Saffron BS - anyone here have a savings account or ISA with them? Good or bad?

Kim_13

Barkin said:

Tunstallstoven said:

Kim_13 said:

They don’t offer electronic transfers....  

Hmm, so would that cause any problems trying to transfer in an existing ISA from another provider?  

Only in that, to initiate the transfer, you'd need to download and fill in a paper form, then post it to them.

Worth noting that is possible to bypass using the post at your end by selecting a provider to transfer to who has a local branch (so you can drop the completed form in) or who allows the paper transfer form to be uploaded online (I did this with a transfer from Saffron to Family Building Society.) How they contact Saffon after that is up to them, and the cost of posting the cheque is Saffron’s to pay.

Tunstallstoven

The plot thickens?  So if I open an ISA with Saffron, I have to manually complete a transfer form and send it in the post to them...  Go that, thanks.  

But then I also have to send a cheque?  Or my old ISA provider has to send a cheque?  Or else what are my options to transfer the ISA??  

Barkin

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Tunstallstoven said:

Kim_13 said:

They don’t offer electronic transfers....  

Hmm, so would that cause any problems trying to transfer in an existing ISA from another provider?  

Only in that, to initiate the transfer, you'd need to download and fill in a paper form, then post it to them.

Worth noting that is possible to bypass using the post at your end by selecting a provider to transfer to 

That's confusing things unnecessarily.

The question was about transferring TO Saffron - not from...

xylophone

But then I also have to send a cheque?  Or my old ISA provider has to send a cheque?  Or else what are my options to transfer the ISA??  

You complete the transfer in form and post to Saffron.

On receipt, Saffron contacts the old provider and requests the transfer of the money.

Barkin

Tunstallstoven said:

The plot thickens?  So if I open an ISA with Saffron, I have to manually complete a transfer form and send it in the post to them...  Go that, thanks.  

But then I also have to send a cheque?  Or my old ISA provider has to send a cheque?  Or else what are my options to transfer the ISA??  

No. Just complete the Saffron form and post it to them. They'll do the rest

Tunstallstoven

xylophone said:

But then I also have to send a cheque?  Or my old ISA provider has to send a cheque?  Or else what are my options to transfer the ISA??  

You complete the transfer in form and post to Saffron.

On receipt, Saffron contacts the old provider and requests the transfer of the money.

Gotcha!  Thanks  

TheWoodler

JamesRobinson48 said:

Just an aside: you might try composing your text message offline in a Word doc (or equivalent), then cut and paste it into the institution's secure messaging system.  That's what I generally do to avoid any timeout issues.

I *have* done that and it’s a great tip - especially useful in any case if you need to draft text about a complex matter, always best done in Word. 

Copy and paste isn’t always a universal solution though (special characters eg £ or & can be rejected, paragraphs corrupted or subject to a character limit - which I know you can check for on Word.) 

My view is that the onus should be on the institution to provide a customer-friendly format, not the customer to workaround.  I suspect test scripts for them don’t always interrogate their user-friendliness as robustly as they might, as it does vary between banks and BS. 

(This is starting to sound like a thread in its own right, apologies to the OP!) 

Kim_13

Barkin said:

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Tunstallstoven said:

Kim_13 said:

They don’t offer electronic transfers....  

Hmm, so would that cause any problems trying to transfer in an existing ISA from another provider?  

Only in that, to initiate the transfer, you'd need to download and fill in a paper form, then post it to them.

Worth noting that is possible to bypass using the post at your end by selecting a provider to transfer to 

That's confusing things unnecessarily.

The question was about transferring TO Saffron - not from...

Apologies, I missed that you are wanting to transfer into Saffron. In that case you would need to complete Saffron’s transfer form and post it as you are not near a branch. You would only need to send them a cheque yourself if you are also wanting to add new money to the ISA in addition to the transfer. If not, then Saffron and the provider you are transferring from will sort everything. If you haven’t already opened your Saffron ISA online (this wasn’t possible when I opened mine) you’ll also need to fill out their application form for the account you want. The addresses are the same, so both forms can go in one envelope.

At such time as you wanted to transfer out of Saffron to another provider, you would complete that provider’s Transfer In form in the same way. You send everything to the provider you’re joining and should not need to have any contact with the provider you’re leaving bar updates from them (e.g. We’ve received an ISA transfer request from (Provider you’re joining), please contact us if you did not request this and then letting you know the amount when they have sent the cheque, as closing interest will be added.

Barkin

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Tunstallstoven said:

Kim_13 said:

They don’t offer electronic transfers....  

Hmm, so would that cause any problems trying to transfer in an existing ISA from another provider?  

Only in that, to initiate the transfer, you'd need to download and fill in a paper form, then post it to them.

Worth noting that is possible to bypass using the post at your end by selecting a provider to transfer to 

That's confusing things unnecessarily.

The question was about transferring TO Saffron - not from...

You would only need to send them a cheque yourself if you are also wanting to add new money to the ISA in addition to the transfer. 

I'm pretty sure (but not 100% certain) that I've funded accounts by debit card.

More recently though, I've always done it by bank transfer.

I've never had to post them a cheque.

Kim_13

Barkin said:

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Kim_13 said:

Barkin said:

Tunstallstoven said:

Kim_13 said:

They don’t offer electronic transfers....  

Hmm, so would that cause any problems trying to transfer in an existing ISA from another provider?  

Only in that, to initiate the transfer, you'd need to download and fill in a paper form, then post it to them.

Worth noting that is possible to bypass using the post at your end by selecting a provider to transfer to 

That's confusing things unnecessarily.

The question was about transferring TO Saffron - not from...

You would only need to send them a cheque yourself if you are also wanting to add new money to the ISA in addition to the transfer. 

I'm pretty sure (but not 100% certain) that I've funded accounts by debit card.

More recently though, I've always done it by bank transfer.

I've never had to post them a cheque.

Saffron aren’t among the providers that accept debit card funding. Faster Payment would be an option, but on a fixed product there’s a slight risk that the funding window would be closed before the account details were known. Accounts appear straight away on the online service when opened with a cheque, but I can’t recall how long it took to get that set up as a new customer (though I recall having to phone them.) At what point the new account appears online if a transfer is in progress, I can’t say.