Halifax ISA Saver Direct transfer

foreversummer

Hi

I wonder if any of you good people can make sense of this for me.

My husband is trying to transfer an existing cash ISA with IF to the Halifax Saver Direct. We were told by them that he had to open the Saver Direct first with an opening deposit, then fill in the transfer forms.

He had a letter of 23rd January to say the account had been opened but no mention of the transfer.

Now this morning he had a letter to say that he has to take documents to the branch to prove who he is.

What I don't understand is a paragraph in this letter, and I wonder if anyone knows what it means:

"IMPORTANT: Please be aware that your Direct ISA Saver should be funded within fourteen days, unless the funds are being provided from another financial organisation. If this is an ISA transfer to the Halifax then please do not add any funds to your ISA personally, as under Inland Revenue regulations your transfer to the Halifax will be rejected and your will lose your entitlement. Our ISA Transfer Team will complete all transfer of funds once the transfer form has been received, notification of its completion will be issued once your new account is open."

He has already funded his ISA with an opening deposit of £5! I told them that we wanted to transfer an ISA. Also, I don't understand the relevance of the fourteen days.

Any ideas?

grumbler

foreversummer wrote:

We were told by them that he had to open the Saver Direct first with an opening deposit, then fill in the transfer forms.

This was a wrong advice. You don't have to make an opening deposit if you transfer ISA from other provider. When I did this I just submitted application form, transfer form and proofs of ID and address.

He has already funded his ISA with an opening deposit of £5!

It was a mistake if he already paid money to another ISA this financial year, particularly if he already paid full £3k allowance. Ask Halifax how to rectify this.

Also, I don't understand the relevance of the fourteen days.

I don't understand too.

Milarky

'Fourteen days' could be a reference to a 'cooling-off' period during which a customer may withdraw from an 'investment' without the contract having deemed to apply.

In this case (an instant-access cash ISA) however, there would be no loss after fourteen days anyway since the customer retains both the right to access their own money without penalty and to transfer the account to another provider.

There is also a 'last in first out' principle where opening a second ISA in the same tax year is concerned, I believe. In other words, the £5 would be returned but the already subscribed-to ISA for 2005/06 is not affected.

foreversummer

Thank you for your replies.

I have talked to the Halifax today (they won't talk to me about my husband's account specifically - he's not here today), but it does appear that we were wrongly informed to open the account with an initial deposit.

We are going to go to our local branch tomorrow (about 25 miles away, hence the need for an ISA Direct!), to try to sort it out. The customer services adviser today says that we should withdraw the £5 deposit and ask for the transfer forms to transfer the current ISA. We will of course take identification documents etc.

Regarding the transfer itself, does anyone know if we need to take anything with us other than the Intelligent Finance account number and the amount of what is deposited there?

Once again your thoughts much appreciated.

Best wishes

jem16

I'm in the process of transferring from If.com to the Halifax. I just provided the Jar number. So far it's taken 5 weeks to transfer this but I think something's actually happening now as when I login to If.com my ISA jar is no longer there.

grumbler

foreversummer wrote:

...Regarding the transfer itself, does anyone know if we need to take anything with us other than the Intelligent Finance account number and the amount of what is deposited there?...

As far as I remember you need sort code and account number to fill in the trasfer form. I phoned IF for these detailes.

alwin

I have just finished doing the exact same transfer. If you go into a branch I would advise you to check CAREFULLY what the staff member puts on the form. The airhead who did mine apparently entered the wrong bank details, and the forms came back to me to rectify. The whole transfer took around 8 weeks !!! Only good thing is you don't loose any interest they pay up to the moment of transfer. Amazing, they are the same organisation!.

foreversummer

Thank you for your replies and help.

I have been to my local branch today, where they advised me to withdraw the initial £5.00 deposit so that we can transfer the old ISA into the account.

However, I have one further question to anyone who has a Saver Direct. If you want to deposit and withdraw funds can you do so directly into an external current account, or do you have to have the current account with the Halifax? They almost bullied me into a current account, but when I said no and asked if I could deposit and withdraw into my existing current account with HSBC they could not give me a straight answer. Needless to say, I have not completed the transfer forms yet.

I really can't have the hassle of setting up another account with them.

Beginning to get abit cheesed off with the whole thing!

Many thanks

YorkshireBoy

@foreversummer

You can make deposits from an external current account using your ISA sort code & account number. You may also need to quote your roll number.

See grumbler's post #11 re withdrawals.

regularsaver1

yes you can transfer in and out, - but it will take a few days rather than same day with an internal account

grumbler

foreversummer wrote:

If you want to deposit and withdraw funds can you do so directly into an external current account, or do you have to have the current account with the Halifax?

This account has a sort code and a number, hence you can easily transfer money into this account from any other account. I already made transfers into my account.
You can transfer money from ISA SAVER only to other Halifax accounts. The easiest way is to open Halivax Web Saver. When you register for online banking, you can open it instantly online. From a Web Sever you can transfer money to any external account.