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Newcastle Building Society transferred my ISA to the wrong bank

At the end of July I opened a new ISA with NatWest , with a much higher interest rate than the above account with Newcastle BS.

I completed the form to transfer the Newcastle BS ISA to the new Nat West account ,and nothing seemed to be happening .

Another ISA between Santander to Virgin that  I had started 3 days after the request to NBS had been completed in 5 days 

So naturally I got curious as to why the NBS to NatWest transfer had not happened.

On or about 4th August , NatWest (not Newcastle BS) told  me  that the transfer hadn't occurred because of a name mismatch between the name on the transfer form from NatWest 

The NBS account had a short version of my first name and the NatWest account was in the long version of my name. For example Bob  or Robert.

Although the reason was obvious, but I understand why NBS may need the issue clarified.

On Monday 7thAugust I contacted NBS and explained the situation, it was discussed with a manager and the issue was clarified.They asked me to complete another form.

I didn't see why another form was needed , as the first form i sent would be identical to the new form, but it was easy enough to complete online.  

By the 14th August , no form was received from Natwest

A few days later NBS got the form but could not complete the transfer , as Natwest had not requested the money 'on demand'.  I contacted NBS, to see if the first form they received was correctly completed. They told me that that was incorrect as well.

I got back to Natwest , but after being transferred to the 'specialist ISA ' team and waiting over an hour, i gave up , and decided to take my money elsewhere. 

I set up an ISA account with UBL, as it had a closer interest rate to the natwest ISA, and again set up a transfer .

After looking at the poor standard of UBLs website and seeing their volume of poor reviews, i had second thoughts and asked UBL to close my accounts (which they did). 

I told Newcastle BS NOT to transfer any money to UBL, which the Newcastle BS acknowledged.

And after spending over an hour waiting on the phone to natwest ISA team, i eventually got through to the ISA team  and the person there didn't seem to know any more than the front line caller centre. But as far as i knew they were going to request the money from Newcastle BS. 

On Friday i saw that Newcastle BS had closed the ISA.

I contacted NatWest and after an hour of waiting, the person on the alleged 'specialist team', could only tell me 'it takes about 5 days' 

Later that afternoon I got a phone call from UBL to tell me that despite my instructions Newcastle BS had transferred the money to them.

On Saturday I got a letter from Natwest to say it was too late to fund the ISA , as it was no longer available. 

here is my review of the following  

Newcastle BS - they seemed incapable of picking up a phone or sending an email to contact Natwest to tell them what was wrong. They were prepared to nitpick the transfer request to natwest But ignore my message NOT to transfer money to UBL.

Natwest  

Obviously incompetent and could not send a correctly completed form, waiting over an hour for a phone call to be answered, and then find out you are through to another call centre with no specialist knowledge. This is unacceptable particularly for a high street bank.  

I would avoid banking with natwest , its fine if nothing goes wrong. But if you have a problem, you will spend a lot of time listing to classical music (i heard samuel barber's elegy for strings for over an hour ) before the alleged 'specialist'  team answers, then you find out , its just another call centre.  .

UBL - so far not too bad , they closed my accounts quickly, and phoned me to tell me that Newcastle BS had made a mistake. I don't want to bank with them, lets see how quickly they return the cash to Newcastle.

Comments

  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 24,551 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 28 August 2023 at 6:03PM
    ISA transfers follow a highly regulated procedure overseen by HMRC. The process requires the customer to submit a transfer request to the gaining ISA manager. The gaining ISA manager is then responsible for managing the transfer on the customer's behalf. The ceding ISA manager is responsible for verifying that the transfer authority is valid and the information contained within the transfer instruction is correct. Being able to match the name provided with the legal name (held by them) of the customer will form part of these checks, which was failed in the case of your first transfer request. It is Natwest's responsibility to communicate to you the reason why the transfer request was rejected, which they did. Moral of the story, don't open accounts with anything other than your legal name, and if you change this, make sure you update all relevant parties. As an aside, I have seen someone get into difficulties at the airport through booking a flight using a shortened version of the name on their passport, so it is not just banking where this sort of thing can cause issues.
    For the second transfer, Natwest should have been able to provide you with a reason for this rejection. NBS is entitled to require that the transfer form is completed correctly by the right person, as this gives them the authority to act on the instructions contained therein. They must be confident that the instructions on the form are clear and unambiguous as they would be liable for not carrying out the instructions as specified on the form. From the reason given, it does sound like something wasn't ticked that should have been. Perhaps Natwest should have flagged this at the point of submission or before forwarding to NBS.
    At this point, the decision to try with UBL was probably a sensible one, and the good news was that there were no issues with UBL's transfer form. It was unfortunate that you visited TrustPilot, and gave any weight to the contents of that site or this story could have had a happy ending. The issue with TrustPilot is that it operates on a 'pay to win' model, where by default businesses that do not engage with it only attract negative reviews. Those that pay TrustPilot for services aimed at driving positive reviews to the site are able to improve their apparent reputation and TrustPilot profits from selling those services. The financial services companies that have tended to have the best TrustPilot reviews (often nearly all 5*) have been those that are outright scams that have later made headlines, such as the London Capital & Finance Bond scam.
    NBS does seem to have erred in the final part of the story, as you were left with the impression that you could rescind your authority to transfer the ISA by telephoning NBS at that stage. It is just a shame that after all this your ISA will end up with NBS who you don't like very much, rather than UBL, who you seem more positive about.
  • VXman
    VXman Posts: 594 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 28 August 2023 at 9:43PM
    fsween19 said:

    At the end of July I opened a new ISA with NatWest , with a much higher interest rate than the above account with Newcastle BS.

    I completed the form to transfer the Newcastle BS ISA to the new Nat West account ,and nothing seemed to be happening .

    Another ISA between Santander to Virgin that  I had started 3 days after the request to NBS had been completed in 5 days 

    So naturally I got curious as to why the NBS to NatWest transfer had not happened.

    On or about 4th August , NatWest (not Newcastle BS) told  me  that the transfer hadn't occurred because of a name mismatch between the name on the transfer form from NatWest 

    The NBS account had a short version of my first name and the NatWest account was in the long version of my name. For example Bob  or Robert.

    Although the reason was obvious, but I understand why NBS may need the issue clarified.

    On Monday 7thAugust I contacted NBS and explained the situation, it was discussed with a manager and the issue was clarified.They asked me to complete another form.

    I didn't see why another form was needed , as the first form i sent would be identical to the new form, but it was easy enough to complete online.  

    By the 14th August , no form was received from Natwest

    A few days later NBS got the form but could not complete the transfer , as Natwest had not requested the money 'on demand'.  I contacted NBS, to see if the first form they received was correctly completed. They told me that that was incorrect as well.

    I got back to Natwest , but after being transferred to the 'specialist ISA ' team and waiting over an hour, i gave up , and decided to take my money elsewhere. 

    I set up an ISA account with UBL, as it had a closer interest rate to the natwest ISA, and again set up a transfer .

    After looking at the poor standard of UBLs website and seeing their volume of poor reviews, i had second thoughts and asked UBL to close my accounts (which they did). 

    I told Newcastle BS NOT to transfer any money to UBL, which the Newcastle BS acknowledged.

    And after spending over an hour waiting on the phone to natwest ISA team, i eventually got through to the ISA team  and the person there didn't seem to know any more than the front line caller centre. But as far as i knew they were going to request the money from Newcastle BS. 

    On Friday i saw that Newcastle BS had closed the ISA.

    I contacted NatWest and after an hour of waiting, the person on the alleged 'specialist team', could only tell me 'it takes about 5 days' 

    Later that afternoon I got a phone call from UBL to tell me that despite my instructions Newcastle BS had transferred the money to them.

    On Saturday I got a letter from Natwest to say it was too late to fund the ISA , as it was no longer available. 

    here is my review of the following  

    Newcastle BS - they seemed incapable of picking up a phone or sending an email to contact Natwest to tell them what was wrong. They were prepared to nitpick the transfer request to natwest But ignore my message NOT to transfer money to UBL.

    Natwest  

    Obviously incompetent and could not send a correctly completed form, waiting over an hour for a phone call to be answered, and then find out you are through to another call centre with no specialist knowledge. This is unacceptable particularly for a high street bank.  

    I would avoid banking with natwest , its fine if nothing goes wrong. But if you have a problem, you will spend a lot of time listing to classical music (i heard samuel barber's elegy for strings for over an hour ) before the alleged 'specialist'  team answers, then you find out , its just another call centre.  .

    UBL - so far not too bad , they closed my accounts quickly, and phoned me to tell me that Newcastle BS had made a mistake. I don't want to bank with them, lets see how quickly they return the cash to Newcastle.

    It's 'Adagio for Strings'. Well done for getting through though. I gave up after 40 mins.
  • Hi Masonic and VXman, thank you both for your comments. The Newcastle account was set up about 4 years ago, when data matching was less of an issue . I am well aware of the issue of air tickets matching your passport, a friend of mine (out of sheer pretension) added a third name on to her already double barrelled surname on her airline ticket and had to buy a new ticket at the airport that matched the double barrelled name on her passport.  I had every reason to believe Newcastle would prevent the transfer to UBL, I sent a secure message and they said they would stop the transfer, as they had done this 3 times with the transfer to Natwest. As with all trust pilot reviews , you have to separate the personal gripes from poor company performance, but it was the sheer volume of one star reviews which gave me concerns , plus their crap website.    


  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 24,551 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    fsween19 said:
    I had every reason to believe Newcastle would prevent the transfer to UBL, I sent a secure message and they said they would stop the transfer, as they had done this 3 times with the transfer to Natwest.
    A secure message saying they would stop the transfer puts you in a very strong position should you choose to complain.
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