The Skipton just robbed my daughter of 3K for a simple mistake

Aylesbury_Duck

Preserved in anticipation of toys being thrown and it being deleted. It's a useful warning for others in similar situations.

RickyM64 wrote: »

Hi
My daughter originally started saving for a deposit when Help to buy ISA's first started. Towards the end of 2017 she transfered the maximum amount from her Halifax help to buy ISA into a Skipton LISA at this point not believing she would buy soon. For various reasons her plans accelerated and with some extra cash from dad she found a house to buy in July and is in the process of exchanging and completing. At this point her Skipton LISA said she had 10.5K and this was notified to her solicitor to arrange as part of her deposit.

Today somebody from the Skipton rang her to inform her that because her LISA had not been open for a year then the only way she could use this cash was to withdraw it costing her the full bonus and £500 of the money she had saved i.e. returning approx. 7.5K and costing her close to 3K GBP


I am outraged by this, it is hard enought to save for a house without being robbed by the Skipton because of a simple change of circumstances. Finding this out 2 days before exchange is an impossible situation and I am amazed that this simple mistake can cost her her entire goverment bonus on many years of savings. Whom ever is responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves.

Regards

le_loup

RickyM64 wrote: »

dunstonh: My daughter did save over multiple years but made a mistake which cost her all of her bonus.

But not in a HTB ISA. Which you may find was the subject of your original post.

RickyM64

Yes in an Halifax HTB ISA and her mistake was transferring it all to a LISA, with the one sensible piece of advice given that she may be able to recover the HTB bonus as it was less than a year ago.

Labsuper

RickyM64 wrote: »

dunstonh: My daughter did save over multiple years but made a mistake which cost her all of her bonus.

Interesting to see you are an IFA. Good advertising.

It was her mistake not Shipton's. Personally I'd blame the parent:D

Nick_C

RickyM64 wrote: »

dunstonh: My daughter did save over multiple years but made a mistake which cost her all of her bonus.

Interesting to see you are an IFA. Good advertising.

Dunstonh is not advertising. He is following good practice by adopting a similar signature to that which Mortgage Advisors are required to use when posting on this forum.

You should familiarise yourself with the forum rules.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs/?_ga=2.113192644.1340130493.1533124137-883924819.1530653415

McKneff

They havent stolen it from her.
She never actually had it to steal

Cash-Strapped.T32

Woah-woah-woah tiger, just hang on a minute.

The rule is sensible, very very sensible.
It is to prevent people who already have money - or parents with money - from opening a LISA short term, dropping a few grand in it, and then instantly withdrawing it to get a quick & easy free cash-bonus subsidised from everybody else.

If that rule wasn't there, you'd see loads of people who don't need the help just using it for a free cash-injection.
So don't let's be pi**ing and moaning about how the people who drew up the rules ought to be ashamed.

Hell, let's behonest, the scheme is designed to encourage people to actually save and achieve things for themselves, which you most likley agree is something severely lacking in our culure nowadays.
The 1yr rule could easily have been 2 or 3yrs and the scheme would still serve it's purpose - So, the 1yr rule is there for good reason.


Now, she has already been using a H2B ISA, so in fairness she is legitimately a saver, not a bonus-grabber.

Great. Me too, before I transferred to a LISA. Go-go first time buyers.
But the Skipton have to follow the rules as laid down because if they didn't, if they gave away tax-payer money to people at thier own discretion, well you can imagine the massive puclic outcry & backlash against that.

Seriously, how can you be straight faced and maintin your position as per the opening post?
Sure, it'd be gutting, I can totally see that & agree - but come on seriously - getting a bunch of free money from Dad to go towards your house and then losing free money from all of us is hardly some evil government conspiracy, it's just the result of being a bit gung-ho and forgetting the massively prominent first-page condition of the whole LISA scheme.

Brookside88

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

Woah-woah-woah tiger, just hang on a minute.

The rule is sensible, very very sensible.
It is to prevent people who already have money - or parents with money - from opening a LISA short term, dropping a few grand in it, and then instantly withdrawing it to get a quick & easy free cash-bonus subsidised from everybody else.

If that rule wasn't there, you'd see loads of people who don't need the help just using it for a free cash-injection.
So don't let's be pi**ing and moaning about how the people who drew up the rules ought to be ashamed.

Hell, let's behonest, the scheme is designed to encourage people to actually save and achieve things for themselves, which you most likley agree is something severely lacking in our culure nowadays.
The 1yr rule could easily have been 2 or 3yrs and the scheme would still serve it's purpose - So, the 1yr rule is there for good reason.


Now, she has already been using a H2B ISA, so in fairness she is legitimately a saver, not a bonus-grabber.

Great. Me too, before I transferred to a LISA. Go-go first time buyers.
But the Skipton have to follow the rules as laid down because if they didn't, if they gave away tax-payer money to people at thier own discretion, well you can imagine the massive puclic outcry & backlash against that.

Seriously, how can you be straight faced and maintin your position as per the opening post?
Sure, it'd be gutting, I can totally see that & agree - but come on seriously - getting a bunch of free money from Dad to go towards your house and then losing free money from all of us is hardly some evil government conspiracy, it's just the result of being a bit gung-ho and forgetting the massively prominent first-page condition of the whole LISA scheme.

I think this sums it up perfectly

RickyM64

To be honest I do admit I posted this while angry, I was looking at this from an FCA perspective and wondering how this would count as Fair treatment of customers in allowing them to save for nearly 4 years and then because of a simple mistake, in purchasing a property after transferring and not waiting for a year, losing the entire bonus.

And Nick_C I did just read the forum rules but could not find the part that recommended you could only reply with smug, condescending answers after not reading or understanding the entire post.

eskbanker

RickyM64 wrote: »

...after not reading or understanding...

To be honest I don't really think you're in a particularly strong position to be accusing others of this!