ISA TRANSFER TIMELINE

Crabbymadge

Hi Im transferring Santander ISA out as therir current offer is poor to Charter but why in this age of instant electronic money movements does it take 15 days? Tlyhe Santander Bot says its the government who stipulate this - is this true or just a get off my back you'll have to wait. I held on for an hour by phone to try to get some real info or movement but lost the will to live as well as the worry what hanging on would do to my phone bill !  Anyone know if this is the reality or if banks can move this money more quickly

masonic

The 15 days is a maximum, not a target. Electronic ISA transfers will be much faster (e.g. more like 2-3 working days). The transfer involves the exchange of documents as well as the money, and transfers fall back to post if both providers don't support the electronic messaging system used for ISA transfers. If you are transferring from Santander to Charter then it is Charter who is responsible for managing the transfer, so they should be the first port of call.

eskbanker

The ISA rules state that the cash ISA transfer process should take no more than 15 working days, but that's a maximum rather than a minimum!

Cash ISA transfers

Cash ISA to cash ISA transfers must take place within 15 business days of the transfer instruction being received by the new ISA manager, unless the investor stipulates that the 15 days starts on a later date. The 15 days are broken down as follows:

The new ISA manager has 5 business days to forward the instruction to the old ISA manager.

The old ISA manager has 5 business days in which to send the funds and information to be provided to the new ISA manager.

The new ISA manager has 3 business days to apply the funds to the new ISA.

The other 2 days are to allow for time taken for first class post between managers.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager#cash-isa-transfers

These timescales were set back in the days when most such transfers were handled via cheques in the post, whereas there are plenty now processed electronically, but even for the latter, it's far from an instantaneous process, i.e. ISA transfers entail transmission and application of all sorts of other data rather than simply being a case of sending money from account A to account B.

Crabbymadge said:

I held on for an hour by phone to try to get some real info or movement but lost the will to live as well as the worry what hanging on would do to my phone bill !  Anyone know if this is the reality or if banks can move this money more quickly

There's no point in pestering the sending bank, as the process is driven by the receiving one, and isn't the sort of thing that'll be expedited as a result of a phone call.  However, if there's no sign of progress after three weeks, then contacting Charter would be reasonable....

ColdIron

I think the 15 days is guidance though you can take it to the FoS

Some, but not many, still use cheques and the 15 days allow for this

• The other 2 days are to allow for time taken for first class post between managers.

Most of the time it's much quicker. A friend of mine started a transfer (Virgin - Zopa) Saturday 23/03/24, it was all done and dusted on Tuesday 26/03/24

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager

eskbanker

ColdIron said:

I think the 15 days is guidance...

No, the above broken-down timescales are specified in the regulations:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1870/regulation/21A

born_again

You also have to factor in ISA transfers are still a manual process. Which see's a lot of staff transferred to assist in the vast majority of people transferring days before the end of the year.

refluxer

As suggested above, an electronic ISA transfer from Santander to Charter shouldn't take too long in theory and almost-certainly less than the 15 days allowed, provided there isn't an issue.

Are you a new customer to Charter ? My ISA transfer to them took an age but only because I was a new customer and they were unable to validate my nominated current account, which meant I had to post off a paper bank statement and this took weeks to process. This was particularly annoying as it was a simple ISA transfer and I had no need to transfer other funds either in or out of this account - I presumed it was just a standard requirement for all of their savings accounts.

Crabbymadge

Hi thanks for your posts. Yes I'm a new customer to Charter and yes a simple transfer of the isa no other monies involved. I wasn't expecting this issue about validation, also I found their on line application form somewhat irritating and time consuming, the passage at the start of the process - entering 'your nominal account details' - wasn't sure if it wanted my current account details or ISA's as it has its own a/c number and sort code - when I eventually got through the advisor confirmed that it is indeed the current account info first and that further along the process then the ISA a/c info would be needed. Why on earth that wasn't made clear at the start. So much for making sites use plain English and not assume we are all financial gurus who know the process. I am sure they would have far fewer calls clogging up their helplines and wasting everyone's time if they clarify their application form.

Crabbymadge

So my learning is - make sure ISA transfers are initiated mid March latest if not earlier to ensure they go through in time. I didn't see that info abut the time lines when looking at rates etc just 'it needs to be done by 6th April' - now I know. cheers

eskbanker

Crabbymadge said:

So my learning is - make sure ISA transfers are initiated mid March latest if not earlier to ensure they go through in time. I didn't see that info abut the time lines when looking at rates etc just 'it needs to be done by 6th April' - now I know. cheers

No, there's no correlation between ISA transfers and the change of tax year, i.e. they don't have to be completed 'in time', which only applies to new contributions where there's a desire not to miss out on a specific year's contribution allowance.