Moving money out of a Help to Buy ISA

Prawnie20

Hello,

I am a first time buyer with my partner and we are currently looking at houses with the aim of buying within the year. 

I have a maxed out Help to Buy ISA of over £12,000 with an interest rate of around 3.25%. 

We are buying outside of London (South East) and the houses in our budget are in the region if £350,000-£375,000. 

It has become apparent that I won't be able to receive the help to Buy ISA bonus I was hoping for since the houses we are looking at are above the £250,000 limit. I regrettably do not have a Lifetime ISA open, so I cannot transfer money into a LISA to use for the deposit (although I have opened one this month in case our search lasts longer than a year). 

Since I won't receive the bonus, it seems pointless keeping my money in the Help to Buy ISA when there are better interest rates around. My intention is to remove the money from this account, combine it with my additional deposit savings, and place it all in an easy access savings account to maximise the interest whilst we view properties. 

I am aware that once I remove my money from the Help to Buy ISA, I can only repay it back by £200 a month.

My question is, am I right in my understanding that there is no chance of receiving the bonus from this ISA given the house prices that we are looking at? We will not be looking at houses below £300,000. I would really value some confirmation or challenges in my thinking on this before I irreversibly remove my money.

Thank you for any thoughts on this!

eskbanker

Yes, if you won't be buying within the HTB-supported price range then, as you say, there's no point in keeping your money in an inferior account, regardless of how difficult it would hypothetically be to get it back in there....