What is a Calendar Month?! Help to Buy ISA

MPinneye

I recently opened a help to buy ISA with Nationwide. (8/1/19)


As described on their site I can pay in the £1200 any time up to 1 'calendar month' of opening. I took a calendar month to be 28 days or 8/1/19 - 8/2/19.


I went to top up my funds on the 2/2/19 and was not able to.


Nationwide state 'calendar month' on their site but do not depict which version of 'calendar month' they mean. I have 'googled' it and come up with 3 different versions - date to date, the individual month or 28 days/4 weeks.


I have logged a complaint as I do not feel they explain what a calendar month specifically is and I am now not able to use the ISA to it's full potential. I have read the T's and C's and there is no definition on their site either.


I believe after watching Martin Lewis' Money saving programs and reading the information on this site that it should be the 'whole month' implying date-date specific.


Does anyone offer any advice for me as I feel I have now missed out - how can I challenge this further? Do I have a leg to stand on?!


Kind regards in advance for your help!

eskbanker

I must admit that I've always understood calendar month to mean a month as shown on a calendar, i.e. starting from the first day of the named month, but as you say there are alternative definitions out there.

In this case, the HTB ISA scheme rules are really the definitive position, although I suppose their definition could be argued as a bit circular:

“month” means a calendar month, beginning on the first day of that calendar month and ending on the last day of that calendar month.

Given where we are in the tax year, it may be to your advantage to close the account down and restart a new one on or after 6 April, enabling you to pay the full £1200 in before the end of the calendar month....

MPinneye

Thank you, am I allowed to do that then?! Thought once opened you could only transfer to others not close and re-open.


I shall look at my options - much appreciated.

eskbanker

MPinneye wrote: »

Thank you, am I allowed to do that then?! Thought once opened you could only transfer to others not close and re-open.

https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/faq/#919a24ea-e1f7-648f-8ce9-ff0000ad17aa:

If I close my account, can I open a new Help to Buy: ISA?

If you hold a Help to Buy: ISA, and close it without claiming your government bonus, you can open a new account in the following tax year (provided the new account is opened before 30 November 2019).

molerat

The Summary box states

Pay in up to £1,200 in the calendar month in which you make your first deposit into the account.

and the key information states

14. In the first calendar month that you pay any money into this account, you will then have until the end of the same calendar month as that payment was made to pay in up to the maximum total amount of £1,200.

which I think is fairly clear, much the same as any monthly contribution limited account, and different to your quoted

As described on their site I can pay in the £1200 any time up to 1 'calendar month' of opening.

Alexland

MPinneye wrote: »

Nationwide state 'calendar month' on their site but do not depict which version of 'calendar month' they mean. I have 'googled' it and come up with 3 different versions - date to date, the individual month or 28 days/4 weeks.

If something is 28 days or 4 weeks it would be expressed in those terms and not as a calendar month.

How on earth would a rolling calendar month work? Months have different numbers of days. For example if you had a rolling calendar month would you take the number of days from the start month, end month or an average between the two which would sometimes give you a half day to consider? I just don't see how there can be more than 1 workable definition.

Alex

eskbanker

Alexland wrote: »

How on earth would a rolling calendar month work? Months have different numbers of days. For example if you had a rolling calendar month would you take the number of days from the start month, end month or an average between the two which would sometimes give you a half day to consider? I just don't see how there can be more than 1 workable definition.

As I understand it, the alternative 'date to date' definition that OP was envisaging is the period from the [n]th of one month to the [n]th of the following month, i.e. in their case 8 January to 8 February, although 8th to 7th would seem more logical, as you wouldn't say that the month of, say, January runs from 1 January to 1 February.

MPinneye

Not being of a ‘financial brain’ and dyslexic I struggle with these things. I used the internet as a tool and found three definitions of what a ‘calendar month’ is.
I appreciate your help to clarify, sadly I am annoyed I did not learn this before!

Alexland

eskbanker wrote: »

As I understand it, the alternative 'date to date' definition that OP was envisaging is the period from the [n]th of one month to the [n]th of the following month, i.e. in their case 8 January to 8 February, although 8th to 7th would seem more logical, as you wouldn't say that the month of, say, January runs from 1 January to 1 February.

So how would this work if you open an account on the 30th Jan? Would you round up to the 1st March or round down to 28th Feb?

Alex

eskbanker

Alexland wrote: »

So how would this work if you open an account on the 30th Jan? Would you round up to the 1st March or round down to 28th Feb?

According to a definition at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calendar%20month it would be rounded down to the last day of February:

calendar month noun

Definition of calendar month

1 : one of the months as named in the calendar

2 : the period from a day of one month to the corresponding day of the next month if such exists or if not to the last day of the next month (as from January 3 to February 3 or from January 31 to February 29)

Don't get me wrong though - as already posted, for me definition 1 is the one I've always understood, but I was just trying to resolve your curiosity about the existence of another definition....

polymaff

Mind you, that is a dictionary of American English - and Webster was a self-admitted anglophobe

A less parochial dictionary of the English language, such as the Collins English Dictionary gives both interpretations above but in a British context specifically rejects the second !