What is a Calendar Month?! Help to Buy ISA

KateWhittaker

My daughter seems to have been caught out by this as well, it's really unfair. She opened a help to buy account with Nationwide on 26th November with £1. The letter with the account details arrived in early December. Then we have been scraping together the £1199 to be able to top it up to the maximum of £1200 in the first month, i.e. before 26th November. I transferred £600 a week or so ago and it went out of my bank account ok. Then today when I tried to transfer the remaining £599 it wouldn't go through. My daughter looked at the ISA account and it only had £1 in. It turned out the £600 had gone out of my account but then back in later. And Nationwide are telling her by phone that because she paid in a pound on 26th November she only had until 30th November to pay in the £1199 first month's allowance, even though she only got the letter about the account after that date and it didn't flag up that risk, it talked about a full calendar month. Seems really unfair to interpret it in that way without having big flashing warning signs that if you open the account late in the month you only have a couple of days not a calendar month at all, before missing out on the opportunity to make the higher initial payment.

KateWhittaker

Nationwide have now said that we can make the payment and they can backdate it to November.

Spanishomelette

I'm glad I've just read that Nationwide will backdate the remainder of the £1200 initial deposit! I've just had the same problem in that my two sons both opened Help to Buy ISAs on the final day, with only a £5 initial deposit. They knew they would have money from family for Christmas and thought they would be able to transfer the remaining £1195 within the first calendar month, only to get the message today that only £200 can be deposited.

My understanding of a calendar month has always been from, say, the 5th of one month to the 4th of the next month. I have never understood calendar month to mean one day if it happens to be the last day of the month. How would that work, for example, with contracts which state you must give a calendar month's notice? If I handed my notice in on the last day of the month, by this logic I would leave the same day!

TheShape

KateWhittaker wrote: »

My daughter seems to have been caught out by this as well, it's really unfair. She opened a help to buy account with Nationwide on 26th November with £1. The letter with the account details arrived in early December. Then we have been scraping together the £1199 to be able to top it up to the maximum of £1200 in the first month, i.e. before 26th November. I transferred £600 a week or so ago and it went out of my bank account ok. Then today when I tried to transfer the remaining £599 it wouldn't go through. My daughter looked at the ISA account and it only had £1 in. It turned out the £600 had gone out of my account but then back in later. And Nationwide are telling her by phone that because she paid in a pound on 26th November she only had until 30th November to pay in the £1199 first month's allowance, even though she only got the letter about the account after that date and it didn't flag up that risk, it talked about a full calendar month. Seems really unfair to interpret it in that way without having big flashing warning signs that if you open the account late in the month you only have a couple of days not a calendar month at all, before missing out on the opportunity to make the higher initial payment.

The HTB ISA frequently asked questions section on the Nationwide website addresses this:

How can I pay into my account?

You can pay in up to £1,200 during the first calendar month of making your first deposit.

For example, if you pay £100 into your account on 5 January, you have until 31 January to add the remaining £1,100.

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/faqs/help-to-buy-isa-faqs#xtab:how-can-i-pay-in

However, the worked example is not given in the Key Product Information.

Kingsley90

I'm really sorry about your daughter's situation, and I hope you've managed to deal with it.

Alexland

Kingsley90 said:

I'm really sorry about your daughter's situation, and I hope you've managed to deal with it.

Well she has had a year to get over it now.

Kingsley90

I totally agree with you, but since there is no update, who knows how they solved it in the end.

masonic

Kingsley90 said:

I totally agree with you, but since there is no update, who knows how they solved it in the end.

She came back and posted an update just 18 minutes later, so you can put your mind at rest:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76644810/#Comment_76644810

KateWhittaker said:

Nationwide have now said that we can make the payment and they can backdate it to November.