Tembo - are they any good

SFCooper

Avoid Tembo like the plague. Their live chat refuse to respond to my messages regarding my transfer to them.

They also do not respond to any emails sent to their ‘complaints’ address.

MeteredOut

SFCooper said:

Avoid Tembo like the plague. Their live chat refuse to respond to my messages regarding my transfer to them.

They also do not respond to any emails sent to their ‘complaints’ address.

I suspect they've been inundated with transfer requests (hence the pause in transfers) and their staff are swamped. How long ago did you raise the complaint?

PlatinumChaos

Tembo seem to be accepting transfers in again.

BreakingGlass

BreakingGlass said:

BreakingGlass said:

BreakingGlass said:

MeteredOut said:

BreakingGlass said:

MeteredOut said:

I notice the Tembo app has changed the "Transfer in progress" message to "your money is already earning interest while we finish the transfer", probably due the volume of transfers they received and people asking whether they were accruing interest.

Mine did say that yesterday, but this morning has gone back to saying 'We'll contact your provider directly.  Transfers will typically complete within 1-2 weeks'.

The transfered balance is still showing as £81k (as it has since at least 24 March), but when I click on the account it states 'Interest due: £10.80' and 'Daily interest: £10.41'.  The 'interest due' figure is clearly wrong as they have had my money for about three weeks.

So something strange is going on at Tembo!  On a positive note, the app has stopped crashing since I deleted and re-installed it.

Mine still says the "your money is earning interest" message, but I got the transfer request in quite early and the funds have left my old ISA.

Did you open it with any £s as well as the transfer? I put a nominal £500 in when I opened it on March 17, and I think my "interest due" is based on that - it goes up a few pence each day. But my "daily interest" is calculated on the transfer-in amount too.

My transfer request was 19 Mar.  I didn't open with any extra £ - just a transfer from Coventry.

I have opened a chat to query the figures and am waiting for a human team member to respond.

Having messaged Tembo on Friday, I received a reply about 1pm yesterday (Sat) to say:

I can see your transferred funds have now allocated. The interest accumulated while the funds were pending will be applied as a separate payment this month.

When I now log in to my account, the 'transfer in progress' messages have disappeared.  When I click on the ISA it shows the transferred balance of £81k with a 'transfer in' date of 10 April, and the daily interest has built up over the past three days to show 'Interest Due' of £31.25.  

So I am now waiting for the 'separate payment' of interest for the pending transfer period (approx 19 Mar to 10 Apr) - I will post here when it arrives.

Yesterday I received an 'interest adjustment' of +£177.08, which seems about right for the pending transfer period.  I also now have 5 days of 'interest due' showing.

So all sorted - eventually!

But my wife's ISA transfer, initiated on the same date (19 Mar) has yet to leave Coventry ...

Quoting myself to provide an update ...

My wife's ISA transfer from Coventry to Tembo, started on 19 Mar 25, completed yesterday!

We chased it several times and in the past week received two messages from Tembo:

• Firstly, that Coventry had not sent the funds (they were indeed still sat in Coventry, but we are unsure whether Tembo had actually sent the transfer request).  A quick message to Coventry seemed to resolve.
• A few days later (with funds now showing in Tembo, but still saying 'transfer in progress'), a message to say that Coventry had not sent the 'ISA History'.  Another quick message to Coventry and this was resolved.

In summary I would hesitate to recommend Tembo unless their administration improves considerably.  Although we will stick with them whilst their interest rate remains competitive, I do worry whether there will be problems when we eventually try to transfer the ISAs elsewhere!

friolento

In my experience, Tembo aren’t the fastest but also not the slowest when it comes to transfers. I would definitely recommend them though

Bobby_Bouche

I was considering Tembo, but this thread has cooled my interest in them. Today I spent 20 mins on hold to Santander , and no joy on the webchat. Santander don't seem to offer decent support at all these days let alone Tembo! Think i will try Monument bank . Thanks to all .

Beddie

Bobby_Bouche said:

I was considering Tembo, but this thread has cooled my interest in them. Today I spent 20 mins on hold to Santander , and no joy on the webchat. Santander don't seem to offer decent support at all these days let alone Tembo! Think i will try Monument bank . Thanks to all .

Tembo are fine, no better or worse than similar offerings. Remember that people are quicker to moan than they are to praise. 

Bobby_Bouche

Beddie said:

Bobby_Bouche said:

I was considering Tembo, but this thread has cooled my interest in them. Today I spent 20 mins on hold to Santander , and no joy on the webchat. Santander don't seem to offer decent support at all these days let alone Tembo! Think i will try Monument bank . Thanks to all .

Tembo are fine, no better or worse than similar offerings. Remember that people are quicker to moan than they are to praise. 

Yes i remenber some moaning about 212 before. I went for Chip this time.

friolento

Bobby_Bouche said:

I was considering Tembo, but this thread has cooled my interest in them. Today I spent 20 mins on hold to Santander , and no joy on the webchat. Santander don't seem to offer decent support at all these days let alone Tembo! Think i will try Monument bank . Thanks to all .

My experience with Monument is very mixed. The application was easy, the app is nice. ISA transfer-in was unbelievably slow, CS will just give scripted answers, transfer-out is a disaster as they are rejecting without giving a reason. I am now trying to close  down my Monument account but it might have to involve the FOS.

MichaelAP

Reference Tembo, although their Cash ISA rates are great at 4.80% currently; has anyone had any issues with transferring out?
Basically I’m looking at adding a significant transfer in to Tembo but concerns if they are difficult as has been mentioned with Monument transfer outs.