Barclays Bank have not released ISA to new provider

Worriedandtired

We each had an ISA sith Barclays which matured on 28 Feb. We arranged for the money to be transferred by a new new provider. Barclays confirmed they received the requests on 19 Feb but have not carried out the transfer. The new provider has contacted them twice more as have we. We were told the transfers had been called in by Barclays security because of their size (they are not big). Barclays security have not & apparently will not speak to us! Each time we call we are on hold for ages and can't get any further. I was told on one occasion they had 15 days to deal with this but it's now more than four weeks. Husband tried again this morning & it was confirmed Barclays security has still not released the funds for transfer. This has never happened with any other transfers with other banks or building societies before. Our new account was offering 4.2% whilst Barclays have us on 0.65%. We have no idea what else we can do - is this happening to others.

Descrabled

Barclays did the same with me for the 3y ISA. and refused the transfer. I contacted CS and was given a non sensible reason.

I think the problem arises when you ask for a transfer before the Barclays ISA matures and the transfer needs to be delayed for several days (or weeks) until the maturity date.

I solved the problem by initiating a new transfer to another provider on the exact maturity date and that went through overnight with no problem.

Beware using Barclays as a cash ISA provider.  I have now left Barclays save for 3 and 4 pence left in their 1y ISA. However, I continue to collect compensation goodwill payments on a regular basis for other problems.

Alexland

I suggest you ask to raise a formal complaint.

Ocelot

They tend to be a little slow. My own experiences: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6426799/cancelled-isa-transfer#latest

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa

Time for a formal complaint in writing?

You can send a letter explaining your complaint to

Freepost Barclays Customer Relations

You don’t need to include a postcode or add a stamp for your letter to reach us, but please remember to take the postal service into account for our response time.

Worriedandtired

Update:  Thanks everyone. Ocelot - that sounds like an awful experience.  Husband has filed a formal complaint for his and asked for compensation for loss of interest & hours spent on the phone.  Latest info from Barclays is they have 30 working days to deal with this (not 15 as originally stated) because it was a request for a paper transfer not the usual electronic one from the new provider?  New provider is now escalating the issue.  Current completion of transfer date "because of the upcoming Bank Holidays" is 14th April.  I am holding off for now because I was allowing stress to get to me (new pacemaker patient) and life is just too short to let that to happen.  Whatever the truth behind this we won't be using Barclays again because they are just too difficult to contact and fail to return calls as promised or make any attempt to communicate with their customers.

eskbanker

Worriedandtired said:

Latest info from Barclays is they have 30 working days to deal with this (not 15 as originally stated) because it was a request for a paper transfer not the usual electronic one from the new provider?

They're making that up, the 15 working days timescale was defined when electronic ISA transfers were the exception rather than the rule (and allows time for postage):

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager#cash-isa-transfers

Cash ISA to cash ISA transfers must take place within 15 business days of the transfer instruction being received by the new ISA manager, unless the investor stipulates that the 15 days starts on a later date. This 15 days is broken down as follows:

The new ISA manager has 5 business days to forward the instruction to the old ISA manager.

The old ISA manager has 5 business days in which to send the funds and information to be provided to the new ISA manager.

The new ISA manager has 3 business days to apply the funds to the new ISA.

The other two days are to allow for time taken for first class post between managers.

Edit: note also that the old provider only has 7 of those 15 working days, the other 8 are allocated to actions to be carried out by the new provider....

xylophone

 I am holding off for now because I was allowing stress to get to me (new pacemaker patient) and life is just too short to let that to happen. 

I can very much sympathise with your position but I have to say that I find it infuriating when providers of any kind of service are allowed to get away scot free with their errors and omissions because it is simply too stressful for the unfortunate end user to take up the complaint.

In your particular case, I would give myself a few days to allow a fall in my blood pressure

and then write to Barclays in polite but robust terms.

It's Freepost after all and as your new provider is on the case and apparently prepared to accept the transfer on the original terms, you can afford to wait for some richly deserved compensation?

And incidentally, is it true that your new provider is using the Royal Mail rather than the electronic system?

And even if they are, it does not excuse Barclays obfuscation and delay.

uptdale

Yes, Barclays do not seem to understand the ISA rules.  My wife is doing a part transfer from a Principality BS Cash ISA to a Barclays Cash ISA.  Principality sent the cheque to Barclays on 13 March (by post), the cheque was cleared on 23 March, and it has still not appeared in her Barclays ISA.  She chased Barclays by phone today and was told that Barclays had indeed received the cheque on 23 March but it was still being "processed".  The Barclays rep (from the ISA transfer department) claimed that the rules allow 30 working days for a non-electronic payment to be processed, which is plain wrong.

What Barclays have been doing since they received the money is anyone's guess.  If it was an AML issue, the time to have have raised it is before they requested the money from Principality.

eskbanker

uptdale said:

Principality sent the cheque to Barclays on 13 March (by post), the cheque was cleared on 23 March, and it has still not appeared in her Barclays ISA.  She chased Barclays by phone today and was told that Barclays had indeed received the cheque on 23 March but it was still being "processed".  The Barclays rep (from the ISA transfer department) claimed that the rules allow 30 working days for a non-electronic payment to be processed, which is plain wrong.

What Barclays have been doing since they received the money is anyone's guess.  If it was an AML issue, the time to have have raised it is before they requested the money from Principality.

They should backdate the interest to the date of the cheque, according to the HMRC best practice guidelines:

The new ISA provider should apply the transferred funds to the customer’s account. 

Interest on the transferred funds should be backdated either to the date on the cheque, inclusive, or to the date which represents ‘day 16’ of the transfer process, inclusive – whichever is earlier. 

For electronic payments, interest on the transferred funds should be backdated either to the date the payment was initiated, inclusive, or to the date which represents ‘day 16’ of the transfer process, inclusive – whichever is earlier. 

Alexland

uptdale said:

Yes, Barclays do not seem to understand the ISA rules.

Until someone affected raises a formal complaint and points out the error in their local work instructions for someone to investigate and correct then this will probably keep happening.