transferring out a cash ISA with a notice period

anniecave

Any advice people?

I had a 60 day notice cash ISA with the West Bromwich BS. I decided I wanted to transfer it out, as the rate was uncompetitive.
I phoned up and asked if I could give 60 day notice over the phone or had to go into the branch, and they said I could do it over the phone and that was that.

I applied for a Yorkshire Buildiing Society ISA and sent off an application form and the transfer authority. Yorkshire took 25 days to request the transfer from West Bromwich BS. That's despite the fact I'm an existing customer with YBS.

West Brom deducted 60 days interest from the interest before they closed and sent the payment to YBS. I phoned up and they said the notice period had expired, so they charged 60 days interest.

Apparently the notice period expires within 14 days. Now I didn't know that transfers out have to be completed within 14 days of the end of the notice period. I can't find it in the West Brom t's and c's. I can't find it anywhere on their website.

Can anyone advise:

Should I have been told about the fact that a notice period expires, or is this just something I should have known? I don't think I've ever had a notice account before. I assumed it wouldn't on a transfer out, as a transfer out is subject to factors outside my control.

Even if I did know about the 14 days expiry, how was I supposed to predict how quickly Yorkshire were going to request the transfer? Theoretically they could have requested it within 5 days, so how was I supposed to work out when to apply in order to be within the 14 day period? I calculate YBS could have actioned it within 5 days, but they actually took 25 days, so there was a 20 day window between when they could have requested it, and when they did request it.

The YBS transfer form said that providers can delay transferring out to the end of a notice period, so as I was outside the 14 day window, shouldn't West Brom have just re-activated the notice period and not transferred out the ISA for another 60 days?

Does anyone think this is worth a complaint into them, if only to highlight they should tell people this sort of thing?

I've only lost £25 odd as I only had one year of subscriptions in the ISA, if I had £1000s in there, I would have lost lots.

Thanks!

steady__eddie

I've very recently transferred one from Britannia to Dudley. I visited the branch and gave them the required 30 days notice 'cos I didn't want to lose 30 days interest in exchange for instant access. They gave me a printout which stated my a/c. no. and it said something along the lines, "you can transfer your a/c between 10/02/07 and 24/02/07 without penalty. If you have not transfered at the expiry of this period, you will have to give us another 30 days notice if you wish to transfer and do not wish to lose any interest". On the same day, I took the printout and my passbook to Dudley and asked them to request a transfer in 30 days time. They appeared to be conversant with the procedure and lo and behold 35 days later I received a passbook from them.
This was the first time that I had heard of the "14 day rule". I have transfered ISAs many times in the past but none of them have required notice.
I have had many altercations with the West Brom in the past due to what I consider to be their "adminstrative inefficiency". I would certainly complain to them if you are sure that the 14 day rule was not included in the T & Cs relating to the account. Don't waste your time emailing them as from my experience, you are unlikely to receive a reply. I would suggest a letter to Ian ward, Customer Relations Manager.
Is it possible to find out the dates when Yorkshire actioned your transfer and when West Brom received the request ?

anniecave

thanks for the reply. I know when West Brom issued the transfer out, I haven't asked when YBS asked for it or West Brom received the request.
It's the principle of the thing really. It took a similar amount of time to transfer my other ISA from Halifax to A&L a few months back so I wouldn't say the 25 days is unduly excessive.
Thanks for your advice, I'll probably write in and see what they say. In my experience companies are generally not good at replying to anything over email anyway!