Vanguard won't release my money.

sebtomato

Just transferred my SIPP from Vanguard to Interactive Investors, and only took about 3 weeks (I had converted to cash before the transfer).

dunstonh

sebtomato said:

Just transferred my SIPP from Vanguard to Interactive Investors, and only took about 3 weeks (I had converted to cash before the transfer).

Just for benchmarking, the likes of Standard Life and Aviva (ex NU) typically transfer within 3 days.  i.e. if the receiving scheme keyed it into Origo on the Monday, then you would expect them to have the money by Wed/Thursday of that week.   Some exceptions would apply (ex FP or AXA slightly slower.   Plans with safeguarded benefits or plans that need manual checking due to age)

boingy

travelodger said:

In 2021 I invested £45,000 in a Vanguard SIPP.

In July 2023 I asked them to transfer it to my HL SIPP. I did the required paperwork for both sides and waited. 

Since then, I have had ten messages from HL saying that Vanguard still has not done the transfer. There is nothing HL can do. I have messaged and phoned Vanguard about ten times now, asking them to do the transfer. All I have had from Vanguard for the past four months is promises to make sure this is done without further delay, then it's not done. In their last message they said my request had been "escalated" for immediate action. That was a month ago, and they still have not done it.

I am at my wits' end now. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I have no idea what to do.

You just have to be patient and keep pressing them. You are still a few months short of matching my pension transfer out of Virgin. They wanted actual paper forms filling in but kept sending them to my new provider rather than to me. It took almost 6 months.

Malthusian

travelodger said:

I've just wasted 15 minutes on their website typing "complain" and complaint" and "complaints" into the search box under "help" only to get no hits. Finally found a page about complaints, and it tells me that to complain I must send them an internal message. But that is what I have been doing for the past 4 months! Grrr!

Financial services companies are not allowed to dictate how customers make complaints to them. Complaints should be made either via a letter sent by Recorded Delivery, or an email to an inbox that sends back a "We have received your message" auto-response. (Not a "this is an unmonitored inbox" response.) Other options have a higher risk of your complaint disappearing into the ether.
The important thing is not whether they bother reading it, but whether you can prove to the Ombudsman in eight weeks' time that they received the complaint and the eight week deadline has expired. If you hear nothing for eight weeks you can proceed to the Ombudsman and your proof of posting / acknowledgement email will prove that they received the complaint and it is now an Ombudsman matter.
Doesn't matter now as you say you have started the formal complaints process, but may be useful for future reference. 

jimjames

Slight tangent but I'm curious to know why people are moving from Vanguard to HL. It doesn't seem like the logical direction to be moving when HL fees are 0.45% and Vanguard 0.15%?

ColdIron

An HL GIA at 0% is cheaper than Vanguard for ETFs. The £11.95 transaction fee could skew it (though £0 for monthly savings) but it works for long term buy and hold. Similar for an ISA capped at £45 for accounts > £30,000. Less so for SIPPs

Then there is the ability to access ITs and non-Vanguard ETFs and funds

For Vanguard funds, Vanguard beat HL hands down

It won't work for everybody but for some styles it can

Rich1976

jimjames said:

Slight tangent but I'm curious to know why people are moving from Vanguard to HL. It doesn't seem like the logical direction to be moving when HL fees are 0.45% and Vanguard 0.15%?

Much better service for one thing. I have been with other companies as well as HL but in 16 years , more often than not I have been really satisfied with HL.

charges are not the only thing you have to consider. For some of us , peace of mind and knowing they just do what they are supposed to do is worth more than a 0.30% difference in charges.

vanguard we’re just awful over what should be fairly basic day to day stuff. Highly overrated IMHO

Albermarle

vanguard we’re just awful over what should be fairly basic day to day stuff. Highly overrated IMHO

As is often said, you get what you pay for .

My guess is that they have been successful at attracting lots of new customers in the last couple of years, and are now struggling to cope.

jimjames

Albermarle said:

vanguard we’re just awful over what should be fairly basic day to day stuff. Highly overrated IMHO

As is often said, you get what you pay for .

My guess is that they have been successful at attracting lots of new customers in the last couple of years, and are now struggling to cope.

As a Vanguard customer I've had no issues at all with them and certainly don't think their service is in any way inferior to HL. Maybe my use case is quite simple and I can do all the transactions I need online but I've never found the service lacking even more recently. It sounds like my experience isn't universal though.

Albermarle

This poster on the Pensions Board does not seem so keen on Vanguard.

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