ISA transfer Virgin to Santander

iwant2asave

Hi,

I transferred an ISA from Virgin to Santander and the closing balance and interest from Virgin was 24/4/25 but the opening transaction on Santander for this transfer was 29/4/25 - is this normal/to be expected or should there be less of a gap between the two dates?  (5 days gap in total including a weekend).

Mark_d

A bank transfer taking a week is not uncommon.

refluxer

iwant2asave said:

Hi,

I transferred an ISA from Virgin to Santander and the closing balance and interest from Virgin was 24/4/25 but the opening transaction on Santander for this transfer was 29/4/25 - is this normal/to be expected or should there be less of a gap between the two dates?  (5 days gap in total including a weekend).

According to the official ISA guidelines (which I'm presuming Santander would stick to), the receiving bank should backdate the interest to the date on which the ISA money leaves the sending account to ensure there is no loss of interest during the transfer period. This is particularly important when an ISA transfer requires the posting of forms and cheques, where the whole process can take a week or two.

It's odd that there is such a large gap in this case though because both of those banks utilise the BACs ISA transfer service and so, in my experience at least, those two dates should coincide (or perhaps be a day apart at the most).  

badger09

I requested xfer of 2 ISAs from different parts of VM to Santander on Sunday 27th. Balance disappeared from one of the VM accounts some time on 28th. I didn’t check the other one. Both xfers were completed before 08.00 this morning. Pretty slick. 

iwant2asave

badger09 said:

I requested xfer of 2 ISAs from different parts of VM to Santander on Sunday 27th. Balance disappeared from one of the VM accounts some time on 28th. I didn’t check the other one. Both xfers were completed before 08.00 this morning. Pretty slick. 

So VM showed the transaction date as 28/4 and Santander ISA showed the transaction date of 29/4? 

iwant2asave

refluxer said:

iwant2asave said:

Hi,

I transferred an ISA from Virgin to Santander and the closing balance and interest from Virgin was 24/4/25 but the opening transaction on Santander for this transfer was 29/4/25 - is this normal/to be expected or should there be less of a gap between the two dates?  (5 days gap in total including a weekend).

According to the official ISA guidelines (which I'm presuming Santander would stick to), the receiving bank should backdate the interest to the date on which the ISA money leaves the sending account to ensure there is no loss of interest during the transfer period. This is particularly important when an ISA transfer requires the posting of forms and cheques, where the whole process can take a week or two.

It's odd that there is such a large gap in this case though because both of those banks utilise the BACs ISA transfer service and so, in my experience at least, those two dates should coincide (or perhaps be a day apart at the most).  

Thanks - to know if interest is backdated or not would I go by the transaction date on the statement or could it have been backdated to a date that is not visible on the statement?

badger09

iwant2asave said:

badger09 said:

I requested xfer of 2 ISAs from different parts of VM to Santander on Sunday 27th. Balance disappeared from one of the VM accounts some time on 28th. I didn’t check the other one. Both xfers were completed before 08.00 this morning. Pretty slick. 

So VM showed the transaction date as 28/4 and Santander ISA showed the transaction date of 29/4? 

I don’t know what date VM showed as the ISAs were transferred & closed. 

All I do know is that one of them disappeared from view in the app some time on 28th. 

Balances on both were visible in Santander early am 29th, and dated 29th

refluxer

iwant2asave said:

refluxer said:

iwant2asave said:

Hi,

I transferred an ISA from Virgin to Santander and the closing balance and interest from Virgin was 24/4/25 but the opening transaction on Santander for this transfer was 29/4/25 - is this normal/to be expected or should there be less of a gap between the two dates?  (5 days gap in total including a weekend).

According to the official ISA guidelines (which I'm presuming Santander would stick to), the receiving bank should backdate the interest to the date on which the ISA money leaves the sending account to ensure there is no loss of interest during the transfer period. This is particularly important when an ISA transfer requires the posting of forms and cheques, where the whole process can take a week or two.

It's odd that there is such a large gap in this case though because both of those banks utilise the BACs ISA transfer service and so, in my experience at least, those two dates should coincide (or perhaps be a day apart at the most).  

Thanks - to know if interest is backdated or not would I go by the transaction date on the statement or could it have been backdated to a date that is not visible on the statement?

It's hard to say, but I have definitely had instances (with other banks) where transferred funds were sent by cheque and the credit date of the cheque in the new account was back-dated to the day after the funds left the old account. As the calculation of interest in any bank account is obviously automated, I would imagine this back-dating is necessary in order to ensure there is no loss of interest so if you have a 5 day gap, then that would suggest to me that you've possibly lost interest in that period. Only a call to Santander would confirm this, though.

The last time I opened a Santander ISA, the transferred funds were credited to the account the day after they left the sending account (which is what you'd expect for an electronic transfer), so there was no loss of interest. There might still be some human involvement though (despite the transfer being electronic) which could lead to delays.