ISA transfer from NS&I to Lloyds - have they lost my money?

Jimmy_Chappie

Hello all,

I’d really appreciate your thoughts on the following.

On 28/4/2025 I sent a form in to Lloyds to arrange a transfer in of money from my NS&I ISA to my Lloyds ISA as the interest rate was slightly better with Lloyds. As of the date of this post (6/6/2025) I still haven’t received the money into my Lloyds ISA. I’ve called both banks and they are essentially blaming each other - NS&I said they’d sent a cheque to Lloyds on 23/5/2025 and closed my account, so there was nothing more they could do. Lloyds have told me they haven’t received the cheque and the person I spoke to most recently implied that it must have ‘been lost in the post’ and that I should get back onto NS&I to ask them to reissue it. I’ve actually called Lloyds a few times for an update and on one occasion they said they’d look into it and call me back - even going so far as to give me a password to quote for the callback - but I never got a call back. Another person I spoke to at Lloyds said they ‘don’t usually do callbacks, so that sounded unusual.’ Anyway, two days ago I submitted a complaint online to Lloyds about the length of time this is taking, my dissatisfaction with their customer service and the fact that both banks were seemingly blaming each other without any solution for me. Am I overreacting or worrying unnecessarily here? Is this a common experience? Does it normally take over a month for an ISA transfer? Have my life savings been lost and if so, what can I do to get them back?

Thank you.

eskbanker

As the receiving provider, the onus is on Lloyds to manage the transfer process, so it's up to them to chase NS&I if needed, not you.  In your shoes, a complaint doesn't seem unreasonable, although chances are it'll turn up soon anyway - the maximum time for cash ISA transfers is 15 working days but it is plausible that a cheque is still working its way through the system(s), given the number of manual steps in between it being issued and actually being allocated to your new account.

BrilliantButScary

@Jimmy_Chappie,

Apparently you are not the only one having problems, unbelievable!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6596526/transferring-an-ns-i-isa

Yorkie1

My ISA took about 5 or 6 weeks to transfer from NSandI to another provider earlier this year. It did eventually turn up, and the new provider did contact me to say they were still chasing and would continue to do so until the funds arrived.

Hoenir

 eskbanker said:

 it is plausible that a cheque is still working its way through the system(s), given the number of manual steps in between it being issued and actually being allocated to your new account.

23rd May was a Friday before the bank holiday weekend. That's if it actually made the post that day. Allowing for the cheque to be banked, cleared and processed. Not that many working days has actually past. In large organisations to prevent fraud. There's segregation of duties. Which means that what seems a simple process goes through the work queues of a number of teams. The week of the 27th was half term.  Staffing would have been depleted as a result.