Closing H2B ISA - Not claiming the bonus

kaleel86

Hi people!
I'm after some advice and figured there was no better place than here.....
So I'm looking to close my H2B ISA as we're in the early stages of buying and the house ended up being a fair bit above the 250k limit, so it's pretty pointless having it. I was just going to stick whatever is in the H2B ISA all in a current account where the rest of the deposit money lives, ready for 'proof of funds'/handing over!  Do I need to go through a specific process to do this? or can i simply transfer the funds out to my current account and let my ISA provider know that I no longer need the it?  The latter works better for me but I'm just not sure if it's that simple. 
Thanks in advance!

george4064

Up to you really, technically you should get in touch with the provider to close your H2B ISA and withdraw the balance in full.

Sounds like you’re not in any hurry so no reason not to fully close it and withdraw full balance.

kaleel86

george4064 said:

Up to you really, technically you should get in touch with the provider to close your H2B ISA and withdraw the balance in full.

Sounds like you’re not in any hurry so no reason not to fully close it and withdraw full balance.

Thanks George.
I'm not in a hurry...unless of course I need to handover the deposit/show that I have it all available. do you know if it's typically a long process or we talking hours/days? 

george4064

kaleel86 said:

george4064 said:

Up to you really, technically you should get in touch with the provider to close your H2B ISA and withdraw the balance in full.

Sounds like you’re not in any hurry so no reason not to fully close it and withdraw full balance.

Thanks George.
I'm not in a hurry...unless of course I need to handover the deposit/show that I have it all available. do you know if it's typically a long process or we talking hours/days? 

I can’t say for sure for EVERY provider, but I used Halifax and closing down my account & getting the balance was instant. So I’m sure for other providers, if not instant, it won’t be more than a day or so.

Also if you need to show proof of funds you can simply show a statement of your account, i.e. you don’t need to close your account to provide proof of funds.

george4064

Also, there is a dedicated H2B ISA thread here which may be useful; https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5371330/help-to-buy-isa-guide

masonic

It would be safest to withdraw the balance, which should be pretty quick, and then close the account at your leisure. You might as well get the benefit of the interest for as long as possible, presuming the rate is good.

kaleel86

george4064 said:

Also, there is a dedicated H2B ISA thread here which may be useful; https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5371330/help-to-buy-isa-guide

Thanks George. I didn't see that dedicated forum,but at least i know now

kaleel86

masonic said:

It would be safest to withdraw the balance, which should be pretty quick, and then close the account at your leisure. You might as well get the benefit of the interest for as long as possible, presuming the rate is good.

so your're saying I could  just transfer the money out of the account, and then close it. That wouldn't be frowned upon/cause any issue for me down the line? Apolgies if these questions are very basic, I'm new to the world of ISAs.

kaleel86

george4064 said:

kaleel86 said:

george4064 said:

Up to you really, technically you should get in touch with the provider to close your H2B ISA and withdraw the balance in full.

Sounds like you’re not in any hurry so no reason not to fully close it and withdraw full balance.

Thanks George.
I'm not in a hurry...unless of course I need to handover the deposit/show that I have it all available. do you know if it's typically a long process or we talking hours/days? 

I can’t say for sure for EVERY provider, but I used Halifax and closing down my account & getting the balance was instant. So I’m sure for other providers, if not instant, it won’t be more than a day or so.

Also if you need to show proof of funds you can simply show a statement of your account, i.e. you don’t need to close your account to provide proof of funds.

My ISA provider (Nationwide) only give me two options if closing.... transfer to another Nationwide account (which i don't have) or...a cheque that gets posted out to me (i don't know much about how things work normally, but this seems a little old fashioned to me!)

MovingForwards

That's how NW work their H2B. Just take the cheque and pay it into your normal bank.

I had a H2B with a different bank, transferred the money to my current account and asked the bank to close the H2B. I was sent the closing statement and it arrived after I had moved into my home.

bowlhead99

kaleel86 said:

george4064 said:

kaleel86 said:

george4064 said:

Up to you really, technically you should get in touch with the provider to close your H2B ISA and withdraw the balance in full.

Sounds like you’re not in any hurry so no reason not to fully close it and withdraw full balance.

Thanks George.
I'm not in a hurry...unless of course I need to handover the deposit/show that I have it all available. do you know if it's typically a long process or we talking hours/days? 

I can’t say for sure for EVERY provider, but I used Halifax and closing down my account & getting the balance was instant. So I’m sure for other providers, if not instant, it won’t be more than a day or so.

Also if you need to show proof of funds you can simply show a statement of your account, i.e. you don’t need to close your account to provide proof of funds.

My ISA provider (Nationwide) only give me two options if closing.... transfer to another Nationwide account (which i don't have) or...a cheque that gets posted out to me (i don't know much about how things work normally, but this seems a little old fashioned to me!)

Yes it sounds a little old fashioned, but it's not a current account so you wouldn't expect it to be able to ping payments electronically all over the world for free. You can see why they have the options they have, as most people who open it are either
a) someone who's a Nationwide customer, or
b) someone who's not a Nationwide customer but would be using the proceeds to help them buy a property with Nationwide or elsewhere. If buying with Nationwide, they would quite possibly open up a Nationwide current account ; if elsewhere - as the purpose is typically for buying a property with the money and the bonus on the money -  there is plenty of lead time to receive a cheque in the post accompanied by the paper documentation that would help their solicitor claim the bonus on it.

So it seems normal for the niche kind of account that it is. If no hurry, no problem.