Plum feedback, how can you transfer in from plum

financehelp23

Hi, can anyone give feedback on Plum Cash ISA? There are no bank account details. How can I fill the transfer-in form from Plum transfer to another provider? Is that easy to withdraw? I am kind of doubt about continuing to use IT. Thanks 

dosh1

Following as I am potentially interested too.

masonic

There seems to be some confusion in this thread. 

If you want to transfer in to Plum from another provider, then you'd follow the instructions at https://help.withplum.com/en/articles/8999209-transfer-cash-isa-into-plum and you'd use the details of your existing cash ISA held elsewhere (ignore the initial sentence referring to a S&S ISA as this looks like a copy/paste error).

If you want to transfer out of Plum to another provider, then you'd follow the instructions at https://help.withplum.com/en/articles/9070552-transfer-cash-isa-out-of-plum and you'd use the transfer form from your new provider, not Plum's.

For deposits and withdrawals, Plum tends to use Open Banking to verify a nominated account from which deposits can be pulled via OB/DD, or withdrawals are sent. I'd assume that applies to ISAs as well.

dantep

I signed up for the Plum ISA, and I'm wishing that I hadn't. First they insisted on a direct debit, then pushed me to save a certain amount per month as determined by their 'brain' bot analysing my accont. That's not the way I choose to save, but in any case it came up with the slightly pointless figure of £5/month (probably because I had to use a secondary account - they don't support my main account provider).

That was annoying, but easily sidestepped. I then transferred in a test £110 (min £100 to get the full interest rate), and was told the money would arrive on the 3rd May. This was 25th April, so a full 8 days. I can see no justification for that.

I then found an explanation about why it takes so long, something to do with direct debit and using 3rd party services, but even that said only 4 working days. It also suggested there was a way to do it more quickly from within the app, so I had another try. This time I chose "Instant transfer (recommended)". But still, 8 days before it arrives. And I just checked the app, and they've added another 3 days to it - it's now due on the 12th May.

My initial transfer is now in, but the interest rate is still showing as 3%, not the 5.17% promised.

I find the app confusing, with 'pockets' containing savings and ISA - it's not clear why it's set up this way, what the different accounts are or why the interest on them differs. And the balance tends to show the total you will have once the transfers are done, not the amount you actually have, which has already caused me to overcount my monthly balances.

I'm also irritated by the multiple notifications every day, including a daily reminder of how much I've got in my linked account. And I'm already getting ads from them pushing their 3 levels of 'premium' membership, starting at £9.99/month.

I feel like this is the first bad steer I've had from MSE, which is fine, but I think people ought to know that if you're after a straightforward cash ISA with a good interest rate, this isn't it.

refluxer

@dantep As you've discovered, the high rate Plum are offering is just a loss-leader in order to get new customers to sign up and be subjected to their automated money-saving procedures and advertising for their various services.

8 days for paying into a cash ISA is ludicrous - deposits into most of mine have been pretty instant (a few hours at the most) with the odd exception being next-day for the smaller banks and building societies who need to process payments manually. Plum use CitiBank for their banking which might be part of the reason and you should bear this in mind if you have savings with any other banks who use CitiBank, as they will all share the same FSCS protection.

Incidentally, when you mention 'transfers', do you mean online payments into the account ? It's probably worth avoiding that term when talking about ISAs, as a transfer usually refers to transferring funds in from another ISA. I would actually avoid transferring other ISAs into Plum as that money will get a lower rate of interest. Plum are the only ISA provider I've come across who actively discourage transfers-in in this way.  

To be fair to MSE, they don't really recommend savings accounts as such - they simply list the providers who offer the highest rates and it's down to us to see if they suit our needs. If you want a straight-forward, easy access cash ISA, I would personally avoid all of the top 3 at the moment (that's Plum, Moneybox and Chip) as all three have various restrictions or quirks.

dantep

@refluxer Thanks for your insight. Yes, I agree, I'm not at all blaming MSE - I should have done some research. In the past they've shown warnings about quirky account types, and I was naive enough to think a cash ISA was fairly straightforward, so when the only caveat shown was a note on the FSCS situation, I dived right in. It wouldn't have hurt me to check in on the forum first!

It's a lesson learned, hopefully at no real cost. And noted on the use of the word transfer - this was depositing funds from my linked accont, not transferring an ISA.

slinger2

Of the three noted above (Plum, Moneybox and Chip) I plumped (no pun intended) for Chip. It is flexi and I'm using it to park some of this year's allowance which I can quickly move elsewhere when I wish. As noted it does have its quirks: app only + no transfers in + the open banking aspect which is a little bit off-putting.

refluxer

dantep said:

@refluxer Thanks for your insight. Yes, I agree, I'm not at all blaming MSE - I should have done some research. In the past they've shown warnings about quirky account types, and I was naive enough to think a cash ISA was fairly straightforward, so when the only caveat shown was a note on the FSCS situation, I dived right in. It wouldn't have hurt me to check in on the forum first!

As you're presumably happy with app-only banking (having opened an account with Plum), the best of the rest is probably Zopa. I've had their Smart Saver account for years (and opened a fixed rate cash ISA pot more recently) and have had no issues.

The only potential downside to Zopa is that they don't allow partial transfers out (so you'd have to transfer all of your ISA funds out at once if and when you chose to leave them in the future) and it should also be noted that other forumites have had mixed experiences with transferring other cash ISAs into Zopa (this wasn't an issue for me as mine was funded with new subscriptions). 

slinger2

refluxer said:

dantep said:

@refluxer Thanks for your insight. Yes, I agree, I'm not at all blaming MSE - I should have done some research. In the past they've shown warnings about quirky account types, and I was naive enough to think a cash ISA was fairly straightforward, so when the only caveat shown was a note on the FSCS situation, I dived right in. It wouldn't have hurt me to check in on the forum first!

As you're presumably happy with app-only banking (having opened an account with Plum), the best of the rest is probably Zopa. I've had their Smart Saver account for years (and opened a fixed rate cash ISA pot more recently) and have had no issues.

The only potential downside to Zopa is that they don't allow partial transfers out (so you'd have to transfer all of your ISA funds out at once if and when you chose to leave them in the future) and it should also be noted that other forumites have had mixed experiences with transferring other cash ISAs into Zopa (this wasn't an issue for me as mine was funded with new subscriptions). 

And Zopa is flexible, so you can withdraw the current year's money without resorting to the transfer process (which as noted is very restrictive).

Beddie

Notifications are easy to turn off. I always do, they are never useful.

FIREmenow

The marketing from Plum is on one notification category called 'iterable channel' - turning that off makes it less annoying. 



I've left the rest on so that I'm notified if its 'brain' decides to pull some money. 

I haven't renewed the open banking permission to the account the direct debit is linked to and it is still working. I only use it as an extra direct debit for current account switches or perks - £2 goes in weekly, then I move it all out again and repeat.