Transferring from Virgin to Trading 212

surferstar

One of my virgin ISA rates expires on the 24th July and I’d like to transfer it to Trading 212 based on them having the highest interest rates. 

I’m sure my virgin account has a penalty to withdraw of 60 days interest, the product is 1 Year Virgin Fixed Rate E-ISA issue 606. 

When it expires they’ll automatically move the funds to a basic E-ISA paying 0.1% interest. 

I’ve never transferred an ISA before and not sure about the timing. Based on the early withdrawal penalty must I wait for it to reach the expiry date, see the final balance with interest and then transfer it? I’ve read transfers can take 15 working days so effectively I lose nearly a month of interest? Or do I earn interest from the new account during the transfer period?

masonic

With most ISA providers, you can request the transfer takes place on a future date to avoid paying an early withdrawal penalty. This would enable you to make the request a week or so before maturity and have it executed on the maturity date. However, I don't think T212 supports that. So you would need to request the transfer as soon as you know the account number of the E-ISA.

The transfer will be electronic, so should be completed much more quickly than 15 working days, although some have had issues transferring out of Virgin because it is a brand composed of different business units who apparently have no awareness of one another. Assuming all goes well, you should only be on the 0.1% rate for a few days and T212 will pay interest from the date they apply the funds to your new account. Official best practice is for the new provider to start paying interest from the date of the funds transfer (or date on the cheque for postal transfers), so T212 leaves you one working day worse off compared to this in most cases.

surferstar

Thanks a lot for all this info. I’ll do it on the day the ISA transfers into the new basic account.