Transferring HTB ISA to LISA

dude7691

Hello,
I am 20 years old and am currently saving to buy my first home in around 4 years time. I already have a HTB ISA open with Barclays and have saved £1,600 into this so far. Today though I found out about LISA's which are much better suited to what I want, enabling me to save more. I am curious though about how you go about transferring a HTB ISA from a different provider to a new LISA provider. What are the best accounts for doing this that allow transfers from HTB ISA's? I know I will lose my HTB bonus but this is offset by the bonus increase, plus the flexibility to add more if I want to save for longer after 4 years.
Thanks in advance

eskbanker

The LISA market is much smaller than the HTB one so there aren't many providers to choose from, but the good news is that the leading one, Moneybox, does accept transfers in from non-LISA accounts. You simply open the account and ask the new provider to initiate the transfer, although if you won't be contributing close to £20K into ISAs this tax year then you can just as easily close down the HTB and pay into the LISA as new money, as there isn't really any benefit in processing it as an ISA transfer in this scenario.

dude7691

Thank you for the quick response. I did read though that if you open one ISA in the tax year you're not allowed to open another one? Unsure if that applies in this scenario but I wouldn't want to risk closing it and then cutting myself off from other ISA's until 6th April.

eskbanker

dude7691 wrote: »

Thank you for the quick response. I did read though that if you open one ISA in the tax year you're not allowed to open another one? Unsure if that applies in this scenario but I wouldn't want to risk closing it and then cutting myself off from other ISA's until 6th April.

See this thread from this afternoon, when someone asked much the same question: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6051097/help-to-buy-isa-lifetime-isa