Help to buy ISA

[Ekim]

seems to be a lot of faffing about.

what if your closing letter gets "lost in the post" that could delay the process by a month easily.

would you say it's best to close 3-4 weeks before your move in date? meaning you potentially miss out on a months bonus in the process.

I'd do it as soon as you have an offer accepted and you have a complete chain

You might miss out on a month bonus, but that'd be better than missing out on it completely as you didn't do it in time. My and wife and I both have one so we are looking at a £1,200 bonus total at the moment.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

I have been saving and have about 10k, I will be looking to buy in the next 3 years. HTB ISA a good way to go for me?

Would I be best off taking £1200 out of that and putting it in a HTB ISA and then standing order £200 out of that account also into the ISA to build it up?

Virgin seem to have the best rate at the moment, any problems with them?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I have been saving and have about 10k, I will be looking to buy in the next 3 years. HTB ISA a good way to go for me?

Would I be best off taking £1200 out of that and putting it in a HTB ISA and then standing order £200 out of that account also into the ISA to build it up?

Virgin seem to have the best rate at the moment, any problems with them?

well its a 25% top up of whatever you put in plus 3% annual interest. it's capped though at £200 a month and £12K total.

if your looking to buy and your going to do so >3 months time (the minimum allowed before you get bonus) then you would be stupid not to as nothing else will give you anywhere near that return guaranteed.

however it doesn't look like it's been thought through very well and a HTB ISA on it's own is nowhere near enough due to the stupid cap of £200 per month.

I fear all this is doing though is going to make house prices sky rocket as well as interest rates. So best to buy soon (as in right now) or after the next recession. If you google the history of uk recessions there is usually one every 10-15 years. so we are due another soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_Kingdom

it may be worth risking a small amount into gold in preparation for that. sell when gold is higher (during recession) and then buy a home using that money when house prices crash during the recession.

house prices in this area are now what they were before the last recession and you can now buy a house for the same price people were paying in 2006 and 2007 (before the recession hit) and they fell. in fact i saw 3 houses on a street i was looking at sell for £15-£20K less than what they did when they were built just before the recession a few months back. so house prices are rising now and will be above their prices in 2006/2007 soon enough in and around glasgow anyway. it's a good time to buy right now. in >6 months time i fear prices will have risen substantially which is good for home owners (specifically landlords with multiple properties) but not for those looking to buy.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

I won't be able to afford a house now, it will be a minimum of two/three years. I am going back to university in September.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I won't be able to afford a house now, it will be a minimum of two/three years. I am going back to university in September.

get the help to buy ISA for sure stick the £1K opening balance in then another £200 soon after then £200 monthly thereafter.

save as much as you can if greater than £8,000 get a santander 1,2,3 account for savings up to £20K then you need to open another account for rest possibly several.

if you don't know anything about investing just stick to cash in the bank. the little guy usually gets ****** in those situations.

keep an eye on house prices so you know what the market is like. i have 2 specific streets saved on rightmove. i know how much every house on that street sold for when built and thereafter. i use that as my guide as to how the market is in my area. it's not an exact science, property is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. so some sell higher and some sell lower but the more you look at what houses are selling for the more you know what the market is like.

 

[doodah]

The 3% Santander would be ideal to hold the £10k, while gradually transferring it away to a HTB ISA and a regular saver account perhaps. You can get 6% with either HSBC/first direct on £250/300 per month.

Slightly risky (no FSCS), and depending on how soon you might buy a house, but also worth having a skim through the P2P investing thread. Short of financial apocalypse the bigger platforms appear to be solid.

Never heard of P2P so will probably stay clear

Would it not be better to funnel all of my money into the ISA rather than that and a separate savings account, so I get as much of the bonus as I can? Or are you suggesting if I can afford, basically do both? Thanks for the help

 

[beh]

Or are you suggesting if I can afford, basically do both? Thanks for the help

With ~£10k you can probably afford to do both. Have a read up on regular saver accounts as there are a few things to get your around.

First Direct for example you need to open a current account first, although if you switch to them (use a "donor" account) and deposit £1k you get a £100 bonus. You also need money flowing through the account to avoid paying the monthly fee beyond the first 6 months. The regular saver needs to be funded from the current account. So basically just setting up multiple standing orders and being motivated to fill in a few forms (all online) to get the accounts set up initially.

Don't discount P2P lending platforms, Zopa and Ratesetter have existed for 5+ years and have lent out a few £billion between them.

 

[doodah]

Cool, will look into First Direct. I would probably like to put X amount from my salary into something anyway.

Haha, you see P2P sounds like something I would probably like to research and get involved with (a bit like matched betting last summer) but my mum gave me this money to help save for a deposit. She's trusting me to bung it straight into an ISA , but no harm to look .

 

[Buffman]

Any ways of buying a house over 250k with help to buy?

(I might hover slightly over the amount soon! ). Had a help to buy since they came out and want to capitalise on the 1.5k odd I have in therr

 

[Mucky_Pup]

Any ways of buying a house over 250k with help to buy?

(I might hover slightly over the amount soon! ). Had a help to buy since they came out and want to capitalise on the 1.5k odd I have in therr

Only option would be transferring it to a LISA in April, but then you'll have to wait at least another year to buy. Or buy a house in London and the limit goes up to £450k.

 

[Buffman]

Only option would be transferring it to a LISA in April, but then you'll have to wait at least another year to buy. Or buy a house in London and the limit goes up to £450k.

Yup that's what I though . Looks like I'll have to ball hard (and get a discount to 249,999 or stump up the extra! (makes sod all difference over a 25 year mortgage anyway I guess

 

[Biz.Kid09]

get the help to buy ISA for sure stick the £1K opening balance in then another £200 soon after then £200 monthly thereafter.

save as much as you can if greater than £8,000 get a santander 1,2,3 account for savings up to £20K then you need to open another account for rest possibly several.

if you don't know anything about investing just stick to cash in the bank. the little guy usually gets ****** in those situations.

keep an eye on house prices so you know what the market is like. i have 2 specific streets saved on rightmove. i know how much every house on that street sold for when built and thereafter. i use that as my guide as to how the market is in my area. it's not an exact science, property is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. so some sell higher and some sell lower but the more you look at what houses are selling for the more you know what the market is like.

Thanks for the information mate.

I currently have 11k in a Santander Student Account. Perhaps it's worth me changing this to a 123 account?

I have a credit card with Halifax and they offer a HTB ISA so I think I will go with them.

Looking to buy a house in around 2018/19.

 

[tom113]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal...hambles-so-are-these-accounts-still-worth-it/

"Help to Buy Isas are being revisited by hundreds of thousands of would-be home buyers after The Telegraph revealed a smallprint technicality which means they can't be used as deposits for property purchases.

The Isas were described by George Osborne as “direct support” for “anyone saving for the deposit on their first home” when they were launched last year."

Thought this was the whole point of the help to buy isas.

Hope they clarify this soon.

 

[Shoza]

It just means you use the HTB money to purchase house stuff or pay SDLT or similar instead of being your deposit money.

However the way the policy is acted out is silly - much the same as normal help to buy which is in a right state for conveyancers

 

[rawuk]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal...hambles-so-are-these-accounts-still-worth-it/

"Help to Buy Isas are being revisited by hundreds of thousands of would-be home buyers after The Telegraph revealed a smallprint technicality which means they can't be used as deposits for property purchases.

The Isas were described by George Osborne as “direct support” for “anyone saving for the deposit on their first home” when they were launched last year."

Thought this was the whole point of the help to buy isas.

Hope they clarify this soon.

Looks to be a slight non story. You can use the H2B ISA bonus for the Mortgage deposit however you can not for the Home Deposit.

From my understanding the "Home Deposit" is given at the exchange where as the "Mortgage deposit" is setup upon completion. So as long as you do not need the H2B isa for the exchange deposit you are able to use it for the mortgage.

Now if I knew how much a home deposit was in comparison to the completion that would be grand. Ha.

 

[ChocolateStarfishRammer]

Indeed it's abit of a non story for me, and I say that having just purchased a house using 2 help to buy isa's.

To summarise how it went;

I paid the full deposit amount in hard cash to my Solicitor to use at Exchange.
At Completion my Solicitor gave me total summary of how much I owed her, for her services, Stamp Duty etc etc, this summary included a deduction of the total amount in our ISA's.

It all balances out in the end.

 

[Mucky_Pup]

We haven't came up with any problems yet, we've exchanged contracts on £3k payment from other savings, the other £9.5k we need is currently growing in our HTB ISA's and will be cashed in just before completion at the end of the year.

 

[VincentHanna]

How can you have 9.5k in HTB ISA's?

Assuming 2 of you the max you could have saved now is £5,600 and the bonus would take that to £7,000 in total.

 

[Mucky_Pup]

It'll be about £4.5k in each (inc. bonus) when we come to complete, rest will just be from current accounts.

 

[Redgie]

It'll be about £4.5k in each (inc. bonus) when we come to complete, rest will just be from current accounts.

So there's a 4 month delay between exchanging contracts and completing? Is this a new build or something?