Martin Lewis: A warning for all wannabe first-time buyers or even those years away from buying
Never owned a home? Open a Help to Buy ISA – even if you've no savings, just put £1 in. This special ISA – that gives first-time buyers up to £3,000 free towards their first mortgage – closes to new applicants on 30 November 2019, so there's now less than six months left. Yet open one before then and you bag the facility in case you ever need it later.
Martin Lewis: A warning to first time buyers – you’ve less than a week to decide if your Help to Buy ISA should become a Lifetime ISA (LISA) – some could gain £1,000s
For those saving for a first-time residential property, Help to Buy ISAs and Lifetime ISAs are no-brainers, as an unbeatable 25% bonus is added as well as interest. In other words you get an extra £250 per £1,000 saved towards any mortgage. Yet as you can only get the home-buying bonus on one of them, you need to pick which is...
Should you switch your Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA?
On 6 April 2017 the new Lifetime ISA launches, allowing first-time buyers aged under 40 to save up to £4,000 a year, with the state adding 25% on top towards a deposit for a home. Yet there’s already a very similar product called the Help to Buy ISA many first-time buyers already have. So the big question is, should you...
First-time buyers’ trick: Max LISA and Help to Buy ISA gains by timing it right
The new Lifetime ISA (LISA) launches next April. It allows eligible savers to put away up to £4,000 a year. Then if it’s used for a first-time home purchase or retirement, the state adds a 25% bonus on top – a possible £1,000 a year bonus for up to 30 years. While the already up-and-running Help to Buy...
Can you rent out a home bought with a Help to Buy ISA/Lifetime ISA?
The Help to Buy ISA is a huge boon for first-time buyers. It means when you save in it for a mortgage deposit, you’ll get up to £3,000 added on top. The new Lifetime ISA is going to dwarf even that when it launches in 2017 – adding up to £1,000 a year, for up to 32 years,...
The Help to Buy ISA vs Lifetime ISA – which should first-time buyers get?
Update Note August 2016: While reviewing this blog I’ve noticed that in bashing it out, I used the term house deposit as shorthand – but that is ambiguous. So to clarify I am talking about the deposit you need to get a mortgage for a house, not the deposit you must give a seller at exchange. This...
Latest MoneySaving Tips
-
Top credit cards vanishingShift debt to 29mths 0% or bag 5% cashback while you can
-
One week to reclaim PPIDon't wait until the last min
-
Hot EDF & British Gas energy dealsSave £260/yr
-
School uniform hacksIncl a 'free' set
-
eBay and Facebook selling tricksDeclutter this bank hol
-
Broadband battle'£10/mth' standard, '£17/mth fibre'
-
Kids still on holiday?100+ free or cheap ways to entertain 'em
-
Halifax Ultimate Reward changesSee if you'll win or lose
-
Make old £1 coins spendable againWith 145m still out there
Recent Blogs
-
How much the Govt expects you to give your children for university
16 July 2019
Update Note 25 May 2017: The ready reckoners below have been updated with the new 2017/2018 living loan amounts. Also since first writing this blog, and seeing the strength of feeling it attracted, I have written an open letter to the Uni Minister asking him to start telling people about this. Yet sadly received his no we won’t...
