LISA or Help to buy or both???

Frogbear

Im confused ...I have been saving the maximum 200 in the help to buy as the interest rate for me is 3.5% (Halifax). I also have a LISA account (Skipton) which I pay into each month but the interest is only 0.75%. Both will be able to give the 25% government bonus when I come to need it....so I was going to keep saving into both of them until I need it for a house purchase then transfer everything into the LISA.....can I do this????
N.b. I may need to purchase a shared ownership as I live in South East Kent and it's bloomin expensive hence my added confusion!!

Any help and guidance would be most welcome !!!128513;

stevenhp1987

You can only pay £4k per tax year into the LISA.

Therefore you can only transfer an amount from your HTB ISA into your LISA so long as it doesn't go above the £4k max.

For example, if you have paid in £2k into your LISA this tax year, then you can only transfer £2k into it from your HTB ISA.

You can only use the bonus from one of them towards a house purchase. The best bet would be to use the LISA, as you can withdraw the funds in your HTB ISA without using the bonus and without paying a fee. You will pay a 25% fee of the amount you withdraw from your LISA if it is not for a house purchase.

You could have transferred the HTB ISA into the LISA without any limits prior to April 6th, but without a time machine, that does not help you.

TheBanker

Remember HTB can only be used towards a purchase costing less than £250k, unless you're buying in a London borough in which case it's £450k.

LISA can be used towards property costing £450k where ever you live.

If you're considering shared ownership, remember that the thresholds above relate to the purchase price of the full property (i.e. if you purchase a 50% share for £200k, the full purchase price is £400k so you could use LISA but not HTB ISA unless in London).

I'm in the South East too and found HTB ISA to be of no use due to the £250k cap.