Transferring out of Alliance & Leicester

beefturnmail

I'm transferring my ISA out of Alliance & Leicester and into Kent Reliance Building Society, as the 0.7% bonus on the interest runs out on 31/4. Filled in the forms and sent to KR, who forwarded them on to A & L, but then A&L wrote back to me today, to say they couldn't action my instructions as it's an internet/telephone only account. No option to do it over the internet, so only choice to call, yes you guessed it, an 0870 number. Anyway, I found a way round this from another poster on this site, which I've copied below:

Call 0800 068 8638
Option 2 (current account)
Option 2 (savings)
Option 2 (Direct ISA)
Option 9 (speak to operator)
Key in customer ID
Key in security details
On hold for approx 10 mins (but it's free!)
Speak to helpful operator and it's done.

Fingers crossed that the rest of it goes through OK

LittleVoice

I've thanked you for the post.
Though I don't have an A&L ISA, it's good to have the procedure set out clearly.

Guess you can always trust A&L to hold on to your money as long as they can - even to the extent of writing to you when they won't accept instructions from you in writing!

Stonk

I'm about to be in exactly the same position.

A&L told me on the phone yesterday that they won't accept Kent Reliance's request to "pull" the money; I have to call A&L to "push" the money. But I can't do that until the Kent Reliance account is open and I have the account number.

Meanwhile, Kent Reliance have told me that to open the account I must send them either a transfer form or a cheque. I can't do the latter, because I've already used my ISA limit this year, and I don't want to delay until next tax year because the turnaround time in opening the account and completing the transfer (up to 30 days) will very likely take me beyond the end of the A&L bonus period (30 April).

It's a complete Catch-22!

exel1966

I initiated a transfer out of A&L to YBS about an hour ago and was told it could take up to 21 days to complete, though he did say it would probably be more like a week as they weren't too busy at the moment.
Strangely, they didn't ask for the YBS account number to transfer to, so I queried that with them and was told they didn't need it as the transfer uses name + address to ensure it's correct. I'm not 100% convinced about that though !

PS: ref the the phone method above - you have to key in your user id and password, this will then give you the account balance after which you will have the option to press 9. Was on hold for no more than 10 seconds !!!

beefturnmail

Stonk wrote: »

I'm about to be in exactly the same position.

A&L told me on the phone yesterday that they won't accept Kent Reliance's request to "pull" the money; I have to call A&L to "push" the money. But I can't do that until the Kent Reliance account is open and I have the account number.

Meanwhile, Kent Reliance have told me that to open the account I must send them either a transfer form or a cheque.
It's a complete Catch-22!

I filled in a transfer form and sent it to Kent reliance. They wrote back and said they were setting up the account and have forwarded the transfer form onto A&L. A&L then wrote back to me to say I needed to ring to transfer the money, which I then did. Didn't seem to be a problem that I didn't have an account number. Maybe you need to go through the process of sending Kent Reliance a transfer form, so that they will open the account - even though you know A&L will just send it back to you and you'll then have to ring?

Incidentally, this post should probably belong on the ISAs sub-forum but I'm not sure how to move it

YorkshireBoy

exel1966 wrote: »

I initiated a transfer out of A&L to YBS about an hour ago and was told it could take up to 21 days to complete, though he did say it would probably be more like a week as they weren't too busy at the moment.

I've just gone through the same transfer process. A&L closed my account on day 5, and YBS credited my account on day 8 (would have been next day but for the weekend!).

Strangely, they didn't ask for the YBS account number to transfer to, so I queried that with them and was told they didn't need it as the transfer uses name + address to ensure it's correct. I'm not 100% convinced about that though !

That would concern me, because I was asked for the YBS (10 digit) account number.

exel1966

I later called YBS to query with them whether a transfer in could be done without the account number......and oddly they did said yes it could, but would slow the process somewhat.....Not wanting to make life difficult I called A&L back and insisted they include the YBS account number on the transfer form.

Bisoy

exel1966 wrote: »

I later called YBS to query with them whether a transfer in could be done without the account number......and oddly they did said yes it could, but would slow the process somewhat.....Not wanting to make life difficult I called A&L back and insisted they include the YBS account number on the transfer form.

I would agree with Yorkshireboy that it would concern me if they won't ask your YBS account or reference number. My transfer has just been completed 2 days ago and the bloke in A&L did ask me my YBS account number.