Who messed up my ISA - me, HSBC or Halifax??

skyjumper

Hi guys,

looking for some advice.

background info- had an ISA with HSBC for 2008-09 for £3600.
opened a new ISA on 10th May 09 with Halifax with a payment of £100 and a request for transfer of my ISA from HSBC. HSBC transferred £3737.44( 3600 plus interest) to this account on 16th June 09. I added another 3500 to this account in June.

Now I have got a letter from Halifax

A recent internal audit has revealed that you have subscribed to an invalid combination of ISA's for this tax year.

A cheque was received for £3737.44 from HSBC on the 16th June 2009. Documentation received from HSBC states that you have made a payment of 2.94 to this account on the 4th June 09.You have already made payments of £100 to Halifax ISA Acct No.xx xx commencing on 3oth May 09.

Unfortunately we are therefore unable to accept your transfer from HSBC and must return these funds as your HAlifax ISA was funded the earliest. We advise that you contact HM Revenue & Customs on 0845 604 1701 in order to advise them on this. They may request details of your ISA contributions for this tax year. end of the letter.

Now I have tried contacting the Halifax Bank to find out where my 3737.44 has gone. it was in the ISA acct until last week, but has vanished with no trace of it being ever there. They advised me that they will look into this and will call me back.

Also contacted HSBC to be told that the £2.94 credited to my ISA acct was the interest for may 09. As the request from halifax came in the first week of June and they send the money on the 3rd of June the £2.94 was missed out. According to them Halifax has totally got it wrong. they couldn't tell me anything abt the missing 3737.44 which hasn't been send back to my HSBC acct.

I know it's been a long winded post. Just not happy with the whole thing.
Could anyone pls advice what the best course of action is - from now??

thanks for reading this and any comments really appreciated

RayWolfe

Certainly not you! Between them the banks have failed. Get in writing what HSBC transferred, present this to Halifax and I'm sure you will get it resolved. Do not take no for an answer.

alastair_h

The interest earned on the initial £100 deposit into account does not count as a contribution, unlike the subsequent deposit of £3,500.

Yes read it again, they don't think the £3,737.44 was a transfer from another ISA, they think it is 2 payments into the same tax year ISA account.

I'd say the fault lies squarely with Halifax - they have accepted the transfer from HSBC and are now flapping about like headless chickens trying to correct their c@!k up!

rb10

alastair_h wrote: »

I'd say the fault lies squarely with Halifax - they have accepted the transfer from HSBC and are now flapping about like headless chickens trying to correct their c@!k up!

Unless Halifax's claim is true (i.e. that HSBC have informed them that the £2.94 was a cash payment made by you, and not interest), in which case HSBC would have made the mistake by giving Halifax the incorrect information. At this stage it is impossible to point the blame at either bank.

I think the easiest way around this would be to speak to Halifax's ISA transfer department. Hopefully you can speak to someone who's able to see the documentation that HSBC sent to Halifax, and so double check exactly what HSBC said.

alastair_h

Yes, good point - missed that one. Surely they would have queried it at the time, sounds like funds have been in the account for a while.

What am I saying, these are banks we're talking about - stupid boy! :rotfl:

opinions4u

skyjumper wrote: »

Now I have got a letter from Halifax

A recent internal audit has revealed that you have subscribed to an invalid combination of ISA's for this tax year.

A cheque was received for £3737.44 from HSBC on the 16th June 2009. Documentation received from HSBC states that you have made a payment of 2.94 to this account on the 4th June 09.You have already made payments of £100 to Halifax ISA Acct No.xx xx commencing on 3oth May 09.

Unfortunately we are therefore unable to accept your transfer from HSBC and must return these funds as your HAlifax ISA was funded the earliest. We advise that you contact HM Revenue & Customs on 0845 604 1701 in order to advise them on this. They may request details of your ISA contributions for this tax year. end of the letter.

The good news is that they have explained their reasons for the action they've taken.

Now I have tried contacting the Halifax Bank to find out where my 3737.44 has gone. it was in the ISA acct until last week, but has vanished with no trace of it being ever there. They advised me that they will look into this and will call me back.

It will re-appear in a non-ISA account fairly shortly. Don't worry about this side of things.

Also contacted HSBC to be told that the £2.94 credited to my ISA acct was the interest for may 09. As the request from halifax came in the first week of June and they send the money on the 3rd of June the £2.94 was missed out. According to them Halifax has totally got it wrong. they couldn't tell me anything abt the missing 3737.44 which hasn't been send back to my HSBC acct.

Get HSBC to put in writing that the £2.94 is interest and nothing else. Then take it to Halifax and get them to resolve it.

I know it's been a long winded post. Just not happy with the whole thing.

I'm not surprised. It's poor!

Could anyone pls advice what the best course of action is - from now??

Get the letter from HSBC, take it to Haifax and get them to sort it.

Somebody's made a mistake. It may be that HSBC has done a manual calculation on your interest and credited it as a cash transaction. It may be that somebody in Halifax has misunderstood something.

It will get resolved. Be persistant and perhaps ask for a modest amount of compensation too - especially if you can pinpoint who made the error!