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Suppose I've opened a cash ISA this tax year, and I top it up every month. It's not yet reached the yearly maximum of £15,240.

As I understand it, I can't open a second cash ISA this tax year, but I can open a stocks and shares ISA, so long as I don't invest more than £15,240 between the two.

Can I open a Help To Buy aka First Time Buyer's ISA? (obviously assuming I meet the first time buyer's criteria) I'm not sure if they count as Cash, or a third type, or if some are Cash and some are Stocks & Shares.

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As per user568458's answer the Help To Buy ISA does count as a cash ISA.

However, it's worth noting that some providers count all of your "cash ISAs" with them as one ISA for the purposes of the one-per-year limit. This means you may be able to pay into both a Help To Buy ISA and a standard cash ISA in the same year with the same provider, depending of course on your provider.

For example, the Nationwide Building Society's Help To Buy ISA information includes this text:

(You can contribute to another Nationwide cash ISA product at the same time, as long as you don't exceed your total ISA tax-free savings allowance each year.)

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I found the answer in an official government document, titled Help to Buy: ISA scheme outline

3.9 As is currently the case, it will only be possible for a saver to subscribe to one cash ISA per year. It will therefore not be possible for an account holder to subscribe to a Help to Buy: ISA with one provider, and another cash ISA with a different provider.

It doesn't explicitly say that all HTB ISAs are a sub type of cash ISA in so many words, but this isn't the only section to very strongly imply it:

3.7 Saving into a Help to Buy: ISA will also be very similar to saving into any other cash ISA account...

It's consistently talked about as if it's a sub-type of cash ISA.

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You can have a HTB ISA and Cash ISA with certain providers - restrictions are that HTB and Cash ISA must be with the same provider.

Other UK portfolio providers are:

  • Nationwide
  • Aldermore
  • NatWest
  • Ulster Bank
  • Newcastle Building Society

Source: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-ISA#aldermore

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