Has Tembo lost my LISA funds? Being ignored by them!

mohawk1

To keep it brief: about four weeks ago, I initiated a transfer of my LISA funds from Moneybox to Tembo in order to take advantage of a better interest rate.

For the past week and a half, my Moneybox balance has shown £0. Their customer service team has confirmed that the transfer was completed successfully on their end. However, my Tembo LISA still shows the status as ‘pending’, and there’s no sign of the funds.

I’ve reached out to Tembo support three times now and have yet to receive any response. At this point, I feel completely ignored and unsure of what steps to take next.

Any advice or help would be hugely appreciated. Once this is (hopefully) resolved, I’ll be moving my funds again—this has been an incredibly frustrating experience.

Thanks in advance.

Exodi

I have no experience with Tembo, but having transferred many investment accounts across platforms, I'd suggest that it's perhaps a tad premature after only a week to have contacted support three times already... It's not suprising they're giving you no response as they likely expect it'll show imminently and your issue will naturally disappear.

The transfer is showing as 'Pending' on the platform, it's not as if there's no acknowledgement of the funds/transfer. I'd make yourself a cup of tea and focus on other things for a little while.

Tembo has a very good rating on trustpilot, so I'd suggest it's not like they're some cowboy setup 'whoopsy daisy'-ing peoples life savings.

SFCooper

I’m in the exact same boat as you.

Their CS have ignored me for a week and haven’t heard anything with my official complaint email.

Avoid them like the plague!

BurmanP

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

SFCooper

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

masonic

SFCooper said:

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

You said previously that you made a complaint by email in your post on 18th April. Was this to their complaints @ email address? If so, it's already been over 8 weeks since you first raised your complaint, so you would be entitled to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service immediately.

SFCooper

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

You said previously that you made a complaint by email in your post on 18th April. Was this to their complaints @ email address? If so, it's already been over 8 weeks since you first raised your complaint, so you would be entitled to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service immediately.

That was for another ISA. I held both Cash and Cash LISA.

They’ve now proceeded to ‘screw’ my other transfer.

masonic

SFCooper said:

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

You said previously that you made a complaint by email in your post on 18th April. Was this to their complaints @ email address? If so, it's already been over 8 weeks since you first raised your complaint, so you would be entitled to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service immediately.

That was for another ISA. I held both Cash and Cash LISA.

They’ve now proceeded to ‘screw’ my other transfer.

So the original transfer was sorted (I'm assuming you wouldn't have initiated a second transfer if the first hadn't come good). Out of interest, how long did that take and did they backdate interest?

friolento

Some ISA providers use BACS as opposed to Faster payments to transfer funds (and occasionally there are reports about cheques being sent in the post!). So this can mean that your old ISA has been closed and it takes 3 working days for the funds to arrive in the new ISA. The receiving ISA provider should pay you interest from the day your funds left the old provider, and Tembo do this in my experience.

I just had a transfer from Monument to Tembo. Monument account closed June 2, funds showing in Tembo from today, and 4 days of accrued interest showing but not yet credited. Total ISA transfer duration 6 working days - well within the timescales we can expect.

I understand that people can get distraught whilst BACS transfers are in progress - we are all used to instant Faster Payments these days, and some people never experienced the delights of waiting for BACS payments, so instantly start to sweat about lost money. It would be helpful if we knew what transfer methods the providers are using but I don’t think that’s top of their priority list, and we’d still see people to fall into a flat spin panic.

SFCooper

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

You said previously that you made a complaint by email in your post on 18th April. Was this to their complaints @ email address? If so, it's already been over 8 weeks since you first raised your complaint, so you would be entitled to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service immediately.

That was for another ISA. I held both Cash and Cash LISA.

They’ve now proceeded to ‘screw’ my other transfer.

So the original transfer was sorted (I'm assuming you wouldn't have initiated a second transfer if the first hadn't come good). Out of interest, how long did that take and did they backdate interest?

You’re going to love this.

They backdated interest but aren’t forwarding it into my new provider. They’re ignoring my messages now after saying “we’re looking into it”.

masonic

SFCooper said:

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

masonic said:

SFCooper said:

BurmanP said:

@mohawk1 and @SFCooper, any update on this, please? Did you get your transfer in sorted? Thanks.

I’ve lodged an official complaint last week and they’ve told me they’ve got 8 weeks to respond.

You said previously that you made a complaint by email in your post on 18th April. Was this to their complaints @ email address? If so, it's already been over 8 weeks since you first raised your complaint, so you would be entitled to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service immediately.

That was for another ISA. I held both Cash and Cash LISA.

They’ve now proceeded to ‘screw’ my other transfer.

So the original transfer was sorted (I'm assuming you wouldn't have initiated a second transfer if the first hadn't come good). Out of interest, how long did that take and did they backdate interest?

You’re going to love this.

They backdated interest but aren’t forwarding it into my new provider. They’re ignoring my messages now after saying “we’re looking into it”.

I don't understand. The "they" I was referring to is the new provider, Tembo. Or are you saying you've transferred in to Tembo only to transfer out again to a third provider? So transfer of LISA into Tembo, then cash ISA into Tembo, then one or both of these out of Tembo?

If there is a residual balance, then you'd have the option of submitting a fourth/fifth transfer request to mop that up, or simply withdraw it and close the account (assuming it isn't the LISA).