Blocked Transfer of Junior Cash ISAs - Halifax to Coventry

tomdanvers

Hi All,
I have finally got around to finding a better ISA rate for my two daughters JISAs.
I've opened a new account for each of them with the Coventry Building Society. As part of the application process I've supplied the information for the girls' current JISAs with the Halifax. All seemed to be fine but I then received letters for both accounts from Coventry stating:

Following your request to transfer ISA savings to the above account, Halifax PLC have informed us that they are unable to proceed with the transfer as they need further information from you.
If they've not already been in touch with you, we recommend that you contact them directly, to avoid delaying the ISA transfer.

I spent ages on the phone to the Halifax to various departments. Everyone I spoke to said they could see no reason why the transfer was blocked and that I should speak to Coventry. Of course after another long phone conversation with Coventry they also said that they didn't know why the transfer was blocked and that I needed to speak to Halifax. I even organised a face to face with Halifax in my local branch but the manager there couldnt help either.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do?

Thanks in advance!

xylophone

I then received letters for both accounts from Coventry stating:

Following your request to transfer ISA savings to the above account, Halifax PLC have informed us that they are unable to proceed with the transfer as they need further information from you.
If they've not already been in touch with you, we recommend that you contact them directly, to avoid delaying the ISA transfer.

It would normally be expected that the receiving institution should resolve any problems but in this particular instance, it seems to me that you should make a formal complaint in writing to the Halifax, enclosing copies of the letters from the Coventry and detailing your attempts to resolve the matter, in particular that the manager at your local branch was unable to assist.

Halifax, PO Box 548, Leeds, LS1 1WU

Ask for an explanation of the refusal to comply with your request.

 Keep a copy of your letter and send  the letter recorded delivery.

crumpetswithjam20

I had this situation a few years ago when trying to move my child's Halifax junior isa to a new Vanguard one.  After a few months and lots of inconvenience I just gave up as I was getting nowhere.  I'd even had meetings in branch and had to take in lots of ID for them to copy and send to head office but I couldn't find out what the problem was.

zander99

I am experiencing exactly the same issue right now with Halifax. I have been trying to transfer my sons ISA to NS&I and this has been going on for months now. I have contacted NS&I who have have confirmed they have sent two chasers to Halifax. I have called Halifax to be told that Junior ISA's have to be dealt with in Branch. Over a month ago I went into Halifax branch to see why it is not transferring to be told that they could not transfer as they did not have a signature on record for me. They obviously made no attempt to contact me in the months they were sitting on the request. Its been over a month later and there is still no sign of the transfer which means another car journey to the nearest Halifax to see once again what levels of incompetence they are currently operating with to not achieve this simple task!

refluxer

zander99 said:

I am experiencing exactly the same issue right now with Halifax. I have been trying to transfer my sons ISA to NS&I and this has been going on for months now. I have contacted NS&I who have have confirmed they have sent two chasers to Halifax. I have called Halifax to be told that Junior ISA's have to be dealt with in Branch. Over a month ago I went into Halifax branch to see why it is not transferring to be told that they could not transfer as they did not have a signature on record for me. They obviously made no attempt to contact me in the months they were sitting on the request. Its been over a month later and there is still no sign of the transfer which means another car journey to the nearest Halifax to see once again what levels of incompetence they are currently operating with to not achieve this simple task!

Yes - Halifax do still seem to rely on branch visits for some aspects of their banking, particularly when it comes to childrens' savings accounts. While this (and the lack of contact) is definitely annoying, the bigger issue for me would be the prospect of dealing with NS&I again for a JISA. Based on my experience with having a child's Junior ISA with NS&I, I would not recommend them for this type of account.

For starters, transfers in and out for me took a fair amount longer than the 15 working days ISA guidelines allow, mainly due to them needing to send and receive paper forms and transfers by cheque through the post.

Also - while you can manage the account online (the only thing going for this account), payments in can take a long time to show up. Manual payments would take 2 working days to show (so a payment in on a Friday wouldn't show in online banking until the following Tuesday) and standing orders would also often take an unbelievable amount of time, too. IIRC, the record for the standing order I had set up to pay into the account on the 1st of each month was the occasion when it didn't show up in online banking until the 8th, which is just not acceptable.

If you haven't already done this, my advice would be to investigate whether any of your local building societies have favourable JISA rates. As these often have geographical restrictions, they don't always feature on comparison sites.

Failing that, I would personally rather deal with managing a JISA by phone or post with somewhere like the Coventry or Loughborough Building Societies rather than managing online with NS&I. They're both currently paying higher rates than NS&I, too. I would have recommended Tesco as they also allowed you to manage the account online (which essentially just means being able to check the balance), but they don't seem to be offering a JISA at the moment.