NATWEST ISA transfer delay

Horasio

I sent my transfer form to get my Halifax BS moved in mid April as did my husband - his has transferred but not mine

They are taking the *king p*ss out of me:mad:

I rang for the third time today and it has been escalated to the complaints department.

The time, stress and costs involved to get this sorted are mounting!

mad-mark_2

I'm also waiting for a transfer in to happen, but I've hit a different problem. My wife and I separately applied for the Natwest cash ISA advertised at 3.5% (for balances over £30k) on MSE and she noticed on a statement today that the rate applied was 2.5% I checked my account and the same figure was shown.

Customer services are looking into the problem now, and couldn't immediately explain it, but say it could take up to 5 working days before they will get back to us.

It might be worth checking the rate being applied (statement page in online banking will show the current rate) to anyone who has opened this account recently, in case there is a wider issue here.

Arkle56

innovate wrote: »

Not sure what you are trying to get at, BettySpofkins. Interest earned in an ISA should always be credited to the ISA, not to a current account (unless expressly requested by the ISA holder).

Despite what you are saying, Arkle 56 actually has "lost a penny" (more likely a bit more), and he/she doesn't strike me to have an "obvious desire to feel hard done by". The fact is that NatWest have completely mis-handled the ISA interest payment - firstly, the interest has been paid into a current account, thereby obliterating the point of an ISA because the interest should be tax free, and it is not so when paid into a current account. Secondly, the interest paid into the current account has lost its tax-free status. Thirdly, the compound tax-free interest has been lost for good.

All pretty dreadful, and in violation of the law (ISAs are governed by law).

Arkle56, I know you said it's only £25, but if I were you, I would raise a formal complaint with NatWest, asking them to correct the interest payment (backdating, paying into the ISA), for the reasons given above. Plus, I would ask for compensation for the time and effort you had to spend to make them do the job they should have done in the first instance, and for the stress they caused you in the process. If they don't settle this to your satisfaction, you have every reason to report them to the FSA for breach of their banking licence.

Don't let them get away with it - - - they would chase you for every last penny (and loads of charges on the pennies!) if you had made a mistake with your money. What is good for the bankers must be good for us as customers!

Thank you Innovate.

You have very precisely summarised my point and you are clearly a person who takes time to read and understand the thread.

Remember on top of this interest 'scam' my transfer took almost a month so I was a little taken aback to be called self righteous by BettySpofkins

I was reminded of a quote I heard that the freedom to comment on the internet was, in certain cases ,like giving monkeys machine guns.:)

geordiegirl1968

mad-mark wrote: »

I'm also waiting for a transfer in to happen, but I've hit a different problem. My wife and I separately applied for the Natwest cash ISA advertised at 3.5% (for balances over £30k) on MSE and she noticed on a statement today that the rate applied was 2.5% I checked my account and the same figure was shown.

Customer services are looking into the problem now, and couldn't immediately explain it, but say it could take up to 5 working days before they will get back to us.

It might be worth checking the rate being applied (statement page in online banking will show the current rate) to anyone who has opened this account recently, in case there is a wider issue here.

mad-mark I gave them a call today with the same problem. Apparently, if you open and account with bonus, the bonus only applies from the 15th of the next calendar month. For instance if you apply on the 2nd May to open an ISA with bonus, you will get 2.5% till the 15th June, when the extra 1% bonus is applied to your account. Sounds wrong to me.

innovate

geordiegirl1968 wrote: »

mad-mark I gave them a call today with the same problem. Apparently, if you open and account with bonus, the bonus only applies from the 15th of the next calendar month. For instance if you apply on the 2nd May to open an ISA with bonus, you will get 2.5% till the 15th June, when the extra 1% bonus is applied to your account. Sounds wrong to me.

Unfortunately, this is what NatWest are doing - - although it is very sneaky, they do actually make this clear in their smallprint, so you have no immediate comeback.
They are, to my knowledge, the only ISA provider who try to catch out customer that way (I think they call it "helpful banking" - probably meaning they have devised a legal way to help themselves to a bit more of their customers' money)

moneybagsuk

I'm also waiting on a transfer in, paperwork arranged a month ago, date of transfer May 20th - no sign so far but I'm gonna make sure I get my 3.5% from June 15th ...

But a funny story for those of you finding the NatWest ISA process frustrating:

I ALSO transferred my existing NatWest ISA into the new eISA - easy, huh? Nope.

I naively logged into online banking, where I could see my old ISA and new one (with zero balance). Tried transfer between accounts. 'Sorry, you have exceeded your transfer limit'. Mmm, that's odd, let's try £10. Same error message.

Oh, whatever, I'll try the phone. 45 minutes later and after some miraculous luck that actually got me past the security checks ... 'Oh no, of course not sir, you need to fill in an ISA transfer form'. Me: 'What, the one for if I wasn't a customer at all'?. 'Yes, sir, of course. Print it out, fill it in, enter your account details and post it to us.' 'You're kidding'. 'No, sir.'

I printed the forms, filled them in, sent them to NatWest, and lo and behold 4 WEEKS LATER they transferred my money from 1 account to the other. At their own bank.

I bet they wrote to themselves and posted a bloody cheque too :mad:

moneybagsuk

innovate wrote: »

Unfortunately, this is what NatWest are doing - - although it is very sneaky, they do actually make this clear in their smallprint, so you have no immediate comeback.
They are, to my knowledge, the only ISA provider who try to catch out customer that way (I think they call it "helpful banking" - probably meaning they have devised a legal way to help themselves to a bit more of their customers' money)

In my case, they have also cunningly held off my deposit (received by thm 20th May) until the 1st of June. It remains to be seen if I get the backdated interest or the (more subtle) backdated higher account balance and therefore higher tier of interest on my full balance!

juliebunny

Well my ISA money has finally arrived at the Nationwide after around 6 weeks and I noticed that on their website it does say to allow 4 weeks for transfer which I never saw before. I only know this cos I rang them to chase, not yet heard from them. Apparently I now have to go into the branch again to fill out a signature - why don't they do this when you open the account?? Sighs...

mad-mark_2

moneybagsuk wrote: »

In my case, they have also cunningly held off my deposit (received by thm 20th May) until the 1st of June. It remains to be seen if I get the backdated interest or the (more subtle) backdated higher account balance and therefore higher tier of interest on my full balance!

Yes, I see what you mean. That would be *really* sneaky, and would really leave me with bad feelings towards natwest, a bank I've been with for over 20 years. Will have to call them on Wednesday to see if they can confirm either way, and if there's any progress on my transfers in :-(

Horasio

Rang a week later

Still nothing happened, the money is still in my old isa

The time, cost of calls and my emotional state as a result of this is mounting:eek::eek:

They sent a letter - not received yet

It will be a year before it is resolved at this rate

Already taken nearly 2 months

As soon as the year is done, I am closing every account with them:mad::mad::mad:

They are pants!