New ISA rules April 2024

auser99

Wrongs and rights of what Shawbrook are saying, for a mere £21 benefit versus another provider over the year, I'm not taking any chances and will just do it cleaner elsewhere!

Will throw a few moany emails in once this is sorted though! Get the official response first, then pass onto the ombudsman.

jameslester78

Beddie said:

TheWoodler said:

Quite. MrWoodler has his 2023-4 ISA with Shawbrook and when it matures he’ll be transferring it out as neither of us has the patience for this nonsense. As customers we can vote with our feet (or £)! 

That's an overreaction, don't you think? The reply above from Shawbrook shows they are still in a muddle with understanding the new rules. It can be safely be ignored, as they can have no say whatsoever on how many ISAs you open with other providers.

i dont think so, I just moved 85k out of hsbc on an unrelated matter because their out sourced Indian call centre were incapable of understanding the question I was asking around the bonus rate on my loyalty isa despite my rephasing of the question in simpler and simpler sentences 3 or 4 times. My thought process is if they cant understand a simple question, what happens if something actually important comes up.

Id 100% leave if I were TheWoodler, if they cant get it right, leave and let them know why

flaneurs_lobster

I'm tempted (out of sheer badness) to declare myself to Shawbrook as a blatent defiler of their "only one ISA" condition. Wonder if they'd follow though on their T&C threat to de-ISA me..? 

Noscamsplease

Just had the same saga with Kent Reliance. Tried to open a cash ISA but did not proceed as I was unwilling to sign the false declaration about not applying for more than one cash ISA in the current tax year. Spoke to someone in customer services who did not know the new rules. After speaking to their manager, he told me to sign the declaration anyway. I raised a complaint and they rang me. I was informed that Kent Reliance was not obliged to follow the HMRC rules. When I suggested this reflected badly on them, he said they hadn’t had a chance to implement the change and might do so in future. I said it was announced in November 2023 which suggested KR was a less agile financial institution than others. He was also unable to access the recording of my conversation with their helpline. I have asked for my complaint to be escalated and I’ll provide updates in due course. 

auser99

Noscamsplease said:

Just had the same saga with Kent Reliance. Tried to open a cash ISA but did not proceed as I was unwilling to sign the false declaration about not applying for more than one cash ISA in the current tax year. Spoke to someone in customer services who did not know the new rules. After speaking to their manager, he told me to sign the declaration anyway. I raised a complaint and they rang me. I was informed that Kent Reliance was not obliged to follow the HMRC rules. When I suggested this reflected badly on them, he said they hadn’t had a chance to implement the change and might do so in future. I said it was announced in November 2023 which suggested KR was a less agile financial institution than others. He was also unable to access the recording of my conversation with their helpline. I have asked for my complaint to be escalated and I’ll provide updates in due course. 

How can a bank say they aren't "obliged" to follow HMRC rules. That's madness.

But I think everyone accepts that they are ok to not accept multi cash ISAs themselves from people, it's simply the trying to limit others mixing between companies.

I wonder if they'll start leafing through everyone with less than 20k in there, all suspicious that they might have another one the go.

Have cancelled my Shawbrook one. Will take up until Tuesday midnight to refund me. What a carry on!

Kim_13

auser99 said:

Noscamsplease said:

Just had the same saga with Kent Reliance. Tried to open a cash ISA but did not proceed as I was unwilling to sign the false declaration about not applying for more than one cash ISA in the current tax year. Spoke to someone in customer services who did not know the new rules. After speaking to their manager, he told me to sign the declaration anyway. I raised a complaint and they rang me. I was informed that Kent Reliance was not obliged to follow the HMRC rules. When I suggested this reflected badly on them, he said they hadn’t had a chance to implement the change and might do so in future. I said it was announced in November 2023 which suggested KR was a less agile financial institution than others. He was also unable to access the recording of my conversation with their helpline. I have asked for my complaint to be escalated and I’ll provide updates in due course. 

How can a bank say they aren't "obliged" to follow HMRC rules. That's madness.

But I think everyone accepts that they are ok to not accept multi cash ISAs themselves from people, it's simply the trying to limit others mixing between companies.

Absolutely. The government hasn't mandated that providers must allow accepted customers to open as many Cash ISAs with them as they wish in one tax year, so that's fair enough. And it sounds as though their systems would need to be set up for either a portfolio ISA (of which there were relatively few) or to spit out the separate reporting of each ISA that HMRC would require. That clearly takes longer than amending their ISA declaration to be compliant (I declare that I have not or will not subscribe more than the overall subscription limit would do it.)

I think some of them literally read the newsletter and thought 'Right, the only mandatory change in there is that we cannot open a Cash ISA for an investor aged 16 or 17 unless they fall under the transitional arrangements. Everything else is optional, so we won't do it.) And HMRC didn't word the ability to have more than one Cash ISA per tax year as a mandatory change (though to be fair, they shouldn't have needed to because that is a matter between HMRC and the investor.)

They are badly reading this part, I think: 

1.2 Allow subscriptions to multiple ISAs of the same type, except for Lifetime ISA and Junior ISA

This change is not mandatory, and managers can choose to limit subscriptions to only one ISA held with them in any tax year

masonic

Kim_13 said:
They are badly reading this part, I think: 

1.2 Allow subscriptions to multiple ISAs of the same type, except for Lifetime ISA and Junior ISA

This change is not mandatory, and managers can choose to limit subscriptions to only one ISA held with them in any tax year

Yes, it is not saying they can choose to prevent customers subscribing to ISAs from their competitors. They ought to sack any member of their compliance team that didn't find it obvious that it meant they have the power to choose restrict the customer to subscribe to only one of their own range of ISAs.

Carl13

Have just received a response from Shawbrook 's Head of Savings in response to an email to the Bank's CEO.

He stated their Compliance Team was looking if they can actually dictate what customers do outside their bank. 
He also said full information of the reforms were only provided on 11/03 as the reason for not being ready - So the providers who were, like Yorkshire Building Society, are more efficient.

He failed to comment on my statement that their actions were putting them at a commercial disadvantage as new customers would be lost and current ones could leave and / or remove funds.

He suggested that one of their Savings Team Leaders could assist me with a 3 Year ISA despite the fact I stated quite clearly that I had already taken 15K from my Easy Access account with them to fund an ISA with another provider. 

FishInGlass

I think there has been some movement at Shawbrook with regard to their take on the situation. I have just been looking at their 2yr fix. On the front page it says Consider something else if you want to save with someone else. However if you look at the key product information it says You can only open and operate one Cash ISA account with Shawbrook Bank in any single tax year. 

The ISA declaration also now says I have not subscribed, and will not subscribe, more than the overall subscription limit of £20,000 in total to any ISAs in the same tax year 2024/2025;

Barkin

Yup. The ISA Declaration - which was the only issue IMO - appears to have  been updated today, 12/4.