Help to buy ISA - Pointless after £10,000?

eng1991

In regards to the Help to buy ISA. Is this now pointless after £10,000 is reached?

For example the maximum you are given is 25% on £10,000. Thereafter, is it best to move any savings over £10,000 into a better rate savings account?

Most importantly, moving any money from this account wont affect the 25% government bonus will it?

eskbanker

The limit beyond which no bonus is earned is £12K not £10K - beyond this, a HTB ISA will still pay interest, which is typically better than most other savings accounts but if you find something better then yes, you could skim off the surplus to it.

And no, the bonus is paid at 25% of the balance at closure, regardless of withdrawals/transfers before then.

george4064

Once your HTB ISA balance hits £12k, if you add any more money it won't make any difference to the bonus that you will receive if you end up using for an eligible house purchase.

However, if the interest rate is better than other accounts (remember that interest from HTB ISA is tax free) then keep contributing as much as you can to your HTB ISA.

jacksmith93

If you can afford to wait for 12 months and aren’t buying a property over £450k consider a lifetime ISA you can continue to save £4K p.a and you’ll get £1k bonus. You can also transfer h2b into the lifetime ISA which will be advantageous. Google the benefits 

oli356

jacksmith93 said:

If you can afford to wait for 12 months and aren’t buying a property over £450k consider a lifetime ISA you can continue to save £4K p.a and you’ll get £1k bonus. You can also transfer h2b into the lifetime ISA which will be advantageous. Google the benefits 

But you can only transfer £4k a year from a HTB ISA into a LISA, so it would take a couple of years to get enough money in the LISA to give  the same bonus  as the htb.

I had £10600 in my htb and opened a LISA and put £4k in there, only as I won't be buying a house for under £250k so can't use htb isa. Left the money in the htb as the interest rate is better than anything else.