Barclays closed and lost ISA - how to find?

WinterSun

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the right part of the forum.

I'm hoping you can give me some advice on the following situation.

About a year ago, I set up to transfer my 3 Barclays ISAs to my Santander ISA, which was postal access only.
However, due to some mis-advice from the person at Santander, I did not update the address they held on file, and Barclays refused to allow the transfers as the address Santander had (my Parent's address) did not match the address Barclays had, and I have paperwork to verify this.

Bizzarely, for some reason it seemed that they had allowed the transfer of one of the ISAs and it disappeared from view on my Barclays online portal. As the Santander ISA was Postal Access only (and sent to my parent's address) I have only just realised (on receiving my annual statement) that this ISA that Barclays closed, the funds never arrived in my Santander ISA.

I spoke to Barclays via telephone banking and they said that since the a/c has been closed they couldn't give me any details about where the money has gone, and I needed to go into a branch.

Santander have done a search on their systems and can find no other accounts matching my details. They have recommended that I speak with Barclays about tracing the old account (I have all the details and have looked out as much relevant paperwork to the attempted transfers as I can find) and will be going into a branch tomorrow to try to get them to find my money.

I'm naturally upset at myself for not checking on this all sooner, but as I have been suffering with very severe depression and anxiety for the past 18 months, I just haven't been able to.

Do any of you have any advice about how to track down this missing money? Did Barclays have any legal right to close the a/c if the transfer paperwork was incorrect (they sent letters saying that it was incorrect and they could not honour Santander's request for a transfer)? Should I be asking for compensation? How much?

Any advice welcome, I'm a bit apprehensive about going into the bank as I am still struggling with anxiety attacks which make it difficult for me to go outside or speak with strangers.

Thanks

Archi_Bald

You cannot track anything yourself. It's not your job to sort out which of the two banks has "lost" your money between them. Amazing, though, that you didn't realise until "about a year" later - - - - you should polish up your skills for managing your own money!

IMO, your best way forward would be to raise formal, written, complaints with both, Barclays and Santander. Make sure you have evidence of the complaints, e.g. send in registered mail, or hand-deliver to a Branch and get signature & stamp to confirm receipt. Attach all evidence (e.g. copy of transfer request form, statements etc) to your complaint. If you have no written evidence, your case will, of course, be a lot weaker.

Both banks then have 8 weeks from receipt of your written complaint to get back with a satisfactory resolution. If this isn't achieved, you can take your case to the Financial Ombudsman for a final decision.

pinkdalek

The bank will have a record of where the funds were sent and how it was closed.

For example, if a cheque was sent, the bank can trace the status of the cheque and pursue from there. If they have details of the account it went to e.g. Santander, you can then take this information to Santander who should be able to then see what happened.

You need to go through the correct complaint channels first with the banks, personally I would complain to both. Santander for not advising/updating you of the ISA transfers and Barclays for losing your money and sending it when the information did not marry up.

It would be an idea to take someone else with you, e.g. parent, close friend as support, this may help you with your anxiety attacks.

Archi_Bald

Sorry, hadn't registered the comment about the anxiety attacks.

I am no expert with these attacks, but I reckon if you aren't confronted with a person at the time, and can process the information and construct your response in your own time, you will be ok? So do everything in writing, don't talk to anyone in the bank in person or on the phone, and take things in your stride.

But not looking at things in a timely manner won't make them any different - - so please do try and process everything swiftly.

iblametheparents

Did the adviser you spoke to look at your notes from last year? Did they check the ISA transfer system for any indication of what's happened? I'm sorry to say that it appears they have just advised you to go in to branch when they could have done the above first. You need to call back and what they should do is refer the query on to the Complex ISA Queries team who normally look in to these matters and contact you within 5 working days.