Halifax to Santander ISA transfer problem

Mikeyorks

Eponym wrote: »

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.

On the face of it Santander are being their usual inefficient selves.

But if the transfer history form from Halifax indicates there are current year (12/13) subscriptions involved ........ but not all have been transferred - then Halifax may be the guilty party?

Doesn't make sense otherwise as Santander should accept the transfer whether it contains 12/13 subscriptions or not.

Eponym

Absolutely. I don't know which bank has messed up, but one of them has!

Wail

Be careful with them both. Halifax pulled a stunt last year with me where they managed to convert my ISA to a normal account but did not tell me about it. It took 4.5 months for me to get them to sort it out.

Keep an eye on it and don't be afraid to keep raising it with both banks. Don't be afraid to raise a formal complaint either.

Eponym

Text messaged received to say it's resolved, but not how it's resolved. Where's my money?!

Now I have to phone them back on an expensive phone number to find out. When they said they would text me, I assumed they meant with some useful information!

innovate

Eponym wrote: »

Now I have to phone them back on an expensive phone number to find out.

Assuming you mean Santander, use 0800-092-2212. It's their savings application line - but one option is to talk about existing accounts.

Eponym

innovate wrote: »

Assuming you mean Santander, use 0800-092-2212. It's their savings application line - but one option is to talk about existing accounts.

Thanks! I'll do that.

Biskit

Sorry to kind of hijack this thread but I was about to do the same - transfer my existing cash ISA from Halifax to Santander, however I have hit a BIG stumbling block. My existing Cash ISA was standing at just under £2500 and I couldn't get anymore in before the deadline - so I topped it up to over £2500 yesterday. Now I thought that you were able to transfer an ISA to any provider, so long as you don't exceed the limit - but on the first page of Santander Cash ISA it states "You can apply if: You haven't paid into a cash ISA in the current Tax year" (which I just have).

Now, confusingly it also states "You want to transfer funds from another ISA provider into this cash ISA" and that only one of the statements needs to be true - I'm confused. Any help?

Biskit

Ok I'm going to have a go at answering my own question :think:

I think I can transfer the amount just under £2500 to another provider as this would be previous years allowances, though obviously not to the Santander ISA @ 3.3% as it needs £2500 minimum.

The Cash ISA I have paid into this tax year I guess I'm stuck with it at a paltry 0.5% :doh: I guess I could open up a standard savings account for it and at least get a better interest rate then transfer it all to this crappy ISA just before the tax year ends.

Any thoughts on whether this is right or wrong :question:

The_Enforcer

You can transfer the whole £2500 to Santander 3.3% ISA, because you will still be subscribing this year's ISA funds to one ISA manager at one point in time. It is possible to transfer previous years' ISA funds along with 12/13 ISA funds. You would then be able to add the remainder of your 12/13 allowance to this account up to the limit of £5,640.

Eponym

The results of my phone call were interesting. I was told that the ISA team have put a letter in the post saying they have never received a transfer form, which is patently untrue as otherwise they wouldn't request the money from Halifax!

They are sending me a new transfer form I was advised to fill a new one in. I said I would be writing to make a complaint and was offered £40 compensation which I accepted and has been paid into my current account today. I was also assured that the interest will be backdated - I've also had a letter from Halifax today to say that they have added the money back into the Halifax ISA and they've added the interest to cover the time when it was out. I'm not entirely sure why but I'm not complaining!

The Santander staff member I spoke to on the phone was very helpful and apologetic but it seems that everyone who's dealt with the transfer is incompetent. Error upon error.