Lifetime ISA's

Jab1991

Hi,

Me and my partner will be looking to buy a house a couple of years down the line and was looking at some options in order to assist us in this process. Possibly ones which you can get up to £6,000 each.

I've been looking at some Lifetime ISA's which give you good interest rates, as long as you don't touch them. Can someone recommend any at all please?

My partner is thinking of going for a Help to Buy ISA as she doesn't want to get penalised for taking some money out. Again, can someone recommend please?

Please note, these must be relevant to buying our first house together.

bopsybunny

Me and my boyfriend both have HTB ISAs. We each just went with our existing banks (me Natwest, him HSBC) for simplicity with setting up transfers and internet/mobile banking. There's very little difference between the products at different banks - Barclays has the best rate currently (2.58%) but most are around 2.5%.

I don't know about Lifetime ISAs but I probably would have got one instead in hindsight - got the HTB instead due to possibility of house purchase within first 12 months of account being opened (LISA you can't get bonus until 12 months)

DD265

You could keep your money in a high interest savings account and then move £4k at the beginning of April before the end of the fiscal year.

I opened my cash lifetime ISA at the end of the 2016 fiscal year with £1, then haven't topped it up for various reasons. I will put £4k in there before the 6th October to get the bonus paid in early November, which is the max for the year anyway.

I believe you can also have a HTB and LISA at the same time - though you can only get the FTB bonus from one account - so maybe it's worth considering whether you open LISAs now just to have had them for 12 months. My husband didn't open one when I did, so we're missing out the second bonus we could've had.

[Deleted User]

About to buy a house (exchange) using a Skipton LISA. They are fab. Have to be open for 12 months before you can use it so get one open asap. Its effectively 25% interest if you use it for your first house - unlike the HTB ISA's you can use the LISA towards your deposit whereas the HTB is given post completion to reduce the amount of your mortgage. You can pay £4k a year into Skipton LISA with the 25% paid in monthly (max £1000 a year).

Well worth it.