Halifax to Santander ISA transfer problem

Chrisesa

The unstamped envelope may well have gotten there, but would certainly not have been within 2nd class postal times. It could easily take 2 or more weeks. And the addressee would be asked to pay postage PLUS Royal Mail's revenue protection (usually £1 minimum) and if Santander declined, then it would be sent back to you, via the Royal Mail's department in Northern Ireland, where mail with no return address is processed.

To assume they'd accept it and pay the Royal Mail's asking price would be more than a bit optimistic. If they do, then you're very lucky and a lottery ticket should be your next purchase ;-)

Only envelopes clearly marked FREEPOST can be sent by this means and Santander currently don't have this type of address for ISA use. Unfortunately it could be some time, if ever, before you find out what's happened to it.

innovate

Beighton wrote: »

Thanks for that. By "no stamp" I meant that I assumed that the address was Freepost - not that that would have prevented the transfer form from getting there ...

You are having a laugh, you assumed it was Freepost? The address you were meant to use doesn't mention Freepost, so a much better assumption would have been that it is not Freepost.

External Cash ISA Transfer Team,
PO Box 1112,
9 Nelson Street,
Bradford, BD1 9NR

As Chrisesa says, unfortunately it could be some time, if ever, before you find out what's happened to it. And you have only yourself to blame, I'm afraid.

t0rt0ise

Beighton wrote: »

Thanks for that. By "no stamp" I meant that I assumed that the address was Freepost - not that that would have prevented the transfer form from getting there ...

I thought that's what you meant and then I had second thoughts. It wasn't a freepost address so they probably refused to accept the letter.

vickssinex

I'm trying to transfer last year's ISA with Halifax to a new ISA with Santander. Sent the transfer form off to Santander over Easter and confirmed with them by phone a couple of weeks ago that they had received it on the 12th April, and that the request had been sent off to Halifax. Fantastic.

You can guess what's coming next can't you?

Spoke to Halifax this morning as the old ISA was still open - and they said that nothing had been received! So I rang Santander - yes they got my form but "can't understand" why it hasn't been processed at their end!

Banks - don't you love them.

keiran

I sent Satander 3 forms in one envelope for 3 ISAs I had with the Halifax. I even attached a post-it note to indicate that there were 3 forms for 3 transfers. - They processed 2 promptly, but after very extensive investigations, I discovered they hadn't bothered to send the 3rd form to Halifax! They still haven't sent it, 32 days now since they sent the 1st 2 forms.

They keep no record, apparently, of which staff member sent the other 2 forms, and so there's no way of tracing and feeding back to that person. I'm also told that the customer-facing staff don't have phone access to the transfer department, and so all they can do is to keep sending them "prioritising emails"!!!

I'll never understand how banks can get the most basic of tasks wrong. If they can't do the simplest of tasks, what does it say about their competence in anything more complex!! O I forgot - that explains the banking crisis and tipping the world into recession, blighting the lives of millions, (but not of themselves).

Eponym

Eponym wrote: »

Well, I've sent off my second transfer form with a letter explaining their litany of errors and a copy of their first letter, which alerted me to the problem. I've asked if, in the circumstances, the transfer could be expedited and also for written confirmation that I will get interest backdated to the date of the first transfer attempt, as I have been assured I will.

We'll see. (This was the first of two !!!!-ups Santander have made with my accounts in the last few weeks.)

I'm still waiting. No sign of the money leaving my Halifax account this morning, nor have I had any response to my letter.

15 days takes me to Friday; if nothing's happened by then I shall be seriously irritated in the circumstances!

Raf_O

I have had problems too. Put two transfer forms in one envelope and sent to Santander. My Barclays money was moved to Santander no problem. Not so with the Halifax!!! Santander said they sent Halifax the form, Halifax claim they have not received it. The conduct of both seem to be pretty flaky to me, especially Halifax. I can't believe they make Barclays look good...

Very frustrating and ongoing.

keiran

It seems there's a recurring problem with Santander transfers in

When efficient customers include two or more transfer in forms in one envelope, Santander staff are sometimes too lazy/stupid/incompetent/uncaring to process all the enclosed forms.

So what we need to do is to send each form in a separate envelope

Incidentally, a fellow MSE'r has found the email address of the CEO office which is ceo@santander.co.uk. I've sent a test email to this, and it does , indeed, reach the CEO office!!

So we should write there directly, to get anything done, I expect!

Eponym

Eponym wrote: »

I'm still waiting. No sign of the money leaving my Halifax account this morning, nor have I had any response to my letter.

15 days takes me to Friday; if nothing's happened by then I shall be seriously irritated in the circumstances!

Still nothing. I miscalculated the 15 days in my last post because I forgot that it refers to working days. I'm going to arm myself with all the dates and ring them tomorrow.

Gordon_the_Moron

My experience for what its worth

Santander - had 3 ISAs with them (flexible 2 years ago, loyalty flexible last year and direct this tax year) transferring out the flexible's when there were better deals or to go to a fix at a higher rate when my current year's allowance was full, absolutely no problems. Transferring in an instant access account from Halifax to the direct ISA this year, no problems (I had received interest on the account on 10th May and transferred it since then, I've also contributed to a Nationwide Flexclusive in this year!)

Santander have always been great, absolutely no problems.

Onto Halifax!
Last year I moved the previous year's flexible ISA (10/11) from Santander to them, this lead to a block being put on the 11/12 loyalty flexible ISA, Halifax told the inland revenue the transfer in was new money.

When my 2 year ISA with them (09/10 allowance) matured on May 10th they moved it to an instant access at 0.5%, I went in and asked them to redesignate it to an online ISA @ 3%. They somehow managed to redesignate my 4 year ISA which I opened last September instead, letting me out of a 4 year ISA after 8 months with no penalty (no-one could explain why the lost of interest had not been applied but it hadn't so I told them not to change it back and moved that to Santander to as I came to regret putting it in the 4 year ISA after I opened it anyway, free exit!!!!) could do with more !!!! ups like that.

They also tried to change my fixed rate 2 year @ 3.5% to 3.25% half way through, to be fair this was a technical error but it left me scratching my head and wondering !!!!!! was going on and was rather shoddy work for a supposedly professional outfit.

All in all from my experience I think Halifax are the more likely culprit than Santander but not being the one to deal with it, I can't say for certain.