Nationwide Flexclusive ISA - 4.25%, instant access

le_loup

"Although this information is not in our terms and conditions, the information was available on our website upon advertisement of the account"

Inbloodycredible!
I hope they won't try that one on me because I'll have them down the ombudsman's office so fast, their feet won't touch the ground.
What on earth do people think T&Cs are?

Paul_Varjak

I have just been looking again at the ISA T&Cs. One of their ISAs (Save to Buy ISA) has a specific term which reads: "Transfers in from other ISA providers are not permitted". If the Flexlcusive ISA did not allow transfers in, surely it would have a similar term?

Remember, unless their is a specific term for the Flexclusive ISA, the general ISA T&Cs apply. And there is simply no general term preventing transfers in from other ISA providers.

Similarly, the Fixed Rate ISA and Tracker ISA have the following specific term: "Additional deposits to the account after opening are not permitted." But the Flexclusive ISA has no similar term. Again, there is not general term preventing additional monies going into Nationwide ISAs.

It is pretty clear to me that any amount of monies (ISA or non-ISA monies) could go into the Flexclusive ISA subject only to any HMRC limits and Nationwide's £5 million limit. And those monies could be from another cash ISA with another provider.

Of course, Nationwide staff will stop a lot of this from ever happening - you could challenge it by going to the Ombudsman or find the 'back door' to get the money into your Flexclusive ISA. The 'back door' is, of course, another ISA you may have with Nationwide - use that ISA to feed your Flexclusive ISA via on-line banking!

The problem comes if you don't have any other ISA with Nationwide but you do have cash ISAs with other providers. How can you then get those monies into a Flexclusive ISA? If you have not yet fully contributed this year's ISA allowance into the Flexclusive ISA it may be possible to open another ISA with Nationwide (with the minimum opening balance) that will accept transfers in from another ISA provider. This would not break HMRC rules as multiple cash ISAs with one provider are seen as 'one' ISA by the HMRC.

You could then transfer in from the other provider to that other Nationwide ISA then move the monies to the Flexclusive ISA via on-line banking.

However, if you Flexclusive ISA is already fully funded with this year's ISA allowance you have a problem that may only be resolved by going to the Ombudsman.

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

I have just been looking again at the ISA T&Cs.

Could you give me a link to this please? I'm having trouble finding it on the Nationwide website.

Not that I don't believe you or anything, I just want the exact text to hand while I draft my complaint letter.

In my Nationwide online banking it now indicates that I have used my full ISA allowance this year, when I really have only subscribed £500. The rest of the money was transferred in directly from my eISA and as such has never left the ISA wrapper and is not a new subscription.

I want to get this sorted out. I believe I still have £5140 of my subscription limit available this tax year, and I also want to make a complaint regarding the interest I have lost due to transferring part of my eISA to an account paying a lower rate than the Flexclusive ISA.

Paul_Varjak

Yes, here is the link - scroll down and click on ISAs...

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/legal.htm

Have you tried, say, moving another £1 to your Flexclusive ISA from your Flexaccount? Does it block that?

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Yes, here is the link - scroll down and click on ISAs...

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/legal.htm

Thanks!

Have you tried, say, moving another £1 to your Flexclusive ISA from your Flexaccount? Does it block that?

No, I haven't tried that yet.

But when I queried this with a secure message last month they confirmed that my transfer from eISA to FlexISA was a new subscription, and they manually increased my "used allowance" figure to show the "correct" value.

So I suspect since the website believes I have used my full allowance, it will block any further subscription.

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

I have just been looking again at the ISA T&Cs. One of their ISAs (Save to Buy ISA) has a specific term which reads: "Transfers in from other ISA providers are not permitted". If the Flexlcusive ISA did not allow transfers in, surely it would have a similar term?

Indeed, the only instance of the phrase "transfers in" on the entire page is in relation to the "Save to Buy ISA".

It doesn't appear anywhere else at all.

Clearly transfers in to the Flexclusive ISA are allowed. And not just from an internal Nationwide ISA, but from any provider.

Hooloovoo

Hooloovoo wrote: »

So I suspect since the website believes I have used my full allowance, it will block any further subscription.

The result of a £1 transfer from Flexaccount to FlexISA is:

Your money has not been transferred. This amount would take the account over the annual subscription limit for this ISA.

Even though only £500 has come from my Flexaccount. All the rest of the money was transferred directly from my eISA.

I've just looked at my secure message reply when I queried this last month:

I confirm that we will leave the money in the account and amend your ISA to reflect that they are new subs.

I wondered at the time why they said they would "leave the money in my account" as if they were doing me a favour. Now I know why! They definitely have done me out of my ISA allowance for this year.

They are trying hard to cover this up.

Paul_Varjak

That is certainly a big problem Hooloovoo and makes much of my suggestion of transferring ISAs in from other providers pretty useless if you have used little of this year's ISA allowance.

The strange thing is that Flexclusive ISA was FULLY funded with this year's ISA allowance before I moved the On-line ISA funds (from last year's ISA allowance) into this year's Flexclusive ISA. I now have over £11,000 in the Flexclusive ISA.

That does seem to be a problem with Nationwide's internet banking! Did you actually do the transfer from e-ISA to Flesclusive ISA on-line?

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

That does seem to be a problem with Nationwide's internet banking! Did you actually do the transfer from e-ISA to Flesclusive ISA on-line?

Yes, using the drop-down boxes on the main page. I have just been looking at my FlexISA statement and it clearly shows one transaction of £500 from my Flexaccount, and three transactions coming directly from my eISA totalling over £13k.

The transaction from my Flexaccount updated my "used allowance" to reflect the new subscription.

The transfer from my eISA did not change the "used allowance" at all. Correctly, because it was not a new subscription.

That's why you can transfer from an eISA even when you have fully funded your ISA this year, because the website knows the transfer is not new money.

Paul_Varjak

Ah, I have been looking back at your earlier posts. Hooloovoo.

It seems that internet banking did everything correctly (i.e. the monies remained within an ISA during the transfer) but you then queried with Nationwide staff wrongly thinking the transfer would use up this year's ISA allowance!

A big mistake as they then manually adjusted your used ISA funds this year from £500 to £5640!

That may not be good for you, but, at least, other people should be OK doing what I suggested to add other ISA monies into a Flexclusive ISA (whether it is fully funded with this year's ISA monies or not)

You really need to take this up with Nationwide and with the Ombudsman if necessary.