move them to AJ Bell / VLS next year as the Nutmeg fees are too high on the full £10k two year balance. Nutmeg have been an excellent experience in all other respects.

lambert91

Would it be a good idea to transfer the nutmeg LISA into the skipton LISA now before they have chance to start refusing transfers??

Also, just to clarify. Once ive transferred my nutmeg to skipton, I cannot make any payments into it as I have already paid in to the nutmeg LISA this tax year? So the best option would be to top up the nutmeg then transfer straight away?

Ed-1

lambert91 wrote: »

Would it be a good idea to transfer the nutmeg LISA into the skipton LISA now before they have chance to start refusing transfers??

It's really just H2B ISA transfers that there's a small chance they might stop accepting, not transfers from other LISAs (particularly as it's the first year - the only point of refusing transfers is to control the inflow of funds and there can't be any substantial previous year funds built up in LISAs as it's only year 1 of the scheme).

lambert91 wrote: »

Also, just to clarify. Once ive transferred my nutmeg to skipton, I cannot make any payments into it as I have already paid in to the nutmeg LISA this tax year? So the best option would be to top up the nutmeg then transfer straight away?

No - like any ISA you can transfer it and continue contributing as the old one doesn't count as having been paid into anymore.

MillieVanillie

Hi, sorry to revive an old thread but I would like to double check my understanding of something!

Like Lambert91 I also have a Nutmeg stocks & shares LISA that I opened in April-2017. If I were to transfer this to the Skipton Cash LISA, would the LISA "start date" definitely be the original date I opened the Nutmeg LISA (i.e. Apr-17) and not the date I opened the LISA with Skipton?

I'm really paranoid that the date will reset and I'll have to wait another year until I can buy a house and receive the bonus!

If anyone could help put my mind at rest, that would be great :j

Alexland

MillieVanillie wrote: »

Hi, sorry to revive an old thread but I would like to double check my understanding of something!

Like Lambert91 I also have a Nutmeg stocks & shares LISA that I opened in April-2017. If I were to transfer this to the Skipton Cash LISA, would the LISA "start date" definitely be the original date I opened the Nutmeg LISA (i.e. Apr-17) and not the date I opened the LISA with Skipton?

There has been an update from Nutmeg since this thread - their technology could not be developed to accept HTB to LISA transfers so that sequence as discussed above, is no longer an option.

HMRC don't care who your provider is - to them it's the same LISA moving to a different platform. It shouldn't restart the clock.

MillieVanillie

Thanks for the reply Alexland! That’s promising to hear.

I was asking as I’ve read on a different forum that a member went into a skipton branch and was told it would restart the clock.

I think I’ll try to pop into one myself and double check. If anyone has already transferred their LISA to Skipton I would love to hear how it went.