Charter failed to transfer cash ISA in 45 days

Gehngus

Hi.

I'm Having a problem transferring my ISA from plum to charter savings bank.

I opened the charter account at the beginning of January and at the end of January contacted them to ask why the delay?

After waiting five working days for an answer and they confirmed "we have sent a request letter to Plum on 13/01/2026 and on 27/01/2026"

Now Charter seem to be a very old fasioned setup. No app. Just a website that is not mobile friendly and by the looks of it they still use paper mail.
Five working days to respond to questions is also poor.

So I waited and eventually tried to ask Plum if anything was happening?

The help & contact doesn't work so I scrolled through the coconditions.

Firstly; charter had to initiate the transfer which had been arranged.

Then I found :
"We do not accept transfers via post. All the transfers must be done digitally, either via our app or your provider. Any postal requests will be rejected, and you will need to contact your provider to resubmit digitally".

So I'm assuming this is the delay?
Charter use the mail. Plum dont accept mail?

I doubt charter can do digital.

I want to transfer my isa to a better deal and have another 20k to go into it in April.

I'm not sure if I should look elsewhere and ditch the idea of charter. I'm not happy with the whole "Old school" thing they have going on. I'd prefer an app and a digital bank.

Can I just send them a message and close the account and that will stop the transfer?
I dont think they will manage the transfer by April anyway.

Many thanks for your input.

refluxer

Even though they do use the mail for a lot of their correspondence, Charter use the BACs ISA transfer service so transfers to and from another provider who also uses the service should be electronic.

Cynergy and Tandem have lists of ISA providers on their websites who use the BACs ISA transfer service - I've just checked both and Plum doesn't appear on either list, so this could be the the reason why Charter used the mail to contact Plum.

I transferred a number of different ISAs from a few different providers into fixed rate Charter ISAs recently (a mixture of paper-based and electronic transfers) and didn't have any issues, other than one of the other providers (Cynergy) not actioning the transfer request for a week In the busy run-up to Christmas, but this was obviously not Charter's fault.

Gehngus

Thank you.

have contacted both to see what is happening.

Hacksawcats1

Did you give Charter your national insurance number as a reference? I recently moved mine, but as Plum is not a "proper" bank, they don't have account numbers and sort codes, which may be causing the problem. :-)

Gehngus

Yes. They have ni number and all the correct details.

Plum simply doesn't deal with mailed request and contacted charter

Gehngus

Had an update from plum and from Charter.

Plumb :

Hello ####,Thank you for reaching out.
I can see that we had received a postal request from Charter.
Our Operations Department emailed Charter on January 21st to confirm that they could not proceed with the transfer, and they they needed to receive the Transfer Form by email.
Your provider was reminded of the dedicated address for the transfer requests. Our Wealth Operations team have established a dedicated email address specifically for the provision of necessary documentation for ISA transfers from Plum to other providers to facilitate a smoother and more immediate process for ISA transfers.

This email address is readily accessible to all providers through the TISA

And in answer.

I have requested an email to be sent to Plum

That's a month wasted. The plumb account at 2% and Charter at 4% on a 50k isa

Not a huge amount lost so far but more than I'm happy with.

So the moral is ; If you transferring into Charter. Best to check with your current isa provider and let charter know how it has to be dealt with.

I followed Charters instructions and assumed they would take care of everything. At least that's how I read it.

Gehngus

Today I find that Plum emailed Charter on the 22nd January asking for electronic application.

Charter sent the request on 19th Febuary.

So has this delay has cost me nearly £100 in interst just this month?

Gehngus

Today I recieved this:

Thank you for applying for an account with Charter Savings Bank.

Unfortunately, we have closed your account as the deposit was not received within the required timescales.

Now what do I do? They have applied for my ISA.

I'm now worried my ISA will end up in the nether?

Gehngus

I have spoken on the phone with charter explaining that the transfer in was to fund the account and that messages have been and recieved to and from them confirming this was happening.

My worry is that the isa will leave plumb with nowhere to go.

Charter will check in a week to see that the transfer is not happening just in case.

They have sugested I now apply for a new ISA account with them and start again.

Why would I do that?

Also. The interest rates have gone up since January.

Can anyone advise of a bank with similar interest and better transfer in procedure?

I belive charter have already cost me enough time and money.

simonpies234

For peace of mind contact Plum and tell them to block Charter from your account.

'Better' is a personal thing, although I have had a bad experience with Charter myself.

Just pick someone that meets what you want and trust, then go with them.

Gehngus

Thank you.

I sent a message to Plumb and got a reply within a few minutes to confirm transfer had been stopped.

Better as in more up to date. An app. Better than 5 working day response to questions. Let you know what is going on etc. Modern enough to use emails and educated in other providers procedures?

What surprised me with Charter when speaking on the phone they detailed the difference in transfer procedures between plum and other providers confirming that Plum transfers could only be done electronically. So why send mail to them 15 days apart and wait seven weeks to email only to shut the account five days after that?