Iii

Nocto

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - Having read the posts on this thread I feel a bit sick.

I re-registered to Interactive Investor from Fidelity/Cavendish in the spring. The transfer process went remarkably smoothly. I sent the forms to Interactive Investor in the middle of May, my funds all disappeared from Fidelity/Cavendish’s site mid June, and had all arrived correctly on Interactive’s site by the middle of July. I called Interactive a couple of times during the process to check on progress, and found them to be very helpful and reassuring. Transfer heaven!

Before moving my funds I did all the usual research to find a good fund supermarket and Interactive seemed to look really good. The Telegraph gives them 9 out of 10, and Which? gave them 69% for customer satisfaction. I also called them for a chat.

Unfortunately I didn’t find this forum until I googled “Late Dividends” yesterday.

After my great transfer experience, and my good experience with their call centre all seemed to be going well. I had noticed that I hadn’t received my £120 new customer offer, but wasn’t too worried. Giving them a call about it was very much on my “I’ll get around to it sometime” list!

Roll on a couple of months and - HELP! Where are my dividends? They are my ONLY source of income.

I’m due three dividends from the 31st August. I called them on about the 4th or 5th, and was told it could take up to ten working days… I called them back on Friday (12th), and was told sorry they are late but it’s really not their fault, they haven’t received the money yet, and that their CEO (yes really!) was chasing up the payments from the company handling the distributions… When I asked when I could expect the money I was told it could take until the end of the month - at which point my mouth when dry, and I practically squeaked “You’ve got to be joking!”.

I’d like to asks others here if they have now received all their dividends from earlier in the year - the May, June or July distributions.

I can just about cope with payments 4 - 6 weeks late (very VERY unhappily), but much later than that and I’m in trouble. I would have to sell units or borrow from family.

If the money doesn’t arrive in my account overnight I’ll be making a formal complaint and calling them every day until I’m paid.

If I’m still waiting at the end of the month I’ll be contacting the FCA.

If they’re this bad with dividends then the switching to clean funds process gives me nightmares!

They need to get their act together pretty quickly or I’m off. Incidentally has anyone had problems receiving commission rebates, or dividends after transferring out (other than the usual delay!).

In over a decade of investing I have never had to wait over a week to receive a dividend.

Beginning to wish I’d stayed put at Cavendish…

Paulrm71

I received both my two end of May dividends within three days, but I am still awaiting the end of Aug lot. I too complained and was told they hadn't received them from the fund manager and were chasing etc etc.

DiamondLil

My husband received a dividend payment (due 31st. July) by 4th. August. This was from an investment trust holding.
A dividend payment due at the same time from a unit trust holding was received on the 28th. August.....
I rather think IT transactions are much quicker than UT transactions as all his holdings (which are ITs) transferred in much quicker than mine which are UTs.
In fact, after six months, I'm still waiting for one fund to transfer.

Nocto

Paulrm71, I’m glad to hear that you received your May dividends okay. Sorry that you’re having the same problem as me and others this month…

I wonder if this is a new (and hopefully temporary) problem with unit trust dividends…

"Six months and still waiting for a fund to transfer" - Yikes! I didn’t realise how lucky I was.

JenniferK

In response to my formal complaint they write:

Quote
We are currently experiencing delays in certain dividend payments being distributed due to monies being received later than expected from our fund intermediary.

We are currently working with FNZ to try to eliminate these problems and are striving to return to the 1-2 day dividend distributions that we were delivering with our previous provider. We will continue to work in these areas to improve our dividend payment times and will endeavorer to ensure that these standards are met in the future.
Unquote

The problem here is that III are attempting to blame a third party. That doesn't wash with me as my contract is with III. III know the dividend payment dates - if they don't then they could read their own fact sheets. Consequently, if they don't receive it on the due date then why are they not chasing it up until they receive a complaint?

I cannot tolerate this level of incompetence so I will soon sell all holdings and move the cash to another provider. AJBell offer an incentive to transfer.

Nocto

I’ve just spent an hour or so reading the posts in this thread from the beginning a bit more thoroughly than I had before. Gosh, I now feel quite guilty for saying how well my transfer to II went in my first post. You guys really have been having a bad time…

I’m not sure if I’ve used up all my good luck for the year, or if I should rush out and buy a lottery ticket!

Anyway, looking back at the first posts in February, the general feeling about II seemed to be quite good, then as the months go by it goes steadily down hill.

I was attracted to them by the lack of a percentage service fee on clean fund units, and a full rebate of the trail commission on the old dirty fund units. All for just £20 a quarter - and we’ll even throw in a couple of free trades. Oh yes, and on top of that here’s some free money just for joining us… Hmm, starts to sound a bit like one of those “Infomercials” late at night on the shopping channel…

I wonder if they now can’t cope with the volume of business they’ve attracted?

I totally agree that it is unacceptable for II to blame a third party. We deal with them, if they’re having problems with an “intermediary” that’s not our problem. They need to sort it out fast, get rid of FNZ, whoever they are, and go back to their previous provider. Whatever it takes.

I bet FNZ are cheaper than whoever they used before.

If this goes on for long then my bank account will be FNZ… “Funds Now Zero!”

sorcerer

Don't hold your breath about them changing away from FNZ, I remember speaking to somebody who had an account with the 2 years ago, and had the same problems.


Still waiting for my £120 incentive 2 calls, 8 emails, 1 complaint and 6 months later. last one was we will pay it in 28 days, didn't happen, current one is they will pay it out 8-10 days, doubt it.


And no I have not had any payments from dividends in August I am awaiting 15 dividends for August, only 1 has paid, and that was an Investment Trust. All June payments has now been received, two took over a month to arrive, and only turned up after I complained.


I am hoping by the end of this month, and dividends at AJ Bell (you invest) pay out, that if they pay on time, I will consider a transfer out. If I can deal with the pain of doing that again.

sorcerer

I was thinking of going to the press with this, to maybe apply a bit of pressure on them. I like Tony Hetherington's column on the Daily Mail, he seems to get stuff sorted for people. Even if II do nothing about it, it will be at least some bad publicity for II, which I am sure they won't like.

JenniferK

sorcerer wrote: »

I was thinking of going to the press with this, to maybe apply a bit of pressure on them. I like Tony Hetherington's column on the Daily Mail, he seems to get stuff sorted for people. Even if II do nothing about it, it will be at least some bad publicity for II, which I am sure they won't like.

Sorcerer - thats a good idea. Is it worth getting together and approaching the Daily Mail as a group?

JenniferK

Just submitted yet another formal complaint for dividends due at the end of August. Its getting worse - not better. I have also opened an account with AJ Bell Youinvest whose reviews seem quite good so will sell off and place my funds there.