Lifetime ISAs are designed for first-time home buyers who want to boost their house fund, or people retiring over the age of 60 who want to boost their pension. There are some other eligibility rules that apply. To open a Lifetime ISA, you must:

Be a UK resident Be between 18 – 39 years old Be a first-time buyer Buy a property in the UK, for less than £450,000 Buy with a mortgage (i.e. you can’t pay for it in full upfront) Live in the property once you buy it (no Buy to Let mortgages) Have your Lifetime ISA open for at least 12 months before you withdraw your money

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

If you withdraw your money for any other reason than buying your first home or for retirement once you’re 60, you’ll have to pay an early withdrawal charge of 25% to the government. This means you would get back less than you paid in, as you’d lose the government bonus and pay the government an extra £6.25 for every £100 you deposited.

Yes, absolutely. If you already have a LISA, you can transfer your funds to us to take advantage of the higher interest rate. Transferring will only take a few minutes in the Tembo app, and your money will land in the account in 4-6 weeks (depending on how speedy your old provider is!)

You can only pay into one Cash Lifetime ISA or one Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA every tax year (April 6th to April 5th). So if you have paid into one Lifetime ISA already this tax year, but want to open and pay into another one, you can either transfer your funds to us, or wait until the new tax year begins on April 6th.

Yes, it’s super easy to transfer your savings to a Tembo Lifetime ISA, plus you’ll benefit from our market-leading interest rate! It only takes a few minutes to sign up through our app. Make sure you select the ‘I already have a LISA’ when you get to that stage. We’ll then send you a form via email that you can fill in electronically (you’ll need to know your account number and current provider’s details) then we take care of the rest.

Please note that it can take up to 6 weeks for your funds to reach us from your current provider.

You can withdraw money when you are buying your first home. The funds are transferred to the solicitor (conveyancer) who is advising you on your home purchase. You can also withdraw funds when you reach the age of 60.

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

You always have access to your money (subject to a notice period) but if you withdraw your money for any other reason than buying your first home or for retirement once you’re 60, you’ll have to pay an early withdrawal charge of 25% to the government. This means you would get back less than you paid in, as you’d lose the government bonus and pay the government an extra £6.25 for every £100 you deposited.

Yes, if you are both first-time buyers and each have a Lifetime ISA open for at least 12 months, you can both use your Lifetime ISAs to buy a house together. With the Tembo Lifetime ISA app, you can use our team up feature to combine your deposits together and get double the 25% bonus!

If you’re buying a house with someone who isn’t a first-time buyer, they won’t be able to use a Lifetime ISA towards the house purchase. However, you will still be able to use your Lifetime ISA towards the purchase. This is because Lifetime ISAs are tied to people, not properties.

With the Tembo Lifetime ISA, your savings are held in a banking-level security account and are also protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This means that if one of the banks we partner with to hold your Cash Lifetime ISA money were to go into default, your money would be protected through the FSCS, up to £85,000 (per eligible person, per bank).

Similarly, if you have a Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA, the units held are in a fund managed by BlackRock Fund Managers Limited. This is an FCA ‘approved’ fund and the units held are FSCS protected, up to a value of £85,000.

Tembo is also authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and as such abides by strict governance and compliance rules.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (also known as FSCS) is the financial institution that protects your money when the authorised financial services firms that hold your funds go out of business and can’t pay your money back. It was set up by the government and is independent from other financial institutions like banks. Through the FSCS your funds are protected up to a value of £85,000.

Please note, Tembo does not hold your LISA savings - instead, they are held by our partner banks. If these banks were to go under, you could be entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 (per person, per institution) through the FSCS.

There are a couple of different figures on this page, so we thought we’d explain how we’ve worked them out.

Over 5-years that simple switch would increase your deposit by an extra £622 versus the next best available rate. This is based on saving the maximum amount in a Lifetime ISA each year, with a 4.3% AER (variable) interest rate paid monthly, in comparison to the next best available rate (currently with Moneybox) at 4.25% for the first year, then dropping to 3.5% afterwards.