help to buy ISA and opening a new isa?

shiwarrior

Hi there

I started up a help to buy ISA account last tax year and I went into the branch today to ask if I could now open a normal ISA this tax year

and they said yes , but i can not put any money into it
so how am I supposed to use it?

is this all banks like this, or just barclays ?

Paul_DNAP

Seems wrong to me, I'm going to pick up some quotes from the guide to ISAs on this site to explain why I think it seems wrong.

There are five main types of ISA !!!8211; cash ISAs, Help to Buy ISAs, innovative finance ISAs, stocks & shares ISAs and Lifetime ISAs.

You get a £20k allowance for new money being invested in total in ISA products, and you can only put new money into ONE account of EACH TYPE per financial year.

Indeed, the guide to ISAs even gives the specific example of

... For example, you can only put £4,000 in the Lifetime ISA every year, which means you could put the remaining £16,000 into any of the other options.

Which I would say is near identical to your case, and so your bank should be allowing you to do this.

eskbanker

shiwarrior wrote: »

I started up a help to buy ISA account last tax year and I went into the branch today to ask if I could now open a normal ISA this tax year

and they said yes , but i can not put any money into it
so how am I supposed to use it?

is this all banks like this, or just barclays ?

If you've paid new money into your HTB ISA since 6 April then yes, you can't pay into another cash ISA this tax year.

The text quoted in the above post is inaccurate - there are only four types of ISA (for the purposes of the 'one ISA of each type per tax year' rule) and a Help To Buy ISA is a (specific subtype of) cash ISA.

Alexland

eskbanker wrote: »

If you've paid new money into your HTB ISA since 6 April then yes, you can't pay into another cash ISA this tax year.

Although some providers such as Nationwide offer a Split Cash ISA where the same ISA wrapper can have both a HTB and normal Cash component. I can see no mention on the Barclays website of them providing this option but you have the choice of transferring your HTB ISA to a provider that does and then opening a Cash ISA with that same provider.

Alex

shiwarrior

thanks all

so, if i then transferred it all to another bank (HTB ISA) and closed my current one, can I then Open a flexible cash ISA with the new bank and still pay into both accounts ? (still totalling under 10K)

mije1983

shiwarrior wrote: »

thanks all

so, if i then transferred it all to another bank (HTB ISA) and closed my current one, can I then Open a flexible cash ISA with the new bank and still pay into both accounts ? (still totalling under 10K)

As long as that provider allows it, yes. You would need to check beforehand.

eskbanker

mije1983 wrote: »

shiwarrior wrote: »

thanks all

so, if i then transferred it all to another bank (HTB ISA) and closed my current one, can I then Open a flexible cash ISA with the new bank and still pay into both accounts ? (still totalling under 10K)

As long as that provider allows it, yes. You would need to check beforehand.

There's a list of providers allowing split ISAs in the main MSE cash ISA article, stashed away in a drop-down beneath the question "Can I split between a fixed and easy-access ISA (or regular saver ISA)?", but not all of these will offer Help To Buy ISAs so you'll need to whittle it down to those who do, possibly just Nationwide, NatWest, Aldermore and Newcastle....

Alexland

shiwarrior wrote: »

so, if i then transferred it all to another bank (HTB ISA) and closed my current one, can I then Open a flexible cash ISA with the new bank and still pay into both accounts ? (still totalling under 10K)

If you do this make sure you follow the new provider's transfer request process which should cause the new provider to move the money and close the old account for you. Don't try doing the transfer yourself or you will hit problem(s).

Alex.