Natwest / Icesave ISA

MM46

Is anyone else having trouble after posting cheque plus ISA reinstatement cerificate to NatWest? Husband and I had both tried to transfer our ISAs from Icesave to Natwest just before Icesave went bust. We eventually got letters from NatWest Central Tax Unit with addressed envelopes to send our cheques plus the ISA certificates in. We sent these to NatWest over a week ago, but the cheques haven't been debited from our account and it seems nobody at NatWest can advise us whether they've received them or not as the Central Tax Unit does not seem to be contactable. After all the worry we have already been through with Icesave money this is yet another worry.

labp04

You may not find this very helpful - but! Your story is exactly the same as ours. We sent off our first transfer certificate, cheque and account details on the 12th of December and to-date we have heard nothing not even has the cheque has been cashed. Rang a helpful lady at our local NatWest last Wednesday the 17th of December and agreed to wait until today. Have just spoken to the same lady who told me that the NatWest Central Tax Unit were not accepting calls even internally and that she would raise my concerns as a complaint. She expects to ring me back later today or tomorrow morning. Maybe you could do something similar? Strikes me as being no wonder that this darned bank was/is on its knees!

MM46

Thanks for reply. I phoned again today and raised it as a complaint after I had been given the run around on Friday. They are going to raise it with CTU but could not guarantee when I will get a reply. Pretty useless aren't they!

fox7522

Myself and my sister are in exactly the same position, have raised a complaint with customer services today, and they are going to investigate and
reply within 24 hours. I am not too hopeful about this situation.:mad:

Reaper

Same situation - cheque not cashed yet. Was starting to wonder if it had been lost in the post.

sympatex

Ah, i went into the branch to open my Natwest ISA with them. The manager opened it all their end and i gave them the certificate and cheque, nothing has happened for me either but it's only been about 4working days. I'll let you know how mine goes. I couldn't open an ISA online as it needed me to deposit somthing in it first which i couldn't ask i've filled my allowance fort he year.

Also their transfer booklet i needed to fill in didn't have enough space to put in the total sum of the isa nor did it allow to deposit more than 3600. All very tricky.

spadey

I went into the branch and took in my cheque and certficate as was a bit dubious about sending it off. The cheque was cashed straight away but only £3600 went into the ISA, the rest went into the saver attached to the ISA so am hoping that when the certficate comes through that it will transfer the rest in? Though am not convinced by Natwest. What is more concerning is that Natwest wanted the original certficate so fingers crossed they don't lose it and it makes its way to the CTU!

cottager

I know it won't help, but there are reports from other providers (Halifax in my case, but pretty sure it's been mentioned in connection with other banks and b/socs too) that they're snowed under with transfers-in from Icesave customers and working through a backlog -- I imagine because the FSCS certificates came out mostly in large 'lumps', so equally large batches of customers hit their new providers at once as well, going in with their certificates or posting them off at roughly the same time.

That's no real excuse for not taking calls or not being able to ensure a consistent explanation is provided to customers, but it could be a reason. Add in the Christmas postal rush, and well.... just more reasons to worry, I agree.

Spadey, hope NatWest provided you with a copy of the certificate, if they kept the original? I gather Halifax haven't been doing that, but taking a copy of the certificate and handing the original back to customers. This didn't apply to me, as I chose to post to head office by Special Delivery rather than use the local branch (who seemed a bit clueless), so in view of that there was no alternative but to send the original certificate; but made a couple of copies for myself before mailing.

MM46

Good news! The Icesave transfers appeared on both my husband's and my Natwest ISA accounts this morning (dated 22/12) though the amounts still haven't been debited from our current bank account. I didn't get a phone call back though.
:T

cosmetichamster

Congratulations MM46! My case is exactly the same as yours, except for that my account still shows no transfer as of this morning. I am starting to worry, not least because their Central Tax Unit cannot be contacted (no phone number or email address on their correspondence)....
Cottager may be spot on re. the likely backlog, but it is not reassuring that apparently no-one at Natwest has any idea when faced with concerned customers. I will phone their customer services today and report back. At least I took a copy of that blessed certificate before posting.
Will this ICESAVE nightmare ever end, I wonder?

LGG_2

went into the branch and took in my cheque and certficate as was a bit dubious about sending it off. The cheque was cashed straight away but only £3600 went into the ISA, the rest went into the saver attached to the ISA so am hoping that when the certficate comes through that it will transfer the rest in? Though am not convinced by Natwest. What is more concerning is that Natwest wanted the original certficate so fingers crossed they don't lose it and it makes its way to the CTU!

exactly the same here. i created a thread about it the other day. i was told the stupid cashier put the cheque straight into my account instead of giving it to the guy who was opening my ISA for me and thats why only 3600 went into the account instead of the full transfer amount from icesave. went in yesterday and the guy said he was aware of the problem and would be asking the tax office to sort it and reinburse the intrest. tbh. ive heard nothing but bad thing about natwest and the customer service at my branch seem pretty clueless.hopefully once this is sorted i wont have to talk to them again until i transfer to another isa in a years time