Nat West Dirty Tricks

Johnyboy1

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I have just checked my E.isa account with Nat West as I had transferred funds from Santander to top up this account. Nat West in their wisdom have put my funds in a Savings account. I have just spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone being passed about from one Advisor to the next!! They have finally told me that there was a block on the account as I had not previously added funds. Well actually I have for the last 3 years from other providers. Nat West are telling me this is not new money?

A warning to anyone looking to transferee funds from another provider, make sure your account is not blocked as they will put the monies else ware.
I've left it with Nat west's complaints team to see what they can do. The problem I now have is that if I transferee the money from the E savings to my E.ISA I will have used this year’s allowance. I was looking at funding another ISA so not sure what will happen.

Anyone had similar.
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xylophone

Do you mean that you have an e-ISA account with Natwest which holds funds from three previous tax years?
You held another ISA with Santander ( for a previous tax year, not the current one) and you wanted this transferred to the Natwest e-ISA?

You asked Natwest to arrange the transfer from the Santander Isa to the Natwest e-isa and Natwest have erroneously transferred this money to a non-isa account that you hold with them?

Johnyboy1

Yes that is correct. Nat West also told me that I could transfer the funds they put into the savings account directly into my e ISA, problem with that is that I lose this year’s allowance? I was about to open a new ISA with Nationwide.

Johnyboy1

I have also checked my partners account and Nat West have done exactly the same with her account. The money is sitting in her e savings not the eISA.

xylophone

If you and your girlfriend correctly completed ISA transfer forms and Natwest have credited these funds to non-isa accounts then it is up to Natwest to correct the errors. Do not attempt to move the funds yourselves - if Natwest don't know what to do then they must contact HMRC who provide guidance (regularly updated) for ISA managers.http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/isa-guidance-notes.pdf

See also http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/faqs.htm

23rdian

Not this exactly this but...

Applied for the 3.5% Instant Access ISA online, was given the confirmation screen.

Heard nothing so called them up.

Result was no record of application but "feel free" to signup again at the now lower rate.

Needless to say, now going elsewhere

jamesd

NatWest was supposed to obtain all necessary applications before processing the transfer request. After accepting it if it then found that it couldn't deliver the funds to the ISA it was supposed to cancel the transfer and return the funds to the original ISA provider. It's failed to meet its obligations twice and should move the money into the ISA after obtaining anything it needs from you, then report it to HMRC as it fixing its own error, something that is permitted. Do not transfer it yourself.

Johnyboy1

Hi,

Thanks for that, I have complained to Nat West and they have told me they will look into it? I will give them the statutory 7 working days to reply and will then contact the Ombudsman.

Lazy year we also had problems with Nat West on a similar vein, and also they previously wrote to me telling me they were dropping my interest rate as I had not opened the account in time, After various calls and letters they accepted it. Well they could not really have done anything else as I actually took the paperwork into their branch.

I am starting to wonder how long customers will put up with this appalling customer service.

I believe some time ago they were fined for their shoddy service.

Agricolae

Johnyboy1 wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for that, I have complained to Nat West and they have told me they will look into it? I will give them the statutory 7 working days to reply and will then contact the Ombudsman.

Lazy year we also had problems with Nat West on a similar vein, and also they previously wrote to me telling me they were dropping my interest rate as I had not opened the account in time, After various calls and letters they accepted it. Well they could not really have done anything else as I actually took the paperwork into their branch.

I am starting to wonder how long customers will put up with this appalling customer service.

I believe some time ago they were fined for their shoddy service.

The issue you reported in your first post crops up quite often. If an ISA is not paid into for one tax year (although I understand you did actually do this?) then HMRC stipulate that the ISA must be "blocked". Unfortunately it cannot be unblocked (and the funds moved to your ISA) without you reading a regulatory legal document (again HMRC stipulated), signing it and returning it to either a branch or in a pre-paid envelope that the bank should have sent you. Unlike some other providers I could mention, NatWest do not allow you to unblock an ISA online.

It's always worth checking that your ISA is active and unblocked before attempting any transfers in.

innovate

Agricolae wrote: »

It's always worth checking that your ISA is active and unblocked before attempting any transfers in.

Surely if a bank receives a transfer form, or funds, for an ISA on which they have put some sort of a block, they would just contact the account holder as appropriate and/or remove the block? It seems ludicrous that they willy-nilly put transferred ISA funds into a non-ISA account and never contact the account holder. Putting the money into a random non-ISA account is most certainly not in line with the ISA transfer guidelines all ISA providers have to comply with.

The OP couldn't possible have expected there would be any block on their ISA since, as they say, they had transferred ISAs from other providers for the last 3 years.

NatWest must resolve the issue that they created, without loss of interest and without loss of this year's ISA allowance for the OP. They should also pay compensation to the OP for the effort / time necessary to supervise that the problem does in fact get corrected.

Horasio

Nat West are useless

We transferred our isas from the Halifax - mine hasn't transferred after 2 months.