£28 to withdrawal cash from a Help to Buy ISA

littlemiss19

Hi everyone,

Nat West are charging my husband £28 every time he makes a withdrawal from his Help to Buy ISA via a branch - it seems really steep. I've gone online to see if I can find withdrawal fees in their terms and conditions and I have yet to find this information. Is anyone else experiencing this and is this something we can refute? 

Thanks,
Littlemiss

eskbanker

If he's literally just withdrawing cash from an account over the counter then there shouldn't be any charge, so asking them for evidence of why they're charging this doesn't seem unreasonable!

If he's not going to use the HTB ISA towards a first-time property purchase then he could/should transfer the whole balance out in one go to an account paying better interest and without odd withdrawal charges....

Kim_13

I'm aware of a case of £10 being charged to initiate a Faster Payment from a Business Current Account, but assumed this was probably in the terms (as most things incur a charge on a commercial account) and simply missed by the account holder who had no wish to set up online banking. On a personal account, and a H2B can't be anything else, there should be no such charges.

Ask for any evidence of such charges being notified, complain if it isn't there and transfer out. There will be a limited number of providers accepting H2B to H2B transfers if the H2B might still be required in the future, but it's better than such bizarre charges.

It is very odd that branch staff aren't warning that £x charge will be incurred, even if it is in the terms, to check that the customer is happy to proceed. They never fail to notify of things like the CHAPS fee, even though that's well publicised as a chargeable service.

Beddie

Sounds like a CHAPS fee to me - ask the bank to offer you a free alternative way to withdraw the money.

Also - try to stop taking money out of it! It's savings, not "spendings"