Moneybox transfer issues-what are my rights

Lmcp

Hi, I have been unable to find this question, so here goes...
At the beginning of this tax year I sent off an ISA transfer request to MoneyBox to transfer the remaining funds from an old H2B ISA with Barclays into my LISA which I have had for over a year. After chasing up progress 3 weeks later I was told they weren’t accepting paper forms (it’s surprising a wholly app based bank would in the first place) and told to send a photo of the form by email instead, after a couple more messages they have said they are not accepting transfers at all now!! Firstly annoyed at the terrible communication I have had. Secondly, I am not happy that I have no control over my money and as a result I will be losing out on money. 

Could I therefore ask for help whether  I have any rights with regards this as I technically have no control over my money?

Your help would be appreciated!

On another note, their app is totally no user friendly, I generally always have to start a chat to find anything!

masonic

Providers are not required to accept ISA transfers. A number of ISA providers have temporarily stopped processing transfers in recent times. There are substantial delays across the system and it is a reasonable response to not being able to process transfers within a reasonable time. There are many things that were relatively easy to do a few months ago, that are now extremely difficult, or even impossible, to do.

ISA transfers are largely a paper-based process regardless of whether one party to the transfer is app based or not, as the process must be compatible with all other providers.

Obviously you have the right to resubmit your transfer application when MoneyBox is able to start accepting them again, or you could elect to transfer your LISA elsewhere if you are generally unhappy with the services MoneyBox provides. But it would seem to me to be quite disproportionate to try to pursue them for a matter that's largely beyond their control. There are good reasons why staff would have been unable to deal with the paper form you posted to their offices, and good reasons why they have taken the decision not to accept transfer requests, despite initially trying to find a way around Government restrictions by requesting you send a photo of the form directly to someone who initially thought they could process it (most likely Barclays wouldn't have accepted a photograph of the form).

You could perhaps complain to your MP that the Governments Covid-19 mitigation strategy has inconvenienced you and restricted your control over your money, meaning you might earn a little less interest on your cash, which is more important to you than the workplace restrictions that have been put in place in order to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and the seriously ill left to die at home without access to medical treatment.

Alexland

Could you just withdraw the money from the HTB ISA to deposit in the LISA? It would use your £4k LISA allowance either way. Admittedly this will also use up some of your £20k per tax year ISA contribution allowance but most people don't use it all each year anyway especially when they are about to buy their first home.