Cash ISAs accepting ISA transfers from Innovative Finance ISAs?

spider42

I've got an ISA with Ratesetter, and have gradually been withdrawing funds from, as flexible ISA withdrawals, as loans have been repaid. I've got to pay this money back in (just over £22k) before the end of this tax year, and then do an ISA transfer back out, to get it out of there properly without losing my ISA allowances. I want to do this sooner rather than later, as I suspect Ratesetter may soon close for new investments following the Metro takeover, in which case it may not be possible to make payments back into the holding account at all.

The problem I'm having is in finding ISA providers who accept ISA transfers from Innovative Finance ISAs. Almost all cash ISA providers accept transfers of cash ISAs and most also accept transfers from Stocks & Shares ISAs. But I'm struggling to find ones that will take IFISA transfers in.

The only one I've found so far is Lloyds/Halifax, but the website says you must make a trip into the branch to do it. But I'd rather not do this in the pandemic, as I'd have to use public transport to get there and I'm in a high risk group.

Is anyone aware of other providers accepting IFISA transfers in? Not too fussed about the interest rate, since as soon as I've got the money transferred into a cash ISA it will then be easy to transfer it to another one with a better interest rate. Thanks for any help.

drphila

spider42 said:

I've got an ISA with Ratesetter, and have gradually been withdrawing funds from, as flexible ISA withdrawals, as loans have been repaid. I've got to pay this money back in (just over £22k) before the end of this tax year, and then do an ISA transfer back out, to get it out of there properly without losing my ISA allowances. I want to do this sooner rather than later, as I suspect Ratesetter may soon close for new investments following the Metro takeover, in which case it may not be possible to make payments back into the holding account at all.

The problem I'm having is in finding ISA providers who accept ISA transfers from Innovative Finance ISAs. Almost all cash ISA providers accept transfers of cash ISAs and most also accept transfers from Stocks & Shares ISAs. But I'm struggling to find ones that will take IFISA transfers in.

The only one I've found so far is Lloyds/Halifax, but the website says you must make a trip into the branch to do it. But I'd rather not do this in the pandemic, as I'd have to use public transport to get there and I'm in a high risk group.

Is anyone aware of other providers accepting IFISA transfers in? Not too fussed about the interest rate, since as soon as I've got the money transferred into a cash ISA it will then be easy to transfer it to another one with a better interest rate. Thanks for any help.

Shawbrook bank definitely do. Did ones from RS and AC in May and in the process of doing another RS one now.

Aceace

I read somewhere (forgotten where now) that Virgin money accept transfers in from IFISAs. 

I've also seen reports on the P2pindependentforum that many cash ISA providers will accept a transfer in of cash held in an IFISA if you tick the box that says its coming from a cash ISA. 

Marciatom

I transferred in an IFISA to Skipton BS.  I t was an easy process to initiate but I was not happy with the time scale.  Several weeks after the IF company said the transfer was complete the money still had not appeared at Skipton.  After phone calls and secure messages it did appear and I was told everything had been backdated.

All seemed well until I subsequently tried to transfer to a new provider who refused because they said I was in breach of ISA regulations.  It appeared that The IFISA transfer was OK but two transfers in from other building societies had mistakenly been recorded as cash.  I am waiting for them to sort it out and I expect it will also have been notified to HM Customs and Excise so no doubt that will need sorting out.  They were most helpful and apologetic on the phone but if this happened to me on both of the transfers in, I wonder how many others have been affected.  So, the transfers in work (which is why I chose them) but you need to be careful.

eskbanker

Marciatom said:

It appeared that The IFISA transfer was OK but two transfers in from other building societies had mistakenly been recorded as cash.

What else would they be recorded as?

Aceace

I presume that they meant that the transfers were incorrectly recorded as new subscriptions rather than transfers. 

The issue is not directly related to IFISAs though as the erroneously logged transfers were between two building societies.