How Family Can Help You Save For A House With Gift Links

Anya Gair

Last Updated 9 April 2024

What if we told you there’s another way for your friends and family to help you buy a home. It’s called ✨ Gift Links ✨

Say goodbye 👋 to reciting sort codes over the phone, and say hello 👋 to having a personal Gift Link that your loved ones can use to add money straight into your Tembo Lifetime ISA 💸

Saving up for a house is a mammoth task - on average it takes 10 years to save up a house deposit! Thanks to rising house prices, buying a home is getting harder, with almost half of first-time buyers relying on family support to make homeownership happen.

While not everyone’s family can support their house purchase, with Gift Links, the minimum contribution is just £10, so your friends and family don’t need thousands of pounds to contribute to your dream of buying your first home.

When to use your Gift Links link

🎂 Birthdays

🎄 Christmas

🤍 Weddings

🧧 Chinese New Year

🎓 Graduation

& more! Go wild…

How does Gift Links work?

After you open a Tembo Lifetime ISA, you’ll get a unique Gift Links link that you can send to your friends and family. With your unique Gift Link, they can securely add money to your Tembo Lifetime ISA. No sort codes required. They can even use it to put the first contribution into your new account.

Because their contribution is added to your savings, their gift will be boosted by the 25% Lifetime ISA bonus. So a £50 gift turns into a £62.50 gift! They can even see how much sooner you could buy a home with their gift. It could knock off weeks, months, or even years.

(Remember, the max amount you can add to your Lifetime ISA per tax year is £4,000, and the max annual bonus is £1,000 in total)

We get it, it can be a little awkward to ask for money from your loved ones, but hopefully these tips can help...

How to ask your family for money towards your first house:

1. Share your plans

Saving up for a home is a huge milestone to aim for. It’s been shown that sharing your goals with others makes you twice as likely to reach your goal. It will also help your loved ones get on board with what you are trying to achieve, and how they can help even with a £10 contribution.

2. Mention the Lifetime ISA bonus

By contributing to your Lifetime ISA, any money from your loved ones will be boosted by the free 25% bonus. So their money will go even further, without them having to contribute more.

Example #1: Your Mum pops in £100 for your birthday. 4-6 weeks later, a £25 bonus payment will land in your account to boost her gift by 25%. Her £100 just became £125!

Example #2: you pop your Gift Link on your wedding registry and your friends & family add in £2,000 worth of contributions, and the Lifetime ISA 25% bonus is an extra £500 on top of it. You tied the knot, had a hell of a day to remember, and are £2,500 closer to owning your home together.

3. Take the minimalist route

As much as giving money at birthdays and Christmas can feel impersonal, receiving gifts from every relative can often leave you with gifts you don’t actually want. Not only does Gift Links help you get something you want - extra money added to your house fund - you’ll also reduce the amount of stuff you get on special occasions. Helping you to be less wasteful, and your family to stop buying you filler presents.