How much can I deposit into my Help to Buy ISA at once?

AlexLever17

I've got a Help to Buy ISA with Santander. I decided to invest most of my savings into stocks as the potential returns are higher than my 0.75% interest gained in my ISA. I'd like to sell some of my shares in about 3-4 years just before I'm about to put a deposit down on a house and put this money into the Help to Buy ISA in order to take advantage of the government's 25% bonus. However, I'm wondering if I'd be able to suddenly lump in £6000 - £8000 in 3-4 years at once? Or is there a set maximum that you can deposit at one time. I can't find a direct answer anywhere!

grumiofoundation

£200 per month - so £2400 per year.

Alternative is lifetime ISA (£4000 per tax year).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/
https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/04/the-help-to-buy-isa-v-lifetime-isa-which-should-first-time-buyers-get/

As an aside - selling your shares "just before" you are about to put a deposit down on a house is incredibly risky - what will you do if your investments drop 50% a week before you plan to withdraw?

masonic

In case the above answer leaves any doubt, for a HTB ISA that has received its opening deposit more than one month ago, the maximum you can deposit at one time is £200.

Alexland

If you didn't know about the £200pm contribution limit then read the basic features of the account again as there may be other important aspects you have overlooked or forgotton.

AlexLever17

grumiofoundation said:

£200 per month - so £2400 per year.

Alternative is lifetime ISA (£4000 per tax year).

As an aside - selling your shares "just before" you are about to put a deposit down on a house is incredibly risky - what will you do if your investments drop 50% a week before you plan to withdraw?

Thanks for the advice. I'm currently looking at transferring my Help to Buy ISA over to a lifetime Cash ISA with MoneyBox as I definitely wouldn't be able to buy a house anytime soon. 

Yeah, I acknowledge that my plan certainly does have a lot of risks attached to it. However, I'm planning on only selling a small portion of my shares to top up my deposit and fees when the time comes, as a pose to funding my entire deposit with money from selling my shares. I'm going to continue putting £100+ per month into my ISA as I have been doing for the past year. So hopefully that'll form a good basis for my deposit if the stock market does crash again in the next couple of years. 

Good suggestion on the LISA.