M&S Money 4% ISA

funkyhitman

codetown wrote: »

a) They could have advertised their strict closing date also considering the Easter week-end. Or be a bit more flexible knowing that anyone who posted on the 1st would have been out just due to the easter bank holidays...
Maybe the closing date was widely known to M&S staff... but not certainly to me. When I downloaded the forms and filled them in there was no trace of this deadline on their site!
b) They could have warned applicants starting from end March of potential mail delays. Or they could have provided an alternative full address where applicants could reach with first class post.
c) They should have said clearly they would not have accepted my application on the phone on the 6th. I would not have faxed them a new copy...

I feel a company who is asking your money should treat you with more care!

M&S did advertise the closing date on their website, on the Fixed Savings page. I'm sorry you missed this.

Mail delays, especially around end of tax year and holiday weekends are common knowledge and I really don't see why M&S should mention this to their customers. They have nothing to do with the post.

Knowing I had very little time to apply, I sent my form with a 1st class stamp on to the freepost address.

Fair point about your phone call...you'd think that on the day of the new tax year they would say don't bother because issue 9 is now closed. Perhaps they thought you were applying for issue 10 though?

I'm sorry if I and others appear rude but I'm afraid you really have no grounds to blame M&S for missing the boat. You applied too late and unfortunately missed the deadline.

Good luck with wherever you put your money this tax year.

gwapenut

funkyhitman wrote: »

M&S did advertise the closing date on their website, on the Fixed Savings page. I'm sorry you missed this.

Mail delays, especially around end of tax year and holiday weekends are common knowledge and I really don't see why M&S should mention this to their customers. They have nothing to do with the post.

Knowing I had very little time to apply, I sent my form with a 1st class stamp on to the freepost address.

Fair point about your phone call...you'd think that on the day of the new tax year they would say don't bother because issue 9 is now closed. Perhaps they thought you were applying for issue 10 though?

I'm sorry if I and others appear rude but I'm afraid you really have no grounds to blame M&S for missing the boat. You applied too late and unfortunately missed the deadline.

Good luck with wherever you put your money this tax year.

Nicely put you're a bit more balanced and forgiving than me, and rightly so! Just hits on one of my pet gripes, must rein myself in sometimes!

codetown

gwapenut wrote: »

With such a good 4% offer, available since Oct 09, it would surely have been obvious that it was in danger of being withdrawn. For this reason I kept on top of my transfer andchecked and doublechecked before posting my form.

You posted on 1st April, prior to a long Bank Holiday that preceded the beginning of the new tax year. Certainly even if most people don't doublecheck availability before posting an application, it's always worth checking when a new tax year is starting as that is a natural point for a product deadline.

The whole point is that not everyone checks offers every day. I felt my ISA was not acceptable anymore after a very recent drop in rate. I only started looking for a new ISA at the end of March... so that the offer was available since October 09 I had no idea.

When I saw the M&S ISA offer and decided it was good for me, I simply download the forms from their website (where there was no warning of any type) and filled them in. I posted them within two days, confident the letter would arrive to them soon. Had totally forgot about the long week-end and the possible postal delays (otherwise I would have called them or faxed the form earlier). I still don't understand why they would decide to have a strict deadline on a Monday bank Holiday....

An intelligent business person would have at least chosen to accept all the applications arrived on Tuesday 6th (first working day after 5 days!). I don't see why accepting old applications for their previous product could have interfered with their newly launched Issue 10...nor I can see why the start of the new tax year should be a natural deadline for a product end. In fact I don't think any other bank has chosen the 5th April as a product deadline.

In any case I am now hunting for another ISA around.
Certainly will not be interested in hearing from M&S anymore for this or other investments! This is the outcome after all and a business should never be happy when a customer walks away saying he will never come back!!

savetilibleed

codetown wrote: »

In any case I am now hunting for another ISA around.
Certainly will not be interested in hearing from M&S anymore for this or other investments! This is the outcome after all and a business should never be happy when a customer walks away saying he will never come back!!

If it's a three year account you are after, have a look (quickly!) at the Northern Rock 3 year Stepped Rate ISA. The amount of interest at the end of three years is slightly more than with the 4% M&S ex-offering. Though larger get out penalties - 120 days loss of interest. I have that transfer pending right now, as I missed the second chance at the M&S 4% though have one ISA there.

bob_a_builder

In fact I don't think any other bank has chosen the 5th April as a product deadline.

Since the new tax year starts on the 6th, I think it a natural deadline for any/all financial company to use

codetown

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Since the new tax year starts on the 6th, I think it a natural deadline for any/all financial company to use

No other bank has chosen this particular day for a closing down a product line. And there is no reason to do that at all!
All the interesting ISA offers, like Yorkshire Bank or Northern Rock etc, ALL have continued a few days into the new tax year.

In fact given M&S accepted delayed money transfers in (i.e. also ISA for 2010/2011) and will have to cope with it somehow, it looks (to me) even more stupid to put a strict deadline on the 5th.
The situation is so bad that is likely M&S will have accepted in Issue 10 transfers whose application might have arrived by post on the 2nd April but cannot be initiated before the 20-25 April (as reported on this forum itself!), but refused transfers arriving on the 6th April that could have been acted immediately!

savetilibleed

codetown wrote: »

No other bank has chosen this particular day for a closing down a product line. And there is no reason to do that at all!
All the interesting ISA offers, like Yorkshire Bank or Northern Rock etc, ALL have continued a few days into the new tax year.

In fact given M&S accepted delayed money transfers in (i.e. also ISA for 2010/2011) and will have to cope with it somehow, it looks (to me) even more stupid to put a strict deadline on the 5th.
The situation is so bad that is likely M&S will have accepted in Issue 10 transfers whose application might have arrived by post on the 2nd April but cannot be initiated before the 20-25 April (as reported on this forum itself!), but refused transfers arriving on the 6th April that could have been acted immediately!

But the 6 April was the day the new Issue was effective! I'm sure I remember seeing on the website in that changeover period leading up to 6 April that after pressing the Apply now button there was a note that applications needed to be with them by some date late in March (27th?). Obviously can't check now! It might have been reasonable for your form to have been there on 31 March as there was one more business day before the long Easter break.

The time it takes to carry out a transfer is mainly down to the current holding bank, once the destination bank have applied to them. So if they had applied on 1 April - maybe.

In the case of my transfer from Halifax to M&S, the application was posted on 15 March, they got it on 18 March, the money was out of my Halifax account on 27 March and M&S recieved it on 30 March and opened the account on 31 March, backdating to 30 March.

So pretty nifty both banks, at a time when demand on ISA staff is high. When M&S wrote on 19 March saying they had sent off to Halifax that day, they said if the transfer doesn't complete in 14 days they write again then, and again in 21 days.

Another fixed ISA is going down effective from 15 April - that is Julian Hodge Bank

gwapenut

savetilibleed wrote: »

I'm sure I remember seeing on the website in that changeover period leading up to 6 April that after pressing the Apply now button there was a note that applications needed to be with them by some date late in March (27th?). Obviously can't check now!

Oh yes we can! Google's cache is our friend. Seems pretty prominent, in bold!

To be fair to codetown though I think you could also directly download application forms via a side-bar menu so perhaps he/she was unfortunate and managed to get all the forms without passing via this warning.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MyOBpc6yQz0J:money.marksandspencer.com/save-invest/fixed-rate-savings/apply/

Fixed Rate Savings Application

Please note that Issue 9 of our Fixed Rate Savings product will close shortly. A new issue offering different interest rates is due to launch on 6 April 2010. Please call 0808 00 22 222 on or after 6 April for further details.
If you wish to make a deposit at the current rate of interest please ensure we receive your postal applications on or before 29 March 2010 to allow us to process it before the new Issue 10 is launched. You can apply online up until 1pm on the 5 April, alternatively, you can apply over the phone until 4pm on 5 April by calling the above number.

codetown

gwapenut wrote: »

To be fair to codetown though I think you could also directly download application forms via a side-bar menu so perhaps he/she was unfortunate and managed to get all the forms without passing via this warning.

I never saw this page. It was probably only shown to people who could apply online. I am 100% sure I passed via the description page where it explained that those making a transfer-only had to fill in a transfer form and there was a link to a pdf page with this form to be filled in. That is all I had at the time I applied.
I would certainly had chosen an online application if that was available. But it wasn't there for transfers!
I would have loved the option to forget the paper and make all the application process online (as it seems to be now the case).

triplea35

I applied towards the end of March and recently had a letter saying the they would be contacting First Direct to transfer my existing ISA. Other years ISA's are locked away in fixed term accounts at reasonable rates but last years allowance for my wife and I were in a Fixed rate regular saving account.
I had stated on the M&S application for the transfer to be the 16th April(on maturity)
Looking on the First Direct site today I see that it actually matured yesterday - 14th- and the interest has been added. I am aware that on maturity First Direct would transfer it to a standard rate variable cash Isa (with very poor rate) which appears to have been done as the online account shows that I could deposit this years £5100 allowance.
I have deposited this years allowance into both our accounts which as it was a transfer from our current account has cleared immediately.
I seem to recall someone discussing this earlier but cant locate it now, What do people think, will M&S accept the full amounts?