Cynergy bank wont transfer my ISA

marneyr

Hi All, 

Wondering if anyone has any advice for this. Recently opened a new ISA with Moneybox and tried to transfer my existing Cynergy ISA over. Both accounts acknowledged the request and said it was in progress. 2 month later, not complete. I wrote to Cynergy who wrote back and said that during the transfer there was a fault and this was due to Moneybox and its for them to fix. Although i'm not sure when they were going to tell me this. I have written back asking for more specific info so i can ask the right questions to Moneybox and in parallel i have written to Moneybox telling them this and that more specifics will follow. 

Its so frustrating as you cannot speak to anybody. Daughters savings currently in limbo.

Has anyone else experienced this ot been through similar? Any advice welcome. 

Thanks.

Uriziel

I had to wait 35 days for my ISA transfer. Monument kept saying Plum do not respond and Plum kept saying it was complete. Turns out Plum had transferred the money within a week but Monument somehow did not find the money in their accounts without the reference and said it had gone to an account they usually do not check. Monument paid me interest once it had been complete. Since you've been waiting for two months I would raise a formal complaint with whoever you believe is at fault and after two weeks file a complaint with the ombudsman. Mention that you will be forwarding the complaint to them in your email as the ombudsman fines them for every complaint they get. They will magically find the money and fix everything.

Kim_13

From your posts, it would appear that things go wrong when app based providers are involved - so perhaps not worth anyone reading going for a very short term bonus rate, given the hassle likely to follow.

I opened a LISA with £1 with Moneybox, which I later transferred to Skipton in 2022 as Moneybox had been very quick to cut rates and weren’t increasing them. If nothing else, I figured that Skipton membership might be valuable in future. The transfer took so long that I ended up funding the Skipton account with new money to prevent it closing before the transfer landed. It did turn up without intervention in the end but I was glad it was only small change involved.

marneyr

Uriziel said:

I had to wait 35 days for my ISA transfer. Monument kept saying Plum do not respond and Plum kept saying it was complete. Turns out Plum had transferred the money within a week but Monument somehow did not find the money in their accounts without the reference and said it had gone to an account they usually do not check. Monument paid me interest once it had been complete. Since you've been waiting for two months I would raise a formal complaint with whoever you believe is at fault and after two weeks file a complaint with the ombudsman. Mention that you will be forwarding the complaint to them in your email as the ombudsman fines them for every complaint they get. They will magically find the money and fix everything.

Going to look into this, thank you. As you say the Ombudsman might create some urgency which is badly needed. Sorry to hear about your scenario, its just so frustrating. 

marneyr

Kim_13 said:

From your posts, it would appear that things go wrong when app based providers are involved - so perhaps not worth anyone reading going for a very short term bonus rate, given the hassle likely to follow.

I opened a LISA with £1 with Moneybox, which I later transferred to Skipton in 2022 as Moneybox had been very quick to cut rates and weren’t increasing them. If nothing else, I figured that Skipton membership might be valuable in future. The transfer took so long that I ended up funding the Skipton account with new money to prevent it closing before the transfer landed. It did turn up without intervention in the end but I was glad it was only small change involved.

I agree. I was taken hook line and sinker by the rate being offered. I didnt really consider the app factor. Getting to speak with somone seems to be a cost that app providers dont want. I will pursue as per UriZiels' advice (which i'm very grateful for), but its just the inconvenience factor. Next time i may go with the best rate on the high street. 

Albermarle

marneyr said:

Kim_13 said:

From your posts, it would appear that things go wrong when app based providers are involved - so perhaps not worth anyone reading going for a very short term bonus rate, given the hassle likely to follow.

I opened a LISA with £1 with Moneybox, which I later transferred to Skipton in 2022 as Moneybox had been very quick to cut rates and weren’t increasing them. If nothing else, I figured that Skipton membership might be valuable in future. The transfer took so long that I ended up funding the Skipton account with new money to prevent it closing before the transfer landed. It did turn up without intervention in the end but I was glad it was only small change involved.

I agree. I was taken hook line and sinker by the rate being offered. I didnt really consider the app factor. Getting to speak with somone seems to be a cost that app providers dont want. I will pursue as per UriZiels' advice (which i'm very grateful for), but its just the inconvenience factor. Next time i may go with the best rate on the high street. 

I do not think it is just an issue with them being app only, although as you say they may be very light on actual humans to speak to.
An issue is that some of these newer providers offer a top rate and attract a lot of new customers which swamp their systems. Then when bonuses etc run out the same people all switch out again causing more problems.
Plus their terms and conditions generally seem more complicated/awkward than traditional providers, which probably adds to the problems.