Santander Fixed rate ISAs

LeafGreen

idb1979 said:

subjecttocontract said:

Well my Santander fixed rate ISA ended on October 1st. They wrote to me telling me I could upgrade up to 28 days before maturity and the interest rate would change straight away. 

My Fixed Rate ISA matures on 1st November and I have yet to have any correspondence on my options. I have tried to speak to them on chat and by phone but have received very vague replies saying I "should receive details soon"

Same here, mine also matures on 1st November.  Online chat said to call the ISA team - I did that earlier today, they simply said I should have received an e-mail and to check my spam etc (which I had already done, I'm quite sure I never received anything).

They did say that they don't have any loyalty products, so options are basically what's on their website.  As these are not market leading any more I plan to switch away.  Not super impressed with Santander although one of their mistakes was to send me 4x £50 vouchers instead of 1 last year (and said I could use them all) so it wasn't all bad!

refluxer

Yes - when Santander's fixed rate ISAs mature at the moment, they only seem to be offering what's currently available to all. Based on my experience, the default option (if you don't submit maturity instructions) tends to be their 'ISA Saver' account which is currently at 1.20% - check your T&Cs if you want confirmation that this applies to your account too, though. I let mine default to that and transferred away shortly after.

Note that I only received maturity options through the post a couple of weeks beforehand - the only email I received (asking what I wanted to do with my funds) was after the maturity date (not before).  

idb1979

I think I am may switch to another provider. Do you know if the Account Number and Sort Code change when it defaults to an "ISA Saver" after maturity? Or do I give my new provider the current Account Number and Sort Code of my Fixed Rate ISA to begin the transfer process?

refluxer

idb1979 said:

I think I am may switch to another provider. Do you know if the Account Number and Sort Code change when it defaults to an "ISA Saver" after maturity? Or do I give my new provider the current Account Number and Sort Code of my Fixed Rate ISA to begin the transfer process?

I'm pretty sure my account number didn't change when my Santander fixed rate ISA defaulted to the ISA Saver.

Changes can sometimes take a day or two to show up in their online banking, so just be careful not to request a transfer until the transition to ISA Saver is complete. I normally wait until I can see the account has actually changed in online banking (just to be sure) and then open a new one and request the transfer is carried out immediately, but you may find that the transfer form allows you to request that the transfer is carried out after the fixed rate period is over (rather than specifying a certain date) which would allow you to request the transfer ahead of time and avoid the risk of a penalty if you were to get the dates wrong.

If you're going down the route of not submitting any maturity instructions, then I would advise checking that your fixed rate ISA will also default to an (easy access) ISA Saver like mine did by reading your T&Cs (for info - mine was a 1 year fixed rate taken out in Sept 2022 that matured on 1st Oct 2023). I would be surprised if it didn't, but it would be advisable to check to be sure.