ISA Transfer Delay

nunman

Last year I transferred 3x Cash ISAs to my Interactive Investor Stocks And Shares ISA and the funds were transferred within 3 working days of the maturity date, for each case.
This year I wanted to transfer my Halifax Cash ISA to my II S&S ISA.
56 days after my Halifax Cash ISA maturity, and with no transfer completion date in sight, I lost patience and moved it to a Halifax non-ISA account, transferred it myself to the II S&S ISA account (took about 5 minutes) and used it to buy the global tracker fund that I should have bought 56-3, 53 days previously. Of course, because the money was transferred outside of the ISA tax wrapper, I used up a large proportion of my 2020-21 ISA allowance (which I didn't really want to do).The Halifax has admitted they had problems and has given me £125 for my inconvenience.Working out how much my global tracker would have cost given the 'normal' transfer times (experienced in the previous year), I calculate I lost around £700 (since the global tracker was at a lower price around when the cash should have been transferred).
Does anybody know if there is any guidance for compensation for loss in these circumstances? Although the £125 compensation is welcome, I feel gutted that if the transfer had taken place as 'normal' I'd be £700 better off.

masonic

To calculate a reasonable loss figure, you'd need to look at the price on the date you invested vs the price 30 calendar days after II acknowledged receipt of your transfer instruction (i.e the maximum time allowed for the transfer). To this you could add a sum to compensate you for the hassle and loss of a portion of your ISA allowance, which could itself be in the same ballpark as the offer you have received. If you take the £125 to be compensation for inconvenience, you just need to counter that you also wish to be put back in the position you would have been in had the transfer completed in the maximum allowable timeframe.

nunman

I'm guessing you are getting the 30 days from the ISA GOV.UK page - Deadlines And Complaints '30 calendar days for other types of transfer'. I don't find it is clear from the page whether it is 30 days from giving them the transfer instruction or 30 days from the maturity date of the Cash ISA. Either way, the pushback I'm expecting from the Halifax is that I would somehow have to prove that I would have invested in that particular fund at 30 days (obviously, something I can't do). I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this issue - just wondered if anybody has had the same experience.

eskbanker

It's usually difficult to get to the bottom of root causes of ISA transfer delays, with the providers often pointing the finger at each other - how are you determining the split of responsibility for delays between the two parties, as you'll need to be pretty sure of the facts if you're looking to hold either or both fully liable for investment (opportunity) losses incurred due to their lack of expedient action?  If Halifax have accepted full liability for all of the delay already then that's not an issue, but that would be quite unusual....

Does your reference to 56-3 imply that you consider three days as a reasonable benchmark, based solely on your experience last year, as opposed to the thirty days that masonic cites from the government guidance?

masonic

nunman said:

I'm guessing you are getting the 30 days from the ISA GOV.UK page - Deadlines And Complaints '30 calendar days for other types of transfer'. I don't find it is clear from the page whether it is 30 days from giving them the transfer instruction or 30 days from the maturity date of the Cash ISA. Either way, the pushback I'm expecting from the Halifax is that I would somehow have to prove that I would have invested in that particular fund at 30 days (obviously, something I can't do). I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this issue - just wondered if anybody has had the same experience.

If you submitted the transfer request prior to the maturity of your cash ISA with a notice period to be served, then the 30 days would start from the date the ISA was free to be transferred.

I don't actually think there is going to be any difficulty in establishing your intentions, providing you duly invested in that fund as soon as possible upon self-transferring the money. If you already had a holding in the fund, all the better. People do not transfer money to a S&S ISA without intending to invest it in something. A global tracker is far from an unusual choice of investment.

If Halifax push back, then you have the option of pressing on to the Financial Ombudsman Service, who would be in a position to talk to both II and Halifax to establish the facts, and you could provide either Halifax or the FOS with a contract note as evidence of the purchase.

eskbanker raises a good point regarding shared liability. Halifax will know when they received the transfer instruction and when they processed it. If, for example, II held on to the transfer form for weeks before sending it on to Halifax, that would relieve them of some of the liability, but I'd be surprised if they wouldn't have already informed you of that if true.

nunman

My transfer forms were sent to Interactive Investor on the 23/3/20, i.e. a couple of weeks before the ISA maturity date 8/4/20. I did receive a letter from the Halifax dated the 8/4/20 (i.e. on the actual ISA maturity date)  saying they were initiating the transfer process - so there was obviously no delay from Interactive Investor  processing the transfer forms from their end. The Halifax have admitted that their processes were at fault. Therefore I don't think there would be a dispute about liability and subsequent finger pointing. The 53 days is the time between the maturity date of the ISA (8/4/20) and the time I moved the money myself manually and bought the fund with Interactive Investor. The 3 days refers to the period of time between the ISA maturity date and receiving the money in my Interactive Investor account, given my experience of 3 similar ISA cash transfers last year. Therefore the 53 - 3 days is the period I perceive there was a delay based on my past experience. I appreciate the GOV.UK guidance of 30 days, and so my perceived delay should really be 53 - 30 days. I did purchase the fund as soon as I manually transferred the money to Interactive Investor. I have previous holdings in the global tracker - it is the core equity holding of my savings. I'm already processing the claim with the Halifax based on the 30 day guidance and have asked Interactive Investor to provide to them the details of my Order Purchase for the fund. I really initiated this post to get a feel if there is a legitimate claim for loss in this case. From your responses, I'm encouraged that it is something I should pursue, so thanks for your responses.