Santander has lost my Cash ISA Money!!!

innovate

Eponym wrote: »

Santander's ISA teams are useless.

<snip>

Still, I have had £250 compensation from them so it's not all bad.

That sounds like a pretty good hourly rate! Can't really call them useless, can you. Though I agree, they should have processed your ISA transfer correctly first time round. Hope you'll get it all settled eventually.

richy_7: have you requested compensation? If not, you should be - - you ahve every right to charge them for your time and effort, and expenses such as phone calls, copies, postage etc. Plus, they must backdate your interest to at least [working day] 16 from the date they received your transfer request form.

Mechanical

Eponym wrote: »

Still, I have had £250 compensation from them so it's not all bad.

That's good to hear.
Looking forward to Santander messing up my transfer request. Had a letter this morning confirming they had received my isa transfer form and had forwarded my request to Natwest.
I should add that I have had previous run ins with Santander, Natwest and Lloyds over various matters and come out the winner every time.

richy_7

innovate wrote: »

richy_7: have you requested compensation? If not, you should be - - you ahve every right to charge them for your time and effort, and expenses such as phone calls, copies, postage etc. Plus, they must backdate your interest to at least [working day] 16 from the date they received your transfer request form.

Once I have the information from the AA, I shall be writing a big long letter telling them what I think of them! And asking for some compensation. I still can't believe in this day and age they still send cheques to eachother!

innovate

ISA transfers were probably very low down the industry's priority list - - remember, they only just managed to get themselves into the 20th century (I mean 20th, not 21st) with "Faster Payments".

ISA transfers also require more than just sending money from one bank to another - - they have to ensure they comply with HMRC/FSA rules and regulations for such transfers, too.

There is good news on the horizon, though:

... This work is continuing with the development of an electronic transfer system for Cash ISAs, expected to be available to BACS members later this year, followed by an industry-wide extension in 2013.

I don't know whether the mention of the word "BACS" means they will in future do ISA tansfers in BACS-snail mode, or whether they will do it FP. Time will tell.

Oddgy

Im having a very similiar problem except it got worse this morning...
I opened a new NATWEST ISA and sent in the transfer forms in transferring the funds from Halifax. 8th April i did this.
By end of April money hadnt been transferred into new account despite halifax closing the account it came from.
Received a letter from Halifax 1st week of May saying a clerical error had occured and the funds had been returned to them. (They had sent the cheque to Nationwide instead of Natwest). Nationwide had taken its time to search for me, realising i didnt have any account with them and then sent the cheque back to them). They they resent it to Natwest on 8th May. Last week money still not in Natwest. This monday just gone, i rang Natwest and finally the cheque had arrived and being processed. Excellent i thought be in by end of the week.
TODAY i receive a letter from Natwest with an UNPAID cheque from Halifax bank. YES its the ISA cheque the halifax sent to Natwest, wasnt cashed as insufficient funds and so then returned to me. ?? have you ever heard of anything so bizarre. My money is in their bank, (Halifax), they sent it to Natwest, but when natwest went to cash it, they couldnt cash it as Nationwide didnt have enuff funds in their account to cash it.
WHATS GOING ON! I need to get on the blower...Nearly 2 months since i sent this transfer up.

Shaloolah

Over 6 weeks ago, almost over 10k left my Santander Cash ISA to be transferred to a Halifax - how I wish I'd left it well alonbe as it's not been seen since! Santander told us it was Halifax's problem and vice versa, backwards and forwards...hours of 0845 calls later, hours of being put on hold, explaining the same thing over and over to different inept people. It went through to complaints who kept telling me their 'team' would deal with it and let me know as soon as it appeared. Still nothing happened - I said I'd had enough so ther Manager asked did I want to move up to second stage complaints. I asked if this would make any difference to the speed of the enquiry or would I be back to square one; she couldn't answer that. I got the distinct impression she couldn't wait to pass it on to someone else. More waiting on phone. I had to give up in the end as I had children to collect from school (ie a life to lead!) You'd have thought they would try to call me back- think again! Then I get a text saying my complaint has been resolved - yipee - I run to my laptop, expecting to see the funds in my ISA - not a chance - the complaint has been 'resolved' because they've simply put a totally useless form in the post.

Santander are abysmal, their customer service is useless. No-one takes responsibility and they appear to make money out of their ineptitude by people like me having to call 0845 over and over to speak to the wrong people who couldn't give a monkeys.

This is nearly 11k - a huge amount for us / anyone and they don't seem to care.

Financial Ombudsman next - and shouldn't SANTANDER be giving us compensation for time / money and not to mention the stress?

The_Enforcer

I believe it is the responsibility of the ISA manager to whom you are transferring the funds (i.e. Halifax) to ensure the transfer is completed and to start paying interest from the 15th working day following receipt of your transfer form, regardless of whether it has completed or not (Halifax had a promise to pay interest from the date transfer form submitted - not sure if that's still the case?).

Include a request for compensation for the 0845 calls. In future, don't dial the 0845 number - in future use https://www.saynoto0870.com to find an alternative local/freephone number.

societys_child

Sorry Shaloolah, The Enforcer is correct, you're blaming the wrong bank!

innovate

The_Enforcer wrote: »

Halifax had a promise to pay interest from the date transfer form submitted - not sure if that's still the case?

Yes they do - http://www.halifax.co.uk/isas/cash-isa-promise/

Whilst I agree that Halifax are the ones Shaloolah should pursue for a resolution (and compensation for time and expenses), Santander should not have strung her along. They should instead have pointed her at Halifax. Second line complaints would probably have done that - they appear to be staffed by people who know a lot more than the standard complaints folk.

Not that I suggest you ring Santander again about this issue - but there is a freefone for Santander, too - 0800-092-2212. It's their Savings Application number but one of the options offered is to discuss an existing savings account.

Shaloolah

Thank you for the replies. Santander DID point us in the direction of Halifax and we did chase them (more 0845 numbers). They have confirmed today that they NEVER received this money. Santander's complaints team refused to speak to the person from Halifax yesterday - so helpful. I've just tried to speak to the second stage complaints team who is "away from their desk" !!! Been told they'll call me back.....Next week the 8 weeks are up and I'm going straight to the financial ombudsman.