Nationwide Flexclusive ISA - 4.25%, instant access

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

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!

Bingo!

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)

Yes, you can do exactly what you say. You can transfer into an existing eISA, and then move the money online into a FlexISA.

The problem is I can't do that, because I now have £16k in a Post Office two-year fix at 3.6%. I can't move it back without penalty. The difference in interest on £16k from 3.6% to 4.25% over the lifetime of the FlexISA guarantee is, I think, around £200. Based on if I had moved the full amount into the FlexISA in April.

Not to mention the remaining money in my eISA that I have only just transferred. That's another £13k that has lost about £65 in interest over the last seven months.

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

Drafting letter now ... it'll be in the post tomorrow.

Hooloovoo

The Nationwide cash ISA (the ISA) can comprise an Instant Access ISA, Online ISA, 90 Day ISA, Fixed Rate ISA, Tracker ISA, Champion ISA, e-ISA, Save to Buy ISA, Flexclusive ISA and/or any cash ISA provided by the former Portman Building Society. Subject to the subscription limits detailed in these conditions you may hold an Instant Access ISA, an Online ISA, a 90 Day ISA , a Fixed Rate ISA, a Tracker ISA, a Champion ISA, an e-ISA, Save to Buy ISA, Flexclusive ISA and/or any cash ISA provided by the former Portman Building Society providing that the total subscription limits are not exceeded even where a partial withdrawal has been made.

You can split your cash ISA allowance between an Instant Access ISA, an Online ISA, a 90 Day ISA , a Fixed Rate ISA, a Tracker ISA, a Champion ISA, an e-ISA, Save to Buy ISA, Flexclusive ISA and/or any cash ISA provided by the former Portman Building Society.

Just noticed this as well.

It clearly specifies the e-ISA and Flexclusive ISA as being part of the combined "Nationwide cash ISA".

As such any transfers between the two are NOT new subscriptions.

Paul_Varjak

Hooloovoo wrote: »

Just noticed this as well.

It clearly specifies the e-ISA and Flexclusive ISA as being part of "The Nationwide cash ISA".

As such any transfers between the two are NOT new subscriptions.

Exactly - and that still conforms to HMRC regulations. When I talked to Nationwide staff it was clear that they did not even understand that you can open up more than one Nationwide ISA product with them in a year and contribute to both of them!

The problem comes when you fully contribute to one Nationwide ISA product but then want to open a second - you cannot because you are fully funded and a new account requires a minimum opening deposit (may be £1) Of course you would think they could just take £1 out of another Nationwide ISA but I don't think they do that - if you want to fund a new ISA from another Nationwide ISA they will transfer the whole damn lot into the new ISA and close down the old one!

So, it is probably a good idea NEVER to put in all your ISA allowance in one year. So instead of putting in £5640 put in, say, £5635. That would then enable you to open a further 5 Nationwide ISAs in the same tax year without having to close any others down. You then have the possibility of moving monies around those ISAs to achieve the best interest rates at any given time.

But, remember, there may be some specific limitations on certain Nationwide ISA products that prevent you moving ISA monies between Nationwide ISA products.

Hooloovoo

This is an interesting one, section 2 paragraph 78.

Transfers from your e-ISA to another cash ISA product, or from another cash ISA to your e-ISA, must be done using our paper transfer process and cannot be done from your card account. Transfers from one e-ISA to another e-ISA can only be carried out on the Nationwide Internet Bank.

This is specific to the eISA. If you have more than one eISA you can ONLY transfer between them using the internet bank.

But if you want to transfer to any other cash ISA product, you must use the paper transfer process.

The FlexISA isn't technically an eISA. So the website shouldn't allow you to move from eISA to FlexISA according to that.

Hooloovoo

And for an Online ISA, paragraph 62.

Withdrawals from the account require no notice and can only be made through the Nationwide Internet Bank to one of the card accounts listed above held by you either jointly or solely.

FlexAccount
InvestDirect
CashBuilder Card
Smart Card

So Online ISA to FlexISA isn't allowed either.

Paul_Varjak

This was discussed earlier in the thread. This is really to do with opening a new ISA and funding it from another ISA, you cannot do that on-line (unless the new account can be opened on-line)

Transferring existing ISA monies via your 'card' account into a new ISA that cannot be opened on-line would mean losing ISA status (eg moving ISA monies to your Flexaccount to fund the new ISA)

There is nothing to stop you using internet banking to transfer from one Nationwide ISA to another Nationwide ISA, if internet banking allows it.

Paul_Varjak

Hooloovoo wrote: »

And for an Online ISA, paragraph 62.

So Online ISA to FlexISA isn't allowed either.

Yes it is allowed. You are not withdrawing from the ISA. It is remaining within Nationwide's cash ISA but just moving to another Nationwide ISA product. If there are any limitations on moving between Nationwide ISA products it says so in the T&Cs specific to that Nationwide ISA product. There are none for the Flexclusive ISA.

Hooloovoo

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Yes it is allowed. You are not withdrawing from the ISA.

Yes. You're right. It's not a withdrawal. Sorry.

It is remaining within Nationwide's cash ISA but just moving to another Nationwide ISA product. If there are any limitations on moving between Nationwide ISA products it says so in the T&Cs specific to that Nationwide ISA product.

What about paragraph 66

"Transfers from your Online ISA to another cash ISA product (excluding another Online ISA or e-ISA), must be done using a paper application form and cannot be done from your card account."

You can move money between Online ISA and eISA, but to move between any other cash ISA product you have to use the paper application form. Of course you can't use your card account because they would be outside the wrapper. But it appears to specifically disallow doing an online transaction OUT from an Online ISA to anything other than another Online ISA or eISA.

The website might make a mistake and allow you to do it, but that doesn't mean it is allowed and they wont correct it later.

There are none for the Flexclusive ISA.

I agree there are no terms regarding transferring IN to the Flexclusive ISA.

But there do appear to be specific terms regarding how you are allowed to move money OUT of both the Online ISA and the eISA.

le_loup

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

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.
<snip>
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.

Not necessarily. What is wrong with opening a new empty Online ISA, transferring the old ISA from the other institution to that ISA then moving the money from the Online to the Flexclusive?

Paul_Varjak

le_loup wrote: »

Not necessarily. What is wrong with opening a new empty Online ISA, transferring the old ISA from the other institution to that ISA then moving the money from the Online to the Flexclusive?

EDIT: On second thoughts, I don't think you can do that. The On-line ISA can only be opened on-line. It has to be funded, initially, with at least £1,000. I don't think there is any way of opening on-line and funding it with monies from another ISA provider - that funding would have to come from another Nationwide account.

If Nationwide do have another ISA product that is opened by paper application and can be opened with existing monies from another ISA provider, then what you would want to achieve would be possible, but not with the on-line ISA.

2nd EDIT: IT DOES APPEAR THAT YOU ARE CORRECT - SARA BANDE SAYS SHE DID JUST THIS - AND A QUICK LOOK AT THE ONLINE ISA APPLICATION FORM SHOWS THAT TRANSFERS IN FROM OTHER ISA PROVIDERS CAN BE DONE AT THE POINT AT WHICH YOU OPEN THE ONLINE ISA.