Help to buy ISA

3 Posts

Hello
Does anyone have an experience of a problem I am having with a Help to Buy ISA. I have been paying into my ISA for several years and had £5,000 in it. Last week I was subjected to a scam on my Halifax Bank account that resulted in all of my money being stolen by the scammers including the money I had in the ISA.
Does anyone have an experience of a problem I am having with a Help to Buy ISA. I have been paying into my ISA for several years and had £5,000 in it. Last week I was subjected to a scam on my Halifax Bank account that resulted in all of my money being stolen by the scammers including the money I had in the ISA.
To be fair the Halifax have been brilliant and have refunded all of my money but have said they cannot return my money to my ISA therefore I have lost the government bonus that is attached to the Help to Buy scheme.
As Halifax accept that I did not withdraw the money from my ISA (because they have refunded it to me) I think they must have the ability to recreate my account to what it should be but they say they have tried but failed because only £200 per month can be added. I have mentioned that they have the power to deal with a situation when a property purchase falls through but they haven’t commented
Has anyone had my experience or have any possible solutions?
Thank you
Christine
Has anyone had my experience or have any possible solutions?
Thank you
Christine
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Replies
If you fell for an Authorised Push Payment scam, then, assuming Halifax don't determine that you were negligent in some way, they'll refund you under the terms of the voluntary code introduced in 2019. However, that doesn't actually mean that they have any responsibility (or perhaps even capability) to reinstate a HTB ISA in these circumstances, even though the scheme rules permit this action to be taken after a property purchase failure.
Thank you for your response - much appreciated
Getting your money back at all is a good result, that you probably wouldn't have achieved more than a couple of years ago, so missing out on some HTB ISA bonus, while undoubtedly irritating, should be seen in context, and, as pointed out above, you may be able to use a Lifetime ISA to earn an equivalent bonus if you won't be buying in the particularly near future....