Help to Buy ISA, Split ISAs and ISA transfers - Help?!

MonSG

I have a Nationwide Help to Buy ISA and a regular Nationwide Instant ISA.  The benefit of opening both was that Nationwide were one of the few providers at the time, that allowed you to pay into both types of ISA in the same tax year.  I do not want to keep the Nationwide Instant ISA (currently 0.01%) as there are better rates available at the minute - I want to be able to open up a new ISA/transfer what I am currently holding to a new provider.  However I think i might now be stuck (and talking to anyone at Nationwide who has decent knowledge is pretty hard to come by!).  

1. Do i have to keep contributing into the Help to Buy ISA in order to benefit from the 25% government benefit?  Can i stop paying into it now that i have reached the maximum amount I would be able to get 25% on (i.e. £12k)? I ask, because if i have to keep paying £200 into it, then i think that massively affects what I can do with the rest of my ISA allowance?
2. If I can stop the £200 contributions and just hold the Help to Buy ISA in the background ready for when I make my first house purchase, I presume the best (and only thing i can do?) is to pay into my Nationwide Instant ISA this year, as I have technically already paid into an ISA (having made contributions to my Help to Buy ISA).   Ideally i would make a contribution to my Nationwide Instant ISA this year, and then immediately transfer everything to another provider (eg. Bank of Cyprus who currently have the best rate). 
3. I don't know if i can only do this with previous years' allowances but to open a new ISA with Bank of Cyprus you need to pay at least £1 into it. I don't know how i can do this given I've already paid into the Help to Buy ISA and would have paid into the Nationwide Instant ISA?

It's all pretty confusing and i'm conscious having picked Nationwide initially, and having a Help to Buy ISA means i might now have limited options? 

grumiofoundation

1) No, you can stop paying in.

2) Do you actually need to save in an ISA? You cannot part transfer current years ISA subscriptions, so if you have paid into nationwide HTB ISA this year you cannot transfer just the 'normal' cash ISA part.

3) You can open another ISA but you cannot pay 'new' money into it.

As said above do you actually need to save in an ISA? (Will you pay tax on savings for example?).


Depending on when you are looking to buy a house may not be suitable but have you looked at lifetime ISA? 
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/