How To Transfer Help To Buy ISA To A Lifetime ISA

Can you move a Help to Buy ISA to a Lifetime ISA?

Yes, it is possible to move the money you’ve saved in your Help to Buy ISA to a Lifetime ISA, but it’s not a simple transfer because they are different account types. You can only move up to £4,000 of your savings each tax year, which will take you up to the Lifetime ISA’s annual allowance. 

How to transfer Help to Buy ISA to a Lifetime ISA

1. Set up a Lifetime ISA

It’s super easy to set up a Lifetime ISA, you just need to pick a provider and sign up online or via an app. In fact, it only takes 5 minutes to sign up for a Tembo Lifetime ISA on our award-winning app. When you sign up, create a direct debit for £1 to make sure your account is set up correctly - you can cancel this later on.

Get started here

⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️ 

When you sign up to a LISA, any one-off or regular payments you set up will be separate from your Help to Buy ISA transfer. If your Help to Buy savings will take up your whole LISA allowance for this tax year, it’s worth waiting to set up additional payments.

2. Deposit your savings into your LISA

At the moment, we don’t support Help to Buy to LISA transfers from within our app, but we are looking into what we can do to offer this in-app going forward! In the meantime, you can withdraw your funds from your Help to Buy ISA and deposit them into your Lifetime ISA, like you would with a normal cash contribution. Make sure to check what rules your current Help to Buy provider may have on withdrawing your savings before doing this. 

Remember that you can only deposit up to £4,000 into your Lifetime ISA each tax year, so if you withdraw more than this from your Help to Buy ISA, you will have to wait until the next tax year to put in the remainder into your LISA.

If you would like to speak to someone from the savings team - please drop them an email at hey@getnude.com

3. Wait for your funds to be moved

Once we’ve received your deposit request, this should land into your account the next day, or in 3 working days if you transfer the funds via direct debit.

Can I have both a Lifetime ISA and a Help to Buy ISA?

Yes, you can have both a Lifetime ISA and a Help to Buy ISA, but you can only use the bonus from one of them to buy your first home - so you cannot use them together. However, you could use your Help to Buy ISA to buy a home, and your Lifetime ISA to save for retirement instead if you don’t want to combine your savings into one account.

Unfortunately, It’s no longer possible to open a Help to Buy ISA as these types of accounts stopped being available in 2019. If you opened one before the closing date, you can still use your Help to Buy ISA to buy a home, as long as you purchase a property by November 2030. 

Check out our blog on the differences between a Help to Buy ISA and a Lifetime ISA here.

Is it better to have a Lifetime ISA or a Help to Buy ISA?

If you haven’t already opened a Help to Buy ISA, then a Lifetime ISA is your best bet. For one, you can no longer open a Help to Buy ISA - these types of accounts were closed to new customers in 2019. If you already have a Help to Buy ISA, it might be worth transferring your savings over to a Lifetime ISA. With a Help to Buy ISA, you only have until November 2029 to pay into the account, and you must use the funds to buy a home by November 2030. With a Lifetime ISA, you can pay into your account and earn the government bonus all the way up until your 50th birthday.

Plus, with a Lifetime ISA you can save up to £4,000 each tax year, while a Help to Buy ISA restricts you to saving £200 a month. You’ll get the 25% government bonus on your Lifetime ISA savings 4-9 weeks after you put the money in. In contrast, with a Help to Buy ISA you don’t start earning your bonus until you’ve put at least £1,600 in, and you receive your bonus in one block once you’re ready to buy a home.