Leeds ISA - Slow Withdrawals

pryonic

About a year ago I opened a Leeds Building Society ISA as it was the best rate at the time - and I've slowly been drip feeding cash into it. This is advertised as an instant access ISA but I think they should caveat this.

If you submit a withdrawal request it won't be processed until that evening (as long as you do it before 8pm, if it's later it won't be processed until the next working day). This is all mentioned on the transfer page.

However, what they don't tell you is that while they process that withdrawal the same working day (and the money disappears from your account) is that they don't send it to your nominated account until the end of business the next day.

So, the transfer out I initiated yesterday at 10am won't actually be received to my other account until "after 18:00 today" according to the lady I called.

It's a bit nerve wracking - and the last bit doesn't sound entirely right to me.

Does anyone else with a Leeds ISA have experience of transferring some of the money out to their nominated account? Is it correct it's the end of the next working day?

eskbanker

I don't see any of the accounts at http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/isa-tax-free-accounts/ being advertised as 'instant access', but in any event, http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/faqs confirms that:

As a minimum, all financial institutions in the UK must abide by the Payment Services Directive (PSD) - this states that any payments made by mobile, internet or phone banking (including standing orders) must arrive by the end of the following business day at the latest.

There is a top tier of directly connected participants in the Faster Payments scheme where transfers are typically within two hours, but for other providers, such as many building societies, end of next business day is the regulatory standard that they're measured against, even though you're far from the only customer with higher expectations!

pryonic

Thanks for that - I'm not so annoyed as worried.

Leeds could be a lot clearer on their description of the process