ISA Move to YBS from A&L

masonic

sashacat wrote:

mine says the bonus is until 31st April, but I'm not sure as they could extend it.

YB's point is that there is no 31st April. That date does not exist.

sashacat

Blimey!...of course not...now I feel even thicker!

Heinz

Al_Mac wrote:

Applied for a YBS ISA just prior to Christmas, filled in all the forms to transfer from A&L.

Today got a letter from A&L saying your ISA can only be done online or by telephone, with a copy of the YBS transfer form.

Has anybody transfered an A&L ISA?

I sent A&L a secure email to clarify their highest ISA rate last week (our current ones are on 5% - the last BofE rise having been ignored by A&L) and they replied we could transfer to their 5.2% fixed rate ISA (in a climate of rising rates, there's no chance of that remaining competitive for long, even if you consider it is at the moment) but that was the best they had.

So, OH and I decided to move our ISAs to YBS E-ISA (5.4% variable) as recommended by Martin and, it seems, we're about to get hooked up on A&L's "you have to phone" nonsense even though we've forwarded the 'transfer all' forms with our applications to YBS for them to send on.

Thanks for the 0800 route - we'll be using that.

sly_dog_jonah

I'm on the 5.45% A&L Direct ISA Issue 2, including the bonus until April end. I think I'm gonna stick it out until then, rather than transfer before everything settles down.

If by April 5th there is no news of a better A&L rate, and other leading ISAs are beating it hands down then I'll open a fresh table topping one with a £3k deposit and transfer the existing pot over towards end of April.

Otherwise I'm gonna take my conveniently maturing 10% A&L regular saver and deposit that into the A&L Issue 2 for 07/08, then switch the lot to either a different A&L ISA in May (no loss of interest) or transfer the whole lot to a new provider that accepts transfers in without making a deposit (A&L were happy to do this last year).

MiserlyMartin

I'd just like to know how to open a YBS ISA without the minimum balance so I can then transfer in from A&L. I can't subscribe to it because I've already invested the £3K max in this tax year so are YBS ok with opening one up on a promise of funds coming in from outside>?

Heinz

MiserlyMartin wrote:

I'd just like to know how to open a YBS ISA without the minimum balance so I can then transfer in from A&L. I can't subscribe to it because I've already invested the £3K max in this tax year so are YBS ok with opening one up on a promise of funds coming in from outside>?

I was in the same position (all £3000 of the 2006/7 amount having already been invested in my A&L ISA).

I opened a new '2006/7 year' YBS e-ISA online - without any money going in (i.e. the account just awaits the transfer of funds from A&L) using THIS LINK.

A&L won't accept the 'transfer all funds to YBS' form YBS provide (for you to print) as part of their online application package and write to your when they receive it from YBS - telling you to phone their disguised premium rate 0870 number.

Because you've opened the YBS A/C online, you already know the A/C number of your new YBS e-ISA so, you're armed with that when you use the alternative 0800 068 8638 (Option 2, Option 2, Option 2, Option 9) number to make that call. You'll have to enter the 12 digits of your Customer I.D. and the five digits or your PIN and then you get to talk to an 'agent'.

After you've answered A&L's security questions (remember, if they ask for characters from your password, they mean your telephone - not online - password), calculation of interest since 1/1/07, account closure and the cheque being sent to YBS happens within a week.

Loadsabob

Thank you to all, and to Martin for his Best Buys. Have taken in my YBS transfer form to Bradford and Bingley today (though they made me write an additional letter to their head office prettymuch repeating my signed YBS transfer form!), so am keeping everything crossed. Opened the YBS account yesterday and need to send them ID with my signed application.

On the ID front, an acceptible form of personal ID is a cheque from current account, which I can send, for a nominal amount, but am concerned that if they pay that in before the transfer has taken place, that will constitute me having contributed to two mini cash ISAs in one financial year, which break ISA rules...will maybe put a covering note with my cheque...

I felt quite nervous of completely transferring the ISA, as its been there for years, which is BAD! And currently a paltry 4.7%!!! Glad I've finally done it!

Heinz

Loadsabob wrote:

On the ID front, an acceptible form of personal ID is a cheque from current account, which I can send, for a nominal amount, but am concerned that if they pay that in before the transfer has taken place, that will constitute me having contributed to two mini cash ISAs in one financial year, which break ISA rules...will maybe put a covering note with my cheque...

No, I asked about that - and you cannot do it because you have already invested £3000 in a mini ISA in the current tax year!

Loadsabob

Heinz wrote:

No, I asked about that - and you cannot do it because you have already invested £3000 in a mini ISA in the current tax year!

Thanks, Heinz, but on that score I'd be okay as I've not contributed the full £3000 this tax year, I'm contributing regularly and am still (safely) within the annual limit. It was more the contributing to more than one ISA bit that I wasn't too sure about...

Heinz

Loadsabob wrote:

It was more the contributing to more than one ISA bit that I wasn't too sure about...

Ah, now you may have a point there.

I do recall something about you only being allowed to have on mini ISA in each tax year (i.e. not that you could split the £3000 by investing into more than one).

Yes, found it in Martin's notes:

Only one mini-cash ISA per year. You can only have a Mini Cash ISA with one provider in any tax year – you can’t split it. However you can hold cash-ISAs from different years with different providers.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1077487692,12362,