How do help to buy ISAs work?

[Squiffy01]

What happens with the money you have earnt if you don't end up buying a house?

I don't think you get the bonus until you buy.

"When you buy your first home, your solicitor or conveyancer will apply for your government bonus. Once they receive the government bonus, it will be added to the money you are putting towards your first home"
From: www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/how-does-it-work/#sthash.Icl3twF8.dpuf (don't know how to link on my phone, sorry!)

You don't get the government bonus, but you can still access the money and earn interest on it.

So I have a Help-to-buy ISA to get the 4% interest rate from Halifax. I won't be able to get the govt bonus, though, as a FTB but trying to buy in an expensive area.

The government gives you 25% of what you've saved, towards a deposit, if you've never owned a property before. The money have to be in a help to buy isa, the max amount you can have in that account is £15400.
However. You can't just open a H2B ISA, put £15400 in it and then ask for the 25%. You have to trickle the money in, max£200 a month.
Basically, you'll get to £15400 after 3-4 years.
You don't have to wait for the whole amount, the 3-4 years. Say, it accumulated £2000 and you found a house and you're putting the money down for a deposit. The government won't just put the 25% of £2000 into your account. The solicitor you use for buying the house applies to the govt for you. The solicitor cannot charge more than £50 for this service.

Now, you can open this ISA with several banks. You need £1000 deposit and an intial £200 payment. The interest the bank pays you on those money varies. At the moment, the best one is Halifax, 4%.
HTH

I think the £1000 deposit and £200 payment are the maximum you can put in. According to the Halifax website the deposit can be £1-1000 and the monthly DD £1-200. You only get the bonus on £1600+ though so it would take a while at £1 a month!

GunShot is the 1k maximum deposit just for the Halifax one or for all of them. If I got a Help to Buy ISA I would need it to be my only savings account so would want to transfer from another ISA. (I would still be under the max limit).

Also, is the pound a month minimum save the same for all of them. I'm temping so some months would have nothing to save and would rather only save certain months.

I'm not sure, sorry. It will probably be worth getting an appointment at whichever bank you decide to open your ISA. I think it's the same for all of them but it might be different if you're transferring.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will answer!

mx £1200 in the first month

And minimum save? That link doesn't seem to say. It seems that I can't have another ISA anyway so that would make things way too complicated.

In any one financial year (april to april) you can only open one ISA.
April is only around the corner, you can open one then.
The minimum you can save is what you opened with, or £1 a month. You can also combine your cash IsA with a H2B isa, ask Nationwide.

My cash ISA is with the Post Office so I'd have to take all the money out, but wouldn't have anywhere to put it as I can only put 1k a month into the HTB ISA. Is that right? All seems to complicated for me...

You open it with £1,000.

You can then put up to £200 per month in to it.

When you buy a property, the solicitor will claim the 25% on your behalf.

My understanding is that you can only have one of these, regardless of tax years.

If you can save, it would be mad not to do this.

No, you can open it with £1 but you should aim to save £200 a month to get th ebest deal and start with £1200 if you can but not essential.

However if you are buying with someone they can also have an isa and apply for the same bonus

Does anyone know if it is possible for a young person aged 17 to open a help to buy ISA and parents pay into it for them?

Yes it is. They can have one from 16 onwards :) doesn't matter who pays into it, I don't think :)