Can you transfer a help to buy ISA to a lifetime ISA?

In this brief guide, we will explore transferring your help to buy ISA to a lifetime ISA and why you may want to consider it.

You may want to transfer a help to buy ISA for a lifetime ISA for a variety of reasons.

One of those reasons is that the help to buy ISA only allows you to buy homes worth up to £250,000 outside London (and up to £450,000 in London) whilst the Lifetime ISA allows you to buy homes worth up to £450,000 anywhere

You can transfer your lifetime ISA to a help to buy ISA by simply contacting the product manager for any lifetime ISA and letting them know you want to transfer your help to buy ISA to their lifetime ISA.

You can of course also transfer to a lifetime ISA with your current help to buy ISA provider.

• You can only use your Lifetime ISA to buy a home after the twelfth month from when you made your first payment into your lifetime ISA. This doesn’t matter if you are simply switching from one lifetime ISA provider to another.
  
• The lifetime ISA pays you £1000 per year if you save the maximum £4,000 per year. This means it is of better value than the help to buy ISA when comparing the government bonus. The help to buy ISA will provide a maximum bonus of £3,00 over its lifetime. So after the 4th year of saving with a Lifetime ISA you will already see the much better value.
  
• Another benefit from transferring from the help to buy ISA to the Lifetime ISA could be because the help to buy ISA only pays you the government bonus after completion of your house sale. The lifetime ISA, in contrast, will pay you the government bonus prior to completion on your home purchase. This means you can use it for your mortgage deposit when exchanging contracts.
  

If you need financial advice and you live in the UK then you could contact the Money Advice service over the phone or via chat for impartial advice.

You can also contact the debt charity “Step Change” if you are in debt and need help.