Paying in to Help to Buy & Help to Save ISA's

dspence3

My son have both a Help to Buy and Help to Save ISA in his name, but we are paying in to it for him.  Will this be a problem when it comes to getting the rewards from either/both of them.  I want to make sure that he gets the full benefit from both.

grumiofoundation

I don't believe help to save is an ISA (assuming you mean help to save as posted in link below). 

https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income

someone

Given the goal here sounds like to use the money for a house it may be a good idea to get your son to do some research himself into the ins and outs of the various products he holds (hint: there are guides on on the main part of this site) and what happens to use/claim the bonus. This will help him understand how they benefit himself and what he needs to look out for as well as building his financial literacy and independence. Consider it the "price" he has to pay in exchange for your cash contributions. With the length of mortgage it might end up been more valuable than the cold hard cash you are saving for him!

As a heads up some ISA managers (banks etc.) can be rather funny about accepting payments into a ISA from someone who is not the account holder as they don't want to run foul of some ambiguous rules they are obliged to follow (they are intended to stop someone "holding money" on behalf of someone else who has already maxed out their annual allowance as they are INDIVIDUAL Savings Accounts. As it sound like you are already paying in so you probably will be fine but it's not uncommon to hear cheques been rejected from been paid in to an ISA because they are drawn from someone else's account.

@grumiofoundation is correct that Help to Save (Pay in max £50 per month) is not an ISA. The bonus from this account however is paid 100% tax free and based on the "high water mark" and paid at year 2 and year 4 of the account. All Help to Save accounts are managed on the Gov.uk website and run by NS&I. The bonus is not related to a house purchase and the accounts are designed to get people into the habit of saving a safety net for unexpected expenses.

If however you are in fact paying into a Help To Buy ISA and a Lifetime ISA (and based on the nature of the question this may be the actual case)

• Lifetime ISAs get "topped up" monthly with the bonus
• Help To Buy ISA have a bonus applied by the solicitor when buying a house.

You can only use ONE to a first time home purchase and given the restrictions on the Lifetime ISA (limited access if you are no longer classed as first time buyer) in most cases it would be the Lifetime ISA.