Halifax to Santander ISA transfer problem

Eponym

I recently transferred all but £5000 of my Halifax Direct Reward 4 ISA to the Santander 3.3% instant access deal.

About two weeks later I got a letter back saying that they could not accept it as I had contributed to the other ISA this tax year (ie. 2012/2013) so they had sent the cheque back to Halifax.

I rang them straight away and assured them that I most certainly haven't contributed to either of them this year. The only thing I could think of was the Halifax Reward interest which was added and came to £47. I haven't contributed at all to the Santander yet.

I rang them on a Friday and was told they would look into it and get in touch via text within 2 working days.

Predictably, I didn't hear anything, so yesterday, after 3 working days, I rang them. The ISA department was closed because it was after 6pm! This means if I don't hear anything, I have to wait until Friday because that's the only day I get home before 6pm.

Not impressed!

I don't yet know whether it's Halifax's fault or Santander's, but when I find out I shall be demanding some compensation for lost interest, phone calls etc.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Lokolo

How did you transfer?

Eponym

Lokolo wrote: »

How did you transfer?

Filled in a Santander transfer form. I presume I can't have filled it in wrongly (eg. selected that I have already contributed to another ISA this year) or they wouldn't have set up the account and requested the cheque.

Having said that, this is Santander we're talking about.

ylesia

Eponym wrote: »

Filled in a Santander transfer form. I presume I can't have filled it in wrongly (eg. selected that I have already contributed to another ISA this year) or they wouldn't have set up the account and requested the cheque.

Having said that, this is Santander we're talking about.

Don't like the sound of this I have just filled out the form to transfer from Halifax to Santander and I had some interest go into the halifax ISA on the 10th April. I only sent of the form on Monday so nothing has happened yet.

Please keep post updated with how you get on, hopefully they sort it out quickly for you.

nad33m

I have been waiting over a waiting 10 days since i posted off ther santander transfer form. Why they us the post for this I just cant understand when everything else is done online or in branch.

Can I ask, did you put a stamp on your envelope? Because the website said its a freepost address, I did not put a stamp on it.

ylesia

I put a stamp on mine - I didn't notice anything about freepost on the website and there wasn't a "freepost" line in the address?

Eponym

nad33m wrote: »

I have been waiting over a waiting 10 days since i posted off ther santander transfer form. Why they us the post for this I just cant understand when everything else is done online or in branch.

Can I ask, did you put a stamp on your envelope? Because the website said its a freepost address, I did not put a stamp on it.

I can't remember, I'm afraid.

innovate

nad33m wrote: »

Why they us the post for this I just cant understand when everything else is done online or in branch.

The bank you transfer from will normally want to have an instruction with your signature - that's why external transfers with all banks I know of require a form. Internal transfers are often possible online, or by phone / in Branch only, in the case of Santander.

You can hand the form in at a branch, get them to date-stamp and sign it, make sure they give you a copy of the stamped/signed form, and ask them to send it to wherever it needs to be sent (using their internal mail). Not that this helps you much since 1) they don't make this obvious, and 2) you have already posted yours.

They have 15 days from receipt to get your money transferred. If you have not seen it by then, raise a formal complaint - may be best by email to [EMAIL="complaints@santander.co.uk"]complaints@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL] so you have a written record.

They should be paying interest from date of receipt of the transfer form, so you shouldn't lose out when they eventually process everything.

ChopperST

I put a stamp on mine and then realised after it was a freepost address!

Eponym

Rang them today for an update and it's still being looked at. There's a backlog apparently. He said it's been assigned to a team but it doesn't sound like they've actually done any investigating.

I have been assured interest will be backdated, which it had better be. I'll be writing to them asking for compensation too.

ylesia

I rang them yesterday just to confirm that they had my request and it was being processed. After being put on hold for almost 10 minutes I was told that they couldn't see anything on the system but not to worry since I only posted it on Monday!

I then asked again for them to confirm if they had received the form and the response I got was "I don't know!"

Surely on their system they log when an item of mail is received against an account? Many moons ago I had a summer job working in an insurance company and that is all I did all day - opened letters, logged it against the account and put it in the internal mail to the right department.