ISA transfer question

[Deleted User]

I have a 95 day notice cash ISA account with Charter Savings Bank which I would like to close and move the funds to another provider.

I have given notice, which expires on 1 May.

On giving notice, I received the following secure message from Charter Savings:-

"I can confirm I have applied 95 days notice to your account from 26 January 2019. The notice period will end on 1 May 2019.
We will also send you a letter to confirm that notice has been applied to the account and the notice end date. You will need to advise us by secure message or signed and dated letter at least 5 working days prior to your notice end date in regards to where you would like the funds transferred.
Please be advised that if you do not advise us where you would like the funds transferred, notice will pass and you will have to start the notice period again to transfer the funds."

I have now opened an eISA (Issue 5) with Santander and want to transfer the full funds in the Charter Savings ISA to the Santander ISA.

The advice from CSB seems to suggest that all I need to do is to advise CSB at least 5 days before 1 May where the funds are to be transferred to, failing which the notice will pass and needs to be started again.

All previous ISA transfers which I have initiated have involved completing and submitting to the new provider a transfer request form. I am concerned that if I follow the procedure suggested by CSB (ie tell them where to transfer the funds) instead of asking Santander to request the transfer of the funds then I may lose the ISA status of the funds.

Can anyone who knows the ISA rules in detail advise?

Many thanks.

eskbanker

An ISA transfer does need to be driven by the receiving provider, so you will need to get Santander to initiate the process from their end, otherwise the money will lose its ISA status.

I presume that the CSB wording will be generic boilerplate text applicable to all notice withdrawals (did you actually have the opportunity to specify that it'll be a transfer to another ISA?) but it's probably worth sending them a message anyway to inform them that with your consent they'll be receiving a formal ISA transfer request from your new provider and that you expect this to be honoured without any silliness, regardless of exactly when it arrives. As I recall, most ISA transfers do permit the nomination of a date that takes into account maturity of fixed terms, etc, so you should be able to get Santander to schedule the transfer for 1 or 2 May.

[Deleted User]

Thanks Eskbanker for helpful and cautionary reply.

xylophone

You will need to complete a Santander ISA Transfer form which you can be done on line - however, check with Charter exactly what details you need to provide to Santander concerning the Charter sort code and account number and your reference/ roll number.

Mine was delayed (according to Charter's phone rep) because their sort code and account number should not be provided in this field.

I am still waiting for the resolution of a complaint (they will be writing, apparently) so check.

There is a reference in the Santander form to transfer after a period of notice.

[Deleted User]

xylophone wrote: »

You will need to complete a Santander ISA Transfer form which you can be done on line - however, check with Charter exactly what details you need to provide to Santander concerning the Charter sort code and account number and your reference/ roll number.

Mine was delayed (according to Charter's phone rep) because their sort code and account number should not be provided in this field.

I am still waiting for the resolution of a complaint (they will be writing, apparently) so check.

There is a reference in the Santander form to transfer after a period of notice.

I checked with Charter Savings with regard to the account details to put on the ISA transfer form. Reply was as follows:-

"Please be advised as we are not a clearing bank our sort code and account number is not specific for your individual ISA as we use a clearing bank when processing transactions.
Therefore, when completing your ISA transfer form you will need to leave the sort code and account number blank and use your account number 9IA******** as the roll/reference number for the purpose of the form.
I confirm your funds will be available on 01 May 2019.
For your reference I confirm our clearing bank is Barclays and the sort code we use is 20-19-90"

badger09

Hattie625

You may already have discovered this, but for the benefit of others:

when you log into online banking with Santander and complete the transfer request form there is the following sentence

" I authorise my existing ISA provider (mentioned above) to transfer my cash ISA After serving the full notice period on the account or at maturity on a fixed rate ISA (this option is not recommended if maturity date is more than 30 days from submitting this form)"

The bold is Santander's, not mine. To be absolutely sure, I would submit this request until say 12th April.

REJ105

Hi - Not sure if this is the right place to post this, and sorry, not a reply to the previous post. Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/suggestions regarding this scenario - If you have completed an ISA transfer form in respect of a matured ISA requesting the transfer of the specified matured amount of funds, but have also ticked the box to transfer the full amount - referring to the matured isa funds (in my case 3 ISA's held with the provider - generic ISA number covers all three - only asked for monies in the holding account with the matured funds to be transferred - quoted generic ISA number but also the holding account number and specific amount) - should the new provider have contacted me to query this before requesting that total ISA funds (all three) be transferred? Thanks in advance for any help.