Halifax ISA Saver Direct

lipidicman

You will need another account as a 'withdrawal' is made by transferring to a branch based account (eg EasySaver) and then withdrawing in branch from there

m_jstap

Hi there. since Alliance and leicester have closed accepting new accounts on their isa, since I have just put £3k into a first direct isa for this year, I am going to pick the halifax isa saver direct for my isa funds accumulated from the previous years for a transfer.

I have visited both the halifax website and my local halifax branch. the website download form is set up for new deposits, and is unhelpful (not present) about transfers from other isas from other providers. In the halifax branch I asked if a isa transfer form was available. they said one does not exist. the assistant said "bring in details of your isa from which you want to transfer and we'll sort it out". I have little faith in halifax getting it right, since as someone else has mentioned in posts on these boards, and from what I have expereinced myself, its a lottery of who you speak to as to whether you get the correct advice.

so, my question is, have any of you actually gone through the process of transferring from your previous years isa subscription that is not with the halifax into the halifax saver direct isa ? if yes, was there any formal paperwork that halifax gave you, or was it the standard "open an isa form" , and someone from halifax just scribbled down the isa provider from which you want to transfer.?

dealseeker

mse_jstap wrote:

have any of you actually gone through the process of transferring from your previous years isa subscription that is not with the halifax into the halifax saver direct isa ? if yes, was there any formal paperwork that halifax gave you, or was it the standard "open an isa form" , and someone from halifax just scribbled down the isa provider from which you want to transfer.?

Was a cumbersome process that seemed to take ages. It took them over an hour to print out and complete the forms necesary to transfer over a TOISA and ISA from different providers. I needed to have statements etc available for them to photocopy. The delay processing the transfer led to missing a deadline when the fixed rate was then reduced.

I wrote a strong letter of complaint and pointed out that several points on the their form (when you take the time to read) were not appropriate for transfers e.g. you sign saying you will not subscribe to another ISa in this tax year even though this relates to a prior year. I manual corrected/annotated the forms before signing. The form also refers to a subscription for £1 being made even though I was transferring considerably more! I was told this is just the way it is done to get the account open but in general I was not impressed with the quality of the paperwork.

The transfer did go through and to be fair to them they responded well to the complaint paying compensation for loss of interest (due to delay in processing the transfer) and ex gratia £50 for my hassle and time.

lipidicman

dealseeker wrote:

I wrote a strong letter of complaint and pointed out that several points on the their form (when you take the time to read) were not appropriate for transfers e.g. you sign saying you will not subscribe to another ISa in this tax year even though this relates to a prior year. I manual corrected/annotated the forms before signing. The form also refers to a subscription for £1 being made even though I was transferring considerably more! I was told this is just the way it is done to get the account open but in general I was not impressed with the quality of the paperwork.

There is some pretty poor wording on the form that they use to open a new ISA. As I remember something about subscribing for this year onwards - we questioned this and refused to sign until we were allowed to cross it out. This took around 15 minutes to sort out. Also their initial stance seemed to be that we had to sign up for the account and then they would send us the terms and conditions in the post. After making a big fuss and telling them I would go elsewhere, the leaflet was magically produced! Halifax have great products, but poor staff training and backup.