Have I lost my bonus?

scoottadams

Hi, 
I fear I have lost a chunk of my house deposit by making a mistake with ISA’s. 

I have a dormant help to buy ISA with no money in it, opened years ago. 

This march I opened a lifetime ISA and have been paying in and now have a few thousand in it. 

I’m now ready to buy a house, offer accepted - but I fear there is now no way of my getting my money without paying the 25% penalty and losing not only the bonuses but more.  

Is there anything I can do, like combining them both to get the age of HTB plus any kind of bonus?
Thanks 

Alexland

The LISA cannot be combined with the age of the HTB ISA they are unrelated products.

If you don't want to suffer an overall 6.25% loss from withdrawing from the LISA less than a year old but you need most the money to support the purchase consider doing a partial withdrawal from the LISA of the majority (but not all) the money such that the 25% penalty on the withdrawn amount is equal to the 25% bonus you received on all the contributions. That will leave a little bit of money in the LISA that you can transfer to a S&S LISA provider (eg Dodl) and use as the start of a new LISA investment journey investing and collecting more bonuses for age 60+

ps I suggest you don't withdraw any money until you get more certain the property transaction will occur as many sales fall through for various reasons during the conveyancing process.