Lifetime ISAs guide

Assuming your deposit is cash, and so you not reliant on a transfer (which Skipton may pull at any time), you are better off paying in as late into this tax year as you can (i.e. March).

You'll technically get slightly less with 2, as it won't accrue interest @ 0.5%, but if it's in account earning more than that now, do the latter.

The bonus will be the same either way.

It's paid monthly from 2018/19 tax year - so THEN it'd be worthwhile depositing ASAP to get compound interest on the bonus amount. For 17/18, deposit as late as you can get away with.

eskbanker wrote: »

Not really, given Skipton's derisory interest rate - a 0.5% return on £5000 will be lower than (say) 1% on £4000 for the same period so in these circumstances it'll actually make sense to leave the LISA money elsewhere for as long as possible before paying it in late in the tax year again (or shortly before it's needed for property purchase).

Should've added.... if you're putting it anywhere with a decent interest rate anyway :rotfl:

Hopefully other providers will offer better rates towards the end of the tax year that would make it worthwhile depositing monthly from April onwards. Otherwise like you say, it's very much down to individual preference of what they could make elsewhere, do they want to multiple accounts etc.

I think Skipton have had to factor in all the requests to process transfers in etc - plus money laundering checks etc etc on the influx of new customers, so sadly I guess 0.5% is probably about right for a non-competitive market.

Hi - I have CTRL+F'd all 36 pages without finding a relevant search term, nevertheless apologies if this has already been addressed.

When reading through the Skipton overview section entitled "What might my Lifetime ISA be worth when I am age 60?" there is a table which I cannot make any sense of. In particular column 4 "4. Estimated outcome at age 60 from 0% return" which shows amounts at roughly 50% of the total saved plus the governement 25%. Please could somebody explain this?

I was under the impression that the formula for calculating savings in a LISA is (assuming max saved each year and ignoring miserly interest rates for simplicity):

£4,000 x 1.25 x years saved

Then, once you need the money towards a deposit/once you hit 60, the money can be accessed tax-free towards either of those things.

Column 4 is somewhat offputting if the money ends up worth ~50% of total savings+contribution;
Column 5 is intriguing but again totally unclear.

Thanks in advance for any help, after weeks of waiting I just want to get one opened to get it over and done with!

I'm sorry if this has already been answered but can someone help me please?

I currently have £4,245 in my Nationwide Help-to-Buy ISA and £100 in a Nutmeg Stocks & Shares LISA which I opened on the 6th April 2017 to start the clock ticking as per Martin Lewis' advice.

I want to open the Skipton cash LISA and transfer all the funds into that so can I do the following;

- Open Skipton cash LISA
- Transfer the max amount into the help-to-buy from my Nationwide Help-to-Buy.
- Continue to save in a normal savings account.
- As soon as the next tax year starts in 2018, put another £4000 lumper in there into the Skipton to use as a house deposit.

My questions are;

1) Can I transfer from Nutmeg LISA to Skipton Lisa AND Nationwide Help-to-Buy to Skipton ISA?
2) Can I transfer the full amount or only £4000?
3) When the new tax year starts, can I put another £4000 lump sum in there straight away?
4) If I then wanted to buy a house in, say, May or June 2018 - would I get the full £2k bonus?

Thanks in advance.

Skipton text regarding my transfer request from Nutmeg (£100 as you are doing) - aim to transfer within next 30 days.

I sent a H2B ISA form with the same envelope - no text about it, but that's listed online (if you go to Pay In, then pick on transfer a Cash ISA in - value is 0 as it's not been valued yet) - so far so good....

1 - Yes (or my understanding is yes!). Although I've since been told it's questionable to open 2 LISAs in one year, something that Skipton's terms also appeared to suggest. But MSE clearly supported opening one ASAP to get the clock ticking then opening another... In either case I've not had any disputes from them, yet.

2 - H2B ISA, if you transfer the entire amount in 1 go, everything prior to 5th April doesn't count towards this year's £4k anyway. So you're only being counted for whatever deposits you've made this year, and whatever interest you've had credited this year (e.g. £412 for me - 2 x £200 (May & June) and £12 interest).

Work out what you've got remaining (£4000 minus the £100 deposited via Nutmeg (Share growth doesn't count as interest) minus H2B payments made this tax year).

E.g. In my case, I believe I've got just under £3,500 of this years allowance left - which I'll transfer in bulk in March time (because of low interest rates)

3 - Yea, straight away - particularly if you're planning to buy early on in the tax year.

4 - I'm sure I read the monthly bonuses were to be credited soon after month end, starting in May - so if you deposited in April your bonus should be ready by early May.

Your bonus for this tax year is added at/around the same time as the first bonus - so early May. I'd say any earlier than mid-May and you're probably cutting it a very fine with the bonus timings.

I'm buying in October and essentially doing the same as you!