Halifax to Santander ISA transfer problem

Eponym

Eponym wrote: »

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.

Spent another 45 minutes on the phone to them this morning. First person I spoke to (in the ISA team) said they'd received - which I suspect means 'processed' my transfer form on 11th May. I posted it on the 1st May so that can't be the day the actually received it.

I got put through to the Complaints team after explaining the backstory. He then spoke to a different ISA team whose system said they hadn't received either transfer form!

I almost didn't ask for more compensation for the second delay and lack of contact as I had some when I complained the first time, but I did and I was offered £210, which is far more than I expected.

They still can't tell me whether the funds have been requested from Halifax or not (I should hope so if they processed the form on 11th May but the money's still there on my Halifax internet banking).

I've been recommended to send in copies of all my correspondence with them and an explanatory letter, by recorded delivery, in order to ensure my backdated interest.

Fed up of this now. Santander will have to come up with a spectacular rate for me to even consider putting an ISA with them again.

Eponym

Progress - of a sort. I've had a letter from the Business Manager - Complaints. It's just a placeholder letter saying that they're looking into it. We shall see!

Chrisesa

Well I went for it and transfered my old Halifax ISA into Santander's Direct issue 9. The timeline for me went like this:

28/05/12 - Applied for Santander ISA online
28/05/12 - Received email confirmation
29/05/12 - Received A/c number by email
29/05/12 - Completed ISA Transfer Form online + printed
30/05/12 - Posted Transfer form 1st class
06/06/12 - Monies left my old ISA (Halifax)
11/06/12 - Cheque with final Halifax bonus interest was banked into my Santander ISA.

I'm impressed (and relieved) with the smoothness of it all from both sides.

Eponym

Eponym wrote: »

Progress - of a sort. I've had a letter from the Business Manager - Complaints. It's just a placeholder letter saying that they're looking into it. We shall see!

And now another letter saying they haven't had my transfer form. Their incompetence is mind-boggling. It's 10 weeks now. Every time one department tells me they haven't had my form, another department tells me they have. They don't have the first idea what they're doing.

vickssinex

I feel for you, I really do. I made a phone complaint after my transfer still had not been done six weeks after Santander received my transfer form. I got a call back to say the form had now been sent. Then I got a letter from Santander saying that my account - the new ISA - had been closed "as requested", which was certainly news to me ! Another complaint, by email, and another two weeks later things seem to be finally moving. I was offered £50 compensation plus the six weeks interest I have lost, which appeared in my current account today.

What really gets my goat in all this is if I hadn't done all the chasing, nothing would have been done. It really is an absolute shambles.

Eponym

vickssinex wrote: »

I feel for you, I really do. I made a phone complaint after my transfer still had not been done six weeks after Santander received my transfer form. I got a call back to say the form had now been sent. Then I got a letter from Santander saying that my account - the new ISA - had been closed "as requested", which was certainly news to me ! Another complaint, by email, and another two weeks later things seem to be finally moving. I was offered £50 compensation plus the six weeks interest I have lost, which appeared in my current account today.

What really gets my goat in all this is if I hadn't done all the chasing, nothing would have been done. It really is an absolute shambles.

They are shockingly bad. It's really quite staggering how mistake after mistake has been made with this process, even after I have phoned up (four times now) and written letters (2 so far). It's now 10 weeks since I sent my first form. This should be very simple to fix but it doesn't help that they're so slow to process anything.

I spent half and hour trying to get through to the Complaints Dept today to no avail.

I'm glad yours seems to be sorting out eventually! Which email address did you send your complaint to? I might send one to the CEO's email address; I've seen it posted on MSE somewhere.

vickssinex

Eponym wrote: »

I spent half and hour trying to get through to the Complaints Dept today to no avail.

That says it all, doesn't it. I filled out the complaints form on the Santander website from here. I said I would give them two weeks to sort it otherwise I'd take my business elsewhere. I didn't give my account number as email isn't secure but there was space for a phone number. I missed a couple of calls but did speak to them after 5 days. They still put you in a queue when they ring though, so they must be busy!

Eponym

vickssinex wrote: »

That says it all, doesn't it. I filled out the complaints form on the Santander website from here. I said I would give them two weeks to sort it otherwise I'd take my business elsewhere. I didn't give my account number as email isn't secure but there was space for a phone number. I missed a couple of calls but did speak to them after 5 days. They still put you in a queue when they ring though, so they must be busy!

Thanks! I'll give that a try!

Buy_It_Now

Just going to do this Halifax to Santander transfer. What address and phone do you put on the form for current (Halifax) ISA provider?
Cheers

Chrisesa

Halifax address is PO Box 548, Leeds, LS1 1WU
Phone number to use is 08457233646

Enter the phone number as above with no spaces.