M&S Money 4% ISA

savit4l8er

savit4l8er wrote: »

Confirmation of transfer requests sent to current providers received on Saturday:j

One of the transfers is complete. Letter today confirmed that. The other is still waiting.

RP72

My transfer from Yorkshire Building Society completed on 15th December, but I didn't get the certificate confirming this until a few days ago.

Porcupine

I applied to transfer an ISA and to pay in my £3600 for this year.

I've just had the certificate for the transfer through and they've opened this as two accounts, with two £100 break fees. The call centre was refusing to budge on there being two fees.

I'm escalating this to a complaint. Note that there's a 30 day window for changing your mind, so be aware of this if you have to back out.

savit4l8er

Porcupine wrote: »

I applied to transfer an ISA and to pay in my £3600 for this year.

I've just had the certificate for the transfer through and they've opened this as two accounts, with two £100 break fees. The call centre was refusing to budge on there being two fees.

I'm escalating this to a complaint. Note that there's a 30 day window for changing your mind, so be aware of this if you have to back out.

After all the effort you put in before applying, they got you in a way you would never imagine. I guess that is for old money and new money, not really fair. I would not be too happy about that either. Will be careful in April should I look to them for the next tax year. Still cannot fault the politeness of the staff though, they are very well trained.

bandana999

Porcupine wrote: »

I applied to transfer an ISA and to pay in my £3600 for this year.

I've just had the certificate for the transfer through and they've opened this as two accounts, with two £100 break fees. The call centre was refusing to budge on there being two fees.

I'm escalating this to a complaint. Note that there's a 30 day window for changing your mind, so be aware of this if you have to back out.

I opened one (well I thought it was one!) for my old Auntie, with a cheque for £5100, and a transfer. She has another 1 year fixed ISA about to mature, and I was planning to transfer this as well.
When I rang, at first the rep said there was only one account, and therefore one £100 penalty, but then he said he was going to check - and then informed me he was wrong, and there were two penalties.
I have opened quite a few ISAs with cheques and transfers, and never had 2 seperate accounts before. Not too pleased.

Stompa

savit4l8er wrote: »

After all the effort you put in before applying, they got you in a way you would never imagine.

I'd have though it was so obvious that anybody would check with M&S before applying.

bandana999

Stompa wrote: »

I'd have though it was so obvious that anybody would check with M&S before applying.

Yep, so obvious that when I rang to check they didn't know themselves, so what makes you think I would have been given the correct info even if I had known I needed to ask the question before I had opened the account.
No other provider has ever opened two ISAs for me in these circumstances before, so how was I to guess this would happen, so how would I know to ask beforehand?
It's always the customers fault tho, isn't it?
"You should have read the terms and conditions, you should have asked before you opened the account, you should blah blah...."

Old_Slaphead

Porcupine wrote: »

I applied to transfer an ISA and to pay in my £3600 for this year.

I've just had the certificate for the transfer through and they've opened this as two accounts, with two £100 break fees. The call centre was refusing to budge on there being two fees.

I'm escalating this to a complaint. Note that there's a 30 day window for changing your mind, so be aware of this if you have to back out.

Thanks for highlighting this.

I've just spoken to them & they confirm that there are separate accounts (and fees) for each deposit/transfer.

I'm currently in the process of cancelling & unwinding all transactions under their 30 day notice period - it's a right pain so I won't be using M&S Savings again!

Stompa

bandana999 wrote: »

Yep, so obvious that when I rang to check they didn't know themselves, so what makes you think I would have been given the correct info even if I had known I needed to ask the question before I had opened the account.

I was merely suggesting that it was a pretty obvious question to ask, whether they would have known the correct answer is another matter!

The problem is that it's a fixed term ISA, so AIUI all the funds have to be in place on the start date, they can't open it with some of the funds then add to it later.

I faced a similar issue last year when I merged two ISA's from different providers into a single ISA with another provider. They ended up having to create a temporary variable rate ISA until they'd acquired all the funds, then transferred the whole lot to the fixed term ISA. I'm pretty sure that if I'd just left them to it, I'd have ended up with two separate ISAs.

Old_Slaphead

Stompa wrote: »

I faced a similar issue last year when I merged two ISA's from different providers into a single ISA with another provider. They ended up having to create a temporary variable rate ISA until they'd acquired all the funds, then transferred the whole lot to the fixed term ISA. I'm pretty sure that if I'd just left them to it, I'd have ended up with two separate ISAs.

That's petty much what M&S are saying.

The website says 'You can move the money you've saved in another Cash ISA into your M&S Cash ISA' which to me implies that it's your existing ISA and not the creation of a new one. Can't find anywhere in T&Cs where it says a new ISA will be opened for each transfer or deposit (presumably if you make several deposits each will be subject tio a break fee.

Stompa - maybe you're alert to this because you had an issue last year but many people are gonna get caught and won't be very happy.