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Help to buy isa vs lifetime isa

3 replies

user1471604011 · 07/02/2021 09:48

My partner and I are hopefully planning to buy our first home at the end of the year/start of 2022. We both currently have help to buy isas and have been putting the maximum £200 in every month. If we continue doing this then I’ll have 5k in my isa by December and my partner will have slightly less (he had an issue with the bank letting him deposit money into the isa so started after me). We have more than this saved but this will be the maximum we can have in our isas due to the limit. I was speaking to a colleague at work with a lifetime isa and was wondering if it would be a better fit for us. From what I understand, you can put 4K in every tax year, so if we both put 4K in before April and 4K after we’d each have 8k in our isas by December. I’m just wondering if there’s a catch that I’m unaware of before we close our help to buy isas and transfer to lifetime ones. I’m aware there’s a charge to withdraw money from the lifetime isas which is fine because we don’t intend to touch the money until we buy our house. We’re in Scotland if that makes a difference, thanks! Smile

OP posts:
BobbingPuffins · 07/02/2021 10:26

LISAs basically replaced help to buy ISAs.

A LISA allows you so save more, but it has to be open and funded for a full year before you can use it to buy a house.

There’s a nice infographic on the difference between help to buy ISAs and LISAs here: www.youinvest.co.uk/lifetime-isa/help-to-buy-to-lifetime-isa/should-you-transfer-your-help-to-buy-isa

WisestIsShe · 07/02/2021 10:26

I have a Lisa because I'm self employed do it's something towards retirement. Iirc it can actually end up costing you money if you need to take the £ back out before it matures when you're 60. Money saving expert has donye good advice about it.

WisestIsShe · 07/02/2021 10:27

Oh it seems like I'm out of date! Sorry.

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