Martin Lewis: A warning for all wannabee first-time buyers or even those years away from buying 6 June 2019 at 3:39PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 5 replies 6.3K views

MSE_Eesha

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Martin Lewis: A warning for all wannabee first-time buyers or even those years away from buying" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

Neverdebtfree

Hi, I have a daughter who will be 16 in August. I wanted to know whether it would be better for her to put her childhood savings into help to buy isa or a high interest savings account until she is 18 and then transfer to a LISA. What are your thoughts?

jamesd

She should open a help to buy account with £1 at least. This is to preserve her ability to use that HTB account later if she buys a property. It's quite likely that putting in the maximum £1,200 first month then maximum £200 a month will be a good choice because it's likely that she will buy a property and benefit from the bonus sometime. No penalty for withdrawing if that turns out not to apply.

She's not yet 18 so is ineligible for a lifetime ISA for a while.

Beyond that, we don't know the amount of money, when she might want to spend it or how accepting she is of the ups and downs of investments so what can sensibly written is limited.

eish

The property I part owned was transferred over when i got divorced
What ISA can you suggest for someone who owned a property. I haven't owned a property for last 7 years and I'm starting to look at buying in the next 5 years. Is there anhother governmental scheme to help people like me. This all seems really unfair as I can really do with all the help I can get.

maria_fox

I am hoping to buy a house within the next 9months. I have around £1000 to invest in a help to buy ISA. I plan to carry on every month with around 100/200. I will hopefully then get the bonus. Is it a better idea to open a LISa with £10 save in my Help to buy ISA then if I do not buy within the year then move it to the LISA? Apparently Help to buy ISA are penalty free so is this allowed?

Thanks in advance for. any help.

NatNatCai

Hi there,

I have a help to buy ISA that I've had open for a few years but haven't paid into in this tax year. Do I have to pay into it to ensure it stays open after the November deadline? Or will it be ok since its already an 'open' account?

Thank you