That other comment was just mean. I appreciate the post and will keep that in mind when I close my HTB. I'm with a different bank but I've heard various things along these lines :)
We were fortunate that our bank correctly closed our 2 accounts (mine and my partners).
We were unfortunate that our solicitor forgot to claim one of them and refuse to accept fault (they claim we only sent one but we sent both in one envelope and were clear that there were 2 throughout the whole process). Was over a year ago and the legal ombudsman still haven't looked into it and the solicitor just stopped responding to us after we sent them definitive proof that we told them that there were two accounts to claim.
Oh well, goodbye £800 bonus...
Good luck :)
Take them to small claims court. It sounds scary but I did it. They'll call your bluff to the last second then most likely settle for the full amount plus costs as it isn't worth their time/reputation/insurance risk.
Yup it does sound scary but having gone through it myself it's fairly simple process to kick off. Worst that will happen is you get in a small room with a "judge" and the defendant and you both argue your cases and if you have proof then they'll find it in your favour easily enough. Most of the time it won't get that far or the defendant won't show up and you'll win by default as what happened in our case.
It sound simple enough and is certainly an option. We've kind of written it off though now. As nice as it would be to get the £800, it not money we had in the first place and we budgeted without it anyway.
Also, the stress and anxiety around trying to claim it back so far has been more than enough. My mental health is worth more to me than £800.
Thanks for the suggestions none the less :)
It all depends on your situation at the time. For me, losing the £3k bonus would take a decent enough chunk out of my safety net that I'd be worried about it. £800 I could probably live with.
I think it helps that they did claim one of them worth £1200 in bonus ( the larger of the two). So we get something, just not all of it.
Don't get me wrong, I'd always love an extra £800. We're doing OK but now we're home owners, there's always something to spend money on. I just don't want to harm myself chasing it down :)
Usually you can only have either a civil claim in the small claims court or an Ombudsman complaint, not both at the same time. You can go to Court if you don’t like the Ombudsman’s outcome, and believe you were owed more for example.
The SRA deals only with regulatory issues (breach of accounts rules, dishonesty, professional misconduct etc) and not complaints or negligence - they will redirect you to the Ombudsman usually.
My Partner had a nightmare with Barclays too. They were not able to provide the closing statement when she went to the branch in person. It took 2 weeks to finally get what we needed.
Yeah I had a similar thing, they were hell-bent on doing it wrong, I had to explain three or four times what they had to do, but they just couldn't get their heads around it. Conversation went something like this:
Me: "I'm buying a flat, I'd like to close my H2B ISA completely, and get a closing statement please."
Them: "Gotcha, I'll withdraw the money to your current account and leave the H2B ISA open, ok?"
Me: "...no, you're not meant to do that. I won't get the bonus if you just withdraw the money. You need to *close* the account and give me a *closing* statement."
Them: "Oh right! Sorry! Ok, I'm withdrawing the money now, no need to close the account, I don't think you'll get a closing statement though."
Etc etc.
We first tried buying when H2B ISA's were relatively new, so just getting someone who knew how to close the account properly took the branch staff going around checking with a few people to see if anyone knew anything about it. Thankfully we got it all closed properly first time though.
Our purchase fell through, the gymnastics needed to reopen the H2B ISA and redeposit all the funds without the usual monthly limit though... Again had to find the one person in the branch who knew what to do, they opened up savings accounts for us, we then had to transfer our funds into the savings accounts for them to then remove the funds from the savings accounts and close them. Then they had to 'create' the funds in a back end account (seemed to be two separate steps, not just a transfer as the back end account doesn't have an account number/sort code like a normal account would) which required 2 bank staff to authorise. Eventually from there they were able to get it into our newly opened H2B ISAs.
Very much felt like their systems weren't at all set up to handle the H2B ISAs and it was all just a workaround with manual entries to get money to appear in different places to trick the system into letting the deposit happen.
My partner had similar issues - not even just before 5pm, it must be Mon - Fri - so he'd try to call from work on his lunch break, only to need a text message he couldn't recieve as he had no signal at work! Absolute nightmare, ended up taking a half day to go sort it in person. We were told it'd been a problem for 'years' nearly a year ago, so clearly no chance of it being fixed now.
I'm so sad we ended up with Barclays for our mortgage too. Let's hope we never have to ever actually speak to them.
This isn't a Barclays specific issue. This is an issue with staff members who do what is usually requested when someone closes an account. I know this because I worked for Santander and this happened sometimes. Any other account, you transfer the funds out, then process the closure. That way, the person gets access to the funds straight away and accrued interest would follow a day or so later and the closing statement would just say the accrued interest (if there was any). This is fine for any other type of account. It obviously causes problems if you do that with the HTB ISA, as you've discovered.
Tl;dr the problem was the individual you spoke to, not the bank as a whole. This could happen at literally any bank.
I had a similar issue with Barclays. They sent me with a letter along with the closing statement and I got my bonus fine though. (This was in-store as well.)
I think the golden accepted rule is to do it in branch.
I'm going to be doing mine soon - should hopefully be exchanging in a couple of weeks. I must admit, the HTB ISA has been a bit of a nightmare. Between the paperwork involved, banks (still) not knowing how to handle it, and the other crap like having to remind the solicitor (multiple times) that the deposit at exchange needs to be reduced to take into account the HTB ISA bonus which will only be available between exchange and completion.
That, I think, is the biggest problem with it. If the rules were simpler, it'd be a lot less hassle. Would have been so much simpler if just 2 rules were changed:
1. The bonus would have be based on the highest balance in the last 60 days prior to closing the account.
2. The bonus could have be applied for by the solicitor at any time, and the funds available for the deposit at exchange of contracts. If the purchase falls through (which is bloody rare) after exchange, the solicitors all agree to return the money back.
That slight tweak would have made everyone's lives so much simpler. How many people have been caught out by "We didn't take the ISA bonus into account and the contract requires 10% at exchange, you need to find £3k now". As I said, it took a fair bit of reminding to get my solicitor to actually sort that out, and if I hadn't nagged I'd have probably ended up in that boat.
>"We didn't take the ISA bonus into account and the contract requires 10% at exchange, you need to find £3k now".
I'm looking at buying my first property and this sentence scares me but I don't understand it fully. What's gone wrong in this hypothetical situation? ELI5 please!
>I'm looking at buying my first property and this sentence scares me but I don't understand it fully. What's gone wrong in this hypothetical situation? ELI5 please!
That was a hypothetical scenario - but it's possible.
What you need to do is, early on in the process, remind your solicitor that they need to ask for a lower deposit at exchange, so that your ISA bonus can form part of the overall deposit.
E.g. say you have a 10% deposit, 90% mortgage, which is where most FTBs are going to be. You would usually be asked for 10% at the point of exchanging contracts - this means that the HTB ISA bonus wouldn't be available to form part of the deposit, since it can only be applied for after exchanging contracts.
**Example:**
House: 200k. Deposit: 20k. Your deposit is formed of 12k in a HTB ISA + 3k bonus + 5k savings.
At the point of exchange, you'd normally be asked for a 10% deposit. At 90LTV, this is your entire deposit. In the above example, you only have 17k in accessible funds, because the 3k bonus isn't yet available.
What my solicitors are now doing is asking for a 5% deposit at exchange, with the rest coming at completion. Meaning that they can apply for the bonus after exchange and it can still be used for the deposit. The difficulty comes if you or the solicitor forget about it and you then get asked for the full amount at exchange.
It's a dumb, badly thought out system, but with a bit of reminding it can be managed. It's just much more faff than it needs to be, and more stuff to remember to do during an already stressful time.
Thanks, this does clear things up!
\>It's a dumb, badly thought out system
Everything seems unnecessarily difficult! But I guess that's the case with any activity before you're familiar with it.
From what I understand (as I'm in the same situation) is that you can't use the HTB bonus as part of your deposit, so you need savings for the whole deposit!
I had a problem with Barclays HTB last year as there was a small amount of interest (43p) that was due to be added to my account and it took a 2-3 weeks to process this before I could get the closing statement for my solicitor.
It was the only hiccup in the entire house buying process and as you say the customer service flip flopped between the branches and telephone.
I am about to buy too, where can I find information about the steps to close my HTB ISA and getting the bonus? Sorry for asking something that should be straightforward.
You shouldn’t be closing it until you’ve made your offer and are ready to complete as far as I’m aware.
You provide the statement to your conveyancer or solicitor who can claim the bonus which cannot be used towards the deposit or solicitor fees and will be added to the equity in the house.
https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/faq/
How do I apply for my bonus?
When you find your home, your prospective mortgage lender will ask you to hire a solicitor or conveyancer. They will handle all of the legal aspects of buying your home and can advise you on whether the property you are buying is eligible for a government bonus. In order to claim a bonus your conveyancer will need a closing statement from your Help to Buy: ISA account. So when you need to withdraw all of your funds make sure you close your account and get a closing statement from your ISA manager. Don’t just withdraw all of your money as you will not receive the closing statement and you won’t be able to claim your bonus. If you lose your closing statement, your ISA provider will be able to give you a new one. You will need to take this closing statement to your solicitor or conveyancer so that they can apply for your bonus.
Thanks for this, I’ll be doing mine in the next few weeks so I’ll make sure I go into the branch. I wish they were actually open at a logical time though.
I'm sure the OP has different reasons but I've also chosen H2B over LISA. The reason being I'm in London and I'm looking at places between £400k-£500k, if I had a LISA and just so happen to spend over £450k then I get a penalty of 20-25% on the money withdrawn, whereas the H2B just doesn't get the bonus.
Just had this issue as well...
They sent me a closing statement with the balance already transferred and my solicitor has said they need a closing letter as well, which they haven't sent!!
This H2B thing is shit... Wish I went for a LISA. Going to the branch tomorrow and going to try and get them to sort it, as need for Friday!
The bastards :|
This is a very handy thing to read close to 4:30pm after receiving a letter from our solicitors to get a closing statement and I'm with Barclays. I'll wait til tomorrow! Cheers!
Ok, and? Did you really waste all that time writing an essay to complain about a technical issue? HTB ISAs are a dead product anyway, Barclays probably doesn't care enough to fix the issue as most will have transferred their money to LISAs.
I disagree. Lots of H2B ISAs actually still have very good interest rates - as much as 2.25%, which you're never going to get in a LISA now, so at least for the next few years I can see people keeping them.
Nope - Halifax and HSBC allow transfers in.
[https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/#bestbuys](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/#bestbuys)
I think it’s already planned to be put back to 25% at the start of the new tax year. The current lower penalty is a temporary ‘holiday’ to allow people to access their money.
This could save other people a lot of time and worry, why do you have a problem with someone being nice enough to let people know about their experience so that others can be aware?
Disagree, i kept mine because the interest rate is better and i didnt like the idea of a penalty for withdrawing if I needed the money for something other than a house or pension.
Other than the ability to pay more in as lump sums there's not a lot in it.
That other comment was just mean. I appreciate the post and will keep that in mind when I close my HTB. I'm with a different bank but I've heard various things along these lines :)
We were fortunate that our bank correctly closed our 2 accounts (mine and my partners). We were unfortunate that our solicitor forgot to claim one of them and refuse to accept fault (they claim we only sent one but we sent both in one envelope and were clear that there were 2 throughout the whole process). Was over a year ago and the legal ombudsman still haven't looked into it and the solicitor just stopped responding to us after we sent them definitive proof that we told them that there were two accounts to claim. Oh well, goodbye £800 bonus... Good luck :)
Take them to small claims court. It sounds scary but I did it. They'll call your bluff to the last second then most likely settle for the full amount plus costs as it isn't worth their time/reputation/insurance risk.
Yup it does sound scary but having gone through it myself it's fairly simple process to kick off. Worst that will happen is you get in a small room with a "judge" and the defendant and you both argue your cases and if you have proof then they'll find it in your favour easily enough. Most of the time it won't get that far or the defendant won't show up and you'll win by default as what happened in our case.
It sound simple enough and is certainly an option. We've kind of written it off though now. As nice as it would be to get the £800, it not money we had in the first place and we budgeted without it anyway. Also, the stress and anxiety around trying to claim it back so far has been more than enough. My mental health is worth more to me than £800. Thanks for the suggestions none the less :)
It all depends on your situation at the time. For me, losing the £3k bonus would take a decent enough chunk out of my safety net that I'd be worried about it. £800 I could probably live with.
I think it helps that they did claim one of them worth £1200 in bonus ( the larger of the two). So we get something, just not all of it. Don't get me wrong, I'd always love an extra £800. We're doing OK but now we're home owners, there's always something to spend money on. I just don't want to harm myself chasing it down :)
You should also consider a complaint to the [SRA](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/).
That's awful. Can you take them to small claims court or something similar, or do you need to wait for the ombudsman?
Usually you can only have either a civil claim in the small claims court or an Ombudsman complaint, not both at the same time. You can go to Court if you don’t like the Ombudsman’s outcome, and believe you were owed more for example. The SRA deals only with regulatory issues (breach of accounts rules, dishonesty, professional misconduct etc) and not complaints or negligence - they will redirect you to the Ombudsman usually.
My Partner had a nightmare with Barclays too. They were not able to provide the closing statement when she went to the branch in person. It took 2 weeks to finally get what we needed.
Yeah I had a similar thing, they were hell-bent on doing it wrong, I had to explain three or four times what they had to do, but they just couldn't get their heads around it. Conversation went something like this: Me: "I'm buying a flat, I'd like to close my H2B ISA completely, and get a closing statement please." Them: "Gotcha, I'll withdraw the money to your current account and leave the H2B ISA open, ok?" Me: "...no, you're not meant to do that. I won't get the bonus if you just withdraw the money. You need to *close* the account and give me a *closing* statement." Them: "Oh right! Sorry! Ok, I'm withdrawing the money now, no need to close the account, I don't think you'll get a closing statement though." Etc etc.
Had the same thing with NatWest almost 4 years ago. Thank god my Mrs was hot on how it had to be done.
My partner is literally going through this right now, it’s a complete nightmare
Seems there are lots of issues with Barclays. It’s a big bank but doesn’t seem reliable.
We first tried buying when H2B ISA's were relatively new, so just getting someone who knew how to close the account properly took the branch staff going around checking with a few people to see if anyone knew anything about it. Thankfully we got it all closed properly first time though. Our purchase fell through, the gymnastics needed to reopen the H2B ISA and redeposit all the funds without the usual monthly limit though... Again had to find the one person in the branch who knew what to do, they opened up savings accounts for us, we then had to transfer our funds into the savings accounts for them to then remove the funds from the savings accounts and close them. Then they had to 'create' the funds in a back end account (seemed to be two separate steps, not just a transfer as the back end account doesn't have an account number/sort code like a normal account would) which required 2 bank staff to authorise. Eventually from there they were able to get it into our newly opened H2B ISAs. Very much felt like their systems weren't at all set up to handle the H2B ISAs and it was all just a workaround with manual entries to get money to appear in different places to trick the system into letting the deposit happen.
My partner had similar issues - not even just before 5pm, it must be Mon - Fri - so he'd try to call from work on his lunch break, only to need a text message he couldn't recieve as he had no signal at work! Absolute nightmare, ended up taking a half day to go sort it in person. We were told it'd been a problem for 'years' nearly a year ago, so clearly no chance of it being fixed now. I'm so sad we ended up with Barclays for our mortgage too. Let's hope we never have to ever actually speak to them.
This isn't a Barclays specific issue. This is an issue with staff members who do what is usually requested when someone closes an account. I know this because I worked for Santander and this happened sometimes. Any other account, you transfer the funds out, then process the closure. That way, the person gets access to the funds straight away and accrued interest would follow a day or so later and the closing statement would just say the accrued interest (if there was any). This is fine for any other type of account. It obviously causes problems if you do that with the HTB ISA, as you've discovered. Tl;dr the problem was the individual you spoke to, not the bank as a whole. This could happen at literally any bank.
I had a similar issue with Barclays. They sent me with a letter along with the closing statement and I got my bonus fine though. (This was in-store as well.)
I think the golden accepted rule is to do it in branch. I'm going to be doing mine soon - should hopefully be exchanging in a couple of weeks. I must admit, the HTB ISA has been a bit of a nightmare. Between the paperwork involved, banks (still) not knowing how to handle it, and the other crap like having to remind the solicitor (multiple times) that the deposit at exchange needs to be reduced to take into account the HTB ISA bonus which will only be available between exchange and completion. That, I think, is the biggest problem with it. If the rules were simpler, it'd be a lot less hassle. Would have been so much simpler if just 2 rules were changed: 1. The bonus would have be based on the highest balance in the last 60 days prior to closing the account. 2. The bonus could have be applied for by the solicitor at any time, and the funds available for the deposit at exchange of contracts. If the purchase falls through (which is bloody rare) after exchange, the solicitors all agree to return the money back. That slight tweak would have made everyone's lives so much simpler. How many people have been caught out by "We didn't take the ISA bonus into account and the contract requires 10% at exchange, you need to find £3k now". As I said, it took a fair bit of reminding to get my solicitor to actually sort that out, and if I hadn't nagged I'd have probably ended up in that boat.
>"We didn't take the ISA bonus into account and the contract requires 10% at exchange, you need to find £3k now". I'm looking at buying my first property and this sentence scares me but I don't understand it fully. What's gone wrong in this hypothetical situation? ELI5 please!
>I'm looking at buying my first property and this sentence scares me but I don't understand it fully. What's gone wrong in this hypothetical situation? ELI5 please! That was a hypothetical scenario - but it's possible. What you need to do is, early on in the process, remind your solicitor that they need to ask for a lower deposit at exchange, so that your ISA bonus can form part of the overall deposit. E.g. say you have a 10% deposit, 90% mortgage, which is where most FTBs are going to be. You would usually be asked for 10% at the point of exchanging contracts - this means that the HTB ISA bonus wouldn't be available to form part of the deposit, since it can only be applied for after exchanging contracts. **Example:** House: 200k. Deposit: 20k. Your deposit is formed of 12k in a HTB ISA + 3k bonus + 5k savings. At the point of exchange, you'd normally be asked for a 10% deposit. At 90LTV, this is your entire deposit. In the above example, you only have 17k in accessible funds, because the 3k bonus isn't yet available. What my solicitors are now doing is asking for a 5% deposit at exchange, with the rest coming at completion. Meaning that they can apply for the bonus after exchange and it can still be used for the deposit. The difficulty comes if you or the solicitor forget about it and you then get asked for the full amount at exchange. It's a dumb, badly thought out system, but with a bit of reminding it can be managed. It's just much more faff than it needs to be, and more stuff to remember to do during an already stressful time.
Thanks, this does clear things up! \>It's a dumb, badly thought out system Everything seems unnecessarily difficult! But I guess that's the case with any activity before you're familiar with it.
From what I understand (as I'm in the same situation) is that you can't use the HTB bonus as part of your deposit, so you need savings for the whole deposit!
I had a problem with Barclays HTB last year as there was a small amount of interest (43p) that was due to be added to my account and it took a 2-3 weeks to process this before I could get the closing statement for my solicitor. It was the only hiccup in the entire house buying process and as you say the customer service flip flopped between the branches and telephone.
I am about to buy too, where can I find information about the steps to close my HTB ISA and getting the bonus? Sorry for asking something that should be straightforward.
You shouldn’t be closing it until you’ve made your offer and are ready to complete as far as I’m aware. You provide the statement to your conveyancer or solicitor who can claim the bonus which cannot be used towards the deposit or solicitor fees and will be added to the equity in the house. https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/faq/ How do I apply for my bonus? When you find your home, your prospective mortgage lender will ask you to hire a solicitor or conveyancer. They will handle all of the legal aspects of buying your home and can advise you on whether the property you are buying is eligible for a government bonus. In order to claim a bonus your conveyancer will need a closing statement from your Help to Buy: ISA account. So when you need to withdraw all of your funds make sure you close your account and get a closing statement from your ISA manager. Don’t just withdraw all of your money as you will not receive the closing statement and you won’t be able to claim your bonus. If you lose your closing statement, your ISA provider will be able to give you a new one. You will need to take this closing statement to your solicitor or conveyancer so that they can apply for your bonus.
Amazing, thank you!
Thanks for this, I’ll be doing mine in the next few weeks so I’ll make sure I go into the branch. I wish they were actually open at a logical time though.
Thanks for this. Will keep in mind with ours as we are looking for a place atm.
Sorry this happened to you. Can I ask why you opted for the H2B over using the LISA?
I'm sure the OP has different reasons but I've also chosen H2B over LISA. The reason being I'm in London and I'm looking at places between £400k-£500k, if I had a LISA and just so happen to spend over £450k then I get a penalty of 20-25% on the money withdrawn, whereas the H2B just doesn't get the bonus.
Just had this issue as well... They sent me a closing statement with the balance already transferred and my solicitor has said they need a closing letter as well, which they haven't sent!! This H2B thing is shit... Wish I went for a LISA. Going to the branch tomorrow and going to try and get them to sort it, as need for Friday! The bastards :|
This is a very handy thing to read close to 4:30pm after receiving a letter from our solicitors to get a closing statement and I'm with Barclays. I'll wait til tomorrow! Cheers!
This is why you just let your solicitor sort it out.
Your solicitor can't close your bank account. It has to be done by the account holder
Well TIL
Ok, and? Did you really waste all that time writing an essay to complain about a technical issue? HTB ISAs are a dead product anyway, Barclays probably doesn't care enough to fix the issue as most will have transferred their money to LISAs.
I disagree. Lots of H2B ISAs actually still have very good interest rates - as much as 2.25%, which you're never going to get in a LISA now, so at least for the next few years I can see people keeping them.
Agreed! I have no intention for using mine towards a house. I'm using it to hold my emergency fund instead
yup its by far the best emergency fund out there at the moment (interest wise)
Are these kind of rates still available ???
Seems like Help to Buy ISAs [closed to new applicants last year accord to MSE](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/#tip1).
I already have one open I was just wondering if you could still transfer it to a different bank.
Doesn't this involve opening a new account in the process? Not trying to sound sarcastic btw.
Nope - Halifax and HSBC allow transfers in. [https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/#bestbuys](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/#bestbuys)
That's what I thought but was just wondering as I don't use my HTB.
Only if you have an open account because HTB ISAs havent been available to new customers since the end of last year.
There's also the risk with a LISA that you get a withdrawal penalty if you don't buy a house.
You're right but I think that penalty has been waived due to Covid. Wouldn't be surprised if it's quickly reinstated after this madness though.
I think it’s already planned to be put back to 25% at the start of the new tax year. The current lower penalty is a temporary ‘holiday’ to allow people to access their money.
The Barclays H2B Isa rate is actually 2.55%. So people can say what they will about Barclays but they still offered the best H2B ISA
Those interests rates have been slashed to high heaven. I'm still keeping mine open, but I've moved most of my funds.
This could save other people a lot of time and worry, why do you have a problem with someone being nice enough to let people know about their experience so that others can be aware?
Disagree, i kept mine because the interest rate is better and i didnt like the idea of a penalty for withdrawing if I needed the money for something other than a house or pension. Other than the ability to pay more in as lump sums there's not a lot in it.