Transferring Cash ISA out of NS&I

auser99

Has anyone any experience of transferring a cash ISA out of NS@I recently?

Am trying to move some previous year money to Shawbrook.
Request went in Mon April 17th, receipt confirmed by Shawbrook Tue April 18th.
Even if we take the receipt confirmation being a late afternoon and thus Wednesday not counting as day 1, then it'd still be 15 days as of Friday 12th May.

Shawbrook on Friday confirmed it's NS@I holding it up.
Before i chase them up (expecting that to be less easy than Shawbrook), does anyone know if NS@I are particularly slow, or work to different timescales?

refluxer

Transferring a Junior ISA from NS&I to an alternative provider towards the end of 2021 took a total of 24 days, between opening the new account and the funds being received.

As they don't utilise the BACs ISA transfer service, NS&I send funds by cheque which (considering the current state of the postal service) obviously slows the process down and also introduces the risk of cheques being lost in the post.

In contrast to that, a recent ISA transfer from a different provider to Shawbrook (both of whom do use the BACs ISA transfer service) took 2.5 days.

Based on both of those experiences, I would say that Shawbrook are right - it'll be NS&I that are holding the process up. I wouldn't worry about it though - you'll just have to be patient and allow time for NS&I's antiquated processes to complete.

auser99

Thanks @refluxer, good to know.
The more I read about NS@I the more I wonder what their actual advantage is over others. 

I can be patient, but thought the 15 days thing was an actual rule that had to be withheld.

eskbanker

auser99 said:

Shawbrook on Friday confirmed it's NS@I holding it up.

It's not unusual for one party to point the finger at the other when there are delays in transferring between them!

auser99 said:

The more I read about NS@I the more I wonder what their actual advantage is over others.

What led you to save with them in the first place?

auser99 said:

I can be patient, but thought the 15 days thing was an actual rule that had to be withheld.

There's certainly no requirement for money to be withheld for 15 days, but ISA providers are expected to complete the process within 15 working days, but the timeframes were specified back when post was expected to arrive the next day!

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.

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

auser99

@eskbanker - was set up an account by family ages back, and never really paid much attention to it. But I'm using the expertise on here to quickly put things closer to the maximising side of things asap.

GrubbyGirl_2

You'll probably find it equally as frustrating transferring out of Shawbrook as I believe they use snail mail too 

Albermarle

Most easy use and high rate 1 year fix rate ISA — MoneySavingExpert Forum

The second poster on this thread just had a super quick transfer into Shawbrook electronically, so would be a bit odd if they did not use this system for transfers out. Unless the receiving provider was unable to transfer electronically.

refluxer

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

You'll probably find it equally as frustrating transferring out of Shawbrook as I believe they use snail mail too 

Shawbrook are signed up to the BACs Cash ISA transfer service so transfers in and out should be electronic, provided the sending or receiving bank also uses the service.

Cynergy provide a handy list of the banks and building societies who subscribe to this service here : https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/personal/cash-isa-fixed-variable-rate/cash-isa-transfers/

isasmurf

refluxer said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

You'll probably find it equally as frustrating transferring out of Shawbrook as I believe they use snail mail too 

Shawbrook are signed up to the BACs Cash ISA transfer service so transfers in and out should be electronic, provided the sending or receiving bank also uses the service.

Cynergy provide a handy list of the banks and building societies who subscribe to this service here : https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/personal/cash-isa-fixed-variable-rate/cash-isa-transfers/

As the thread is about Shawbrook here is their list of who they can transfer from electronically. 

caveman38

When I transferred money from NSI to Charter my transfer was hampered because I failed to read that I had to fill in a paper form. If I remember correctly nobody informed me to that fact and the transfer remained in limbo until I filled in the paper form. 
As my age plays havoc with my memory, I would not swear 100% that it was NSI with the extra requirement - but pretty sure. Happy to be corrected.

eskbanker

caveman38 said:

When I transferred money from NSI to Charter my transfer was hampered because I failed to read that I had to fill in a paper form. If I remember correctly nobody informed me to that fact and the transfer remained in limbo until I filled in the paper form. 
As my age plays havoc with my memory, I would not swear 100% that it was NSI with the extra requirement - but pretty sure. Happy to be corrected.

Any ISA transfer is initiated solely by filling in the receiving provider's form, whether that's a paper or electronic one, and there isn't any requirement (or indeed ability) to do anything at the ceding provider's end, so I'd suggest that you may be misremembering....