ISA transfer from Virgin Money to Barclays declined (cannot locate account) - how to proceed?

[Deleted User]

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

35har1old

Deleted_User said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

I had the seem problem but I did get it sorted.
I did complain to both.  Barclays never really responded to the complaint because I had already succeed  in getting the transfer made.But I actually think it was Barclays at fault by submitting  the transfer request to the wrong department that's why you get a response account not found.Vitgin does not record a request made to the wrong department.i got it resolved by asking Virgin  for the correct code which then sends the transfer to the right department. I got Barclays to resubmit the request  to transfer
I did get a token payment from Virgin

masonic

Deleted_User said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

Waiting for a SAR would just slow the complaints process down, and the Financial Ombudsman Service will need to request the same information from the banks whether or not you supply it to them, and I dare say the banks will act more quickly when responding to them vs you.

The nub of the issue is Virgin not registering themselves as a cash ISA manager, and apparently not updating the HMRC and TISA databases with their new trading name and contact details as they continue to operate cash ISAs under Clydesdale Bank's licence. That key information won't be found in a response to a SAR. Barclays would be found at fault if the contact information in these databases differed to that used to send the transfer correspondence, while Virgin would be found at fault if the correspondence was received in accordance with those databases, but incorrectly processed. A third option is that incorrect information was supplied on the transfer form, which might be Virgin's fault if the information they provided related to transfers out was unclear.

So, as I see it, you have two complaints:

one against Barclays alleging they didn't use the correct correspondence information when processing the transfer request, causing it to be received by the wrong group company and rejected

one against Virgin alleging they wrongly stated to Barclays that your account couldn't be located, and to you that they never received any correspondence from Barclays.

subjecttocontract

I've had similar problems with Vigin ISA transfers in the past and have resolved to avoid Virgin Money going forward. Avoiding Virgin Money doesn't seem to have disadvantaged me in any way.

[Deleted User]

35har1old said:

Deleted_User said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

I had the seem problem but I did get it sorted.
I did complain to both.  Barclays never really responded to the complaint because I had already succeed  in getting the transfer made.But I actually think it was Barclays at fault by submitting  the transfer request to the wrong department that's why you get a response account not found.Vitgin does not record a request made to the wrong department.i got it resolved by asking Virgin  for the correct code which then sends the transfer to the right department. I got Barclays to resubmit the request  to transfer
I did get a token payment from Virgin

Well, I wrote that Barclays made another transfer request without me asking them to do that and they received "Account closed" from Clydesdale Bank, which makes me think it's more likely Virgin Money's fault.
The issue is they both deny any liability and say the other party is at fault.

[Deleted User]

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

So, as I see it, you have two complaints:

one against Barclays alleging they didn't use the correct correspondence information when processing the transfer request, causing it to be received by the wrong group company and rejected

one against Virgin alleging they wrongly stated to Barclays that your account couldn't be located, and to you that they never received any correspondence from Barclays.

I kind of agree to what you are saying about Virgin (especially as I received the "account closed" letter from Barclays).
Not sure about Barclays though, what grounds do I have? I filled in their transfer authority form and they sent me 3 different letters about outcomes of these requests, that's all I know for sure (apart from the bit about Virgin Money they mentioned in their final response to my complaint). Or you mean I requested a the transfer from Virgin Money when in fact it should have been from Clydesdale bank?

[Deleted User]

subjecttocontract said:

I've had similar problems with Vigin ISA transfers in the past and have resolved to avoid Virgin Money going forward. Avoiding Virgin Money doesn't seem to have disadvantaged me in any way.

I will avoid both Barclays and Virgin Money in the future, no problem.
The main issue here is my cash ISA is still with Virgin and with all that "could not be located" it might be there forever unless they provide me with the right information for a transfer, which they tend not to do as apparently nobody can make them accountable for such behaviour.

boingy

I have to say that I switched a cash ISA out of Virgin last year and it was trouble-free. All the account details I needed were displayed in the Virgin App. The transfer wasn't exactly speedy but it went through just fine.

[Deleted User]

boingy said:

I have to say that I switched a cash ISA out of Virgin last year and it was trouble-free. All the account details I needed were displayed in the Virgin App. The transfer wasn't exactly speedy but it went through just fine.

I saw several scenarios of transfers out from Virgin Money on this forum.
You might be lucky but generally it depends on which bank had your Cash ISA as apparently there are at least 3 different entities working under the "Virgin Money" umbrella.
In my case sort code 82 implies it's Clydesdale Bank but in the Virgin Money app there is no word about Clydesdale Bank, just sort code and account number. Over the phone/chat they literally say "all the information you need to give to your new ISA manager is your full name, sort code, account number and amount to transfer". And considering these 3 different entities and all my correspondence being from Virgin Money, there is only ~30% chance for my transfer to go through as Virgin Money responds "cannot locate account" when supplied with correct sort code/account number but different ISA manager name.
It looks like Virgin's fault that cost a lot of time and money to their unlucky customers.

35har1old

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:

masonic said:

Deleted_User said:
Could you please tell me how to do it properly as I have never done it before and would be grateful for any advice.

The process is very simple, you can start it here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint

You would need to make a complaint that is specific to the organisation you are complaining about, i.e. what you think they did wrong, and how that impacted you in terms of inconvenience and any losses suffered.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to get hold of all of the transfer-related information and make a judgement on why the transfer wasn't successfully actioned. They don't need you to do any detective work yourself, so you can restrict each complaint to the relevant facts around the non-transfer of your ISA and what you were told about each bank by the other.

Sorry, my question was regarding requesting data from banks, i.e SAR.
Or you think it's not required here and I just need to stick to the facts that I have?

Waiting for a SAR would just slow the complaints process down, and the Financial Ombudsman Service will need to request the same information from the banks whether or not you supply it to them, and I dare say the banks will act more quickly when responding to them vs you.

The nub of the issue is Virgin not registering themselves as a cash ISA manager, and apparently not updating the HMRC and TISA databases with their new trading name and contact details as they continue to operate cash ISAs under Clydesdale Bank's licence. That key information won't be found in a response to a SAR. Barclays would be found at fault if the contact information in these databases differed to that used to send the transfer correspondence, while Virgin would be found at fault if the correspondence was received in accordance with those databases, but incorrectly processed. A third option is that incorrect information was supplied on the transfer form, which might be Virgin's fault if the information they provided related to transfers out was unclear.

So, as I see it, you have two complaints:

one against Barclays alleging they didn't use the correct correspondence information when processing the transfer request, causing it to be received by the wrong group company and rejected

one against Virgin alleging they wrongly stated to Barclays that your account couldn't be located, and to you that they never received any correspondence from Barclays.

Virgin are registered  as a ISA manager as you can apply for several ISAs and one could be on what I would consider to be the Clydesdale Web page 10 digit numerical customer  number and the other would be on the Virgin Web page 7digit alphabetical  login