NS&I vs Santander - Why can’t they transfer an ISA?

KenUsername

My sons ISA is in NS&I, he wants to transfer for a higher interest rate so he filled in their paper form and sent it off. Then he opened a Santander ISA in app and started the transfer process. Then Santander sent a letter which arrived 14 days after it was sent! (Royal Mail issues) saying the cheque hadn’t arrived, then they sent a letter saying the cheque had been returned to NS&I?
He called NS&I and was told they knew nothing about this and didn’t have a returned cheque. This was in the middle of his Uni exams and stressed him out! And he had better things to do (like revise) rather than spend an age on the phone getting frustrated with no answers and wondering where is money was! The monies were eventually put back into his NS&I account and then sent back out to Santander, and the issues continued.
He called Santander to ask why it was returned and informed them that NS&I say they don’t have it? Santander simply said we don’t know why it was returned and nothing else?

This happened twice…. He eventually called NS&I and told them to stop everything as this was going round and round (this was over a 2 and half month period)

I (his dad) on his behalf after my son gave consent called the NS&I complaints team after sending a letter and asked for a solution, I was told just to repeat the process… I asked for a human to take ownership of this and maybe monitor it to help it go through, but I was told no.

He mentioned due to the delayed post, Santander were issuing reminders to NS&I to send the cheque, which triggers NS&I to cancel that cheque and they then send another, and round and round this goes….. NS&I use the post even though they know it’s letting them down as it’s very slow, plus they use 2nd class stamps! I suggested maybe escalate the case and get a single person to monitor the process as we have had to complain, and maybe use registered post? Maybe use 1st class stamp? Maybe hold of cancelling the cheque when the reminder comes in as they know it’s on its way? But again I was told no, this is impossible all my son can do is keep on repeating the same process which doesn’t work? Madness?

His money is basically stuck in NS&I.
Anyone with any experience offer any advice?

I unfortunately had a very similar issue with Barclays and Virgin Money a couple of years back which was eventually resolved after hours on the phone and lots of letters then several months later and help from the customer service person in Virgins CEO’s office it was transferred.

The transfer system is broken, but there’s no alternative?

subaru

Sorry, no specific useful advice but I feel your pain…..opened a Tesco Fixed rate cash ISA on 3rd June, to transfer over a previous year's ISA from Coventry BS. Despite already being an online customer with Tesco (for many years), had to wait to receive a printed application form by post and return it, by post, to make the transfer. 26 days on, and the money left my Coventry account several days ago but still nothing in Tesco account.

By way of contrast, transferred another matured ISA from Santander to Aldermore, initiated online on 4th June and all completed in less than 48 hours. So some providers can do it right….

Ayr_Rage

Why did your son contact NS&I at the beginning of the process?

What exactly was the paper form and what were the instructions given in that?

The correct way of transferring an ISA is to open an account with the new provider, give them the details of the account to be transferred and they will contact the old provider to request a transfer.

KenUsername

as it used to be a child isa then matured to a direct isa he needed to fill in a paper form, that is there policy.

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6674357/ns-i-vs-santander-why-can-t-they-transfer-an-isa

How much is in it? If less than £20k and he doesn't anticipate using much of this year's Isa allowance it could just be withdrawn to a normal account and then deposited with Santander as a current year Isa contribution.

KenUsername

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82052621#Comment_82052621

yes, good idea, I automatically thought it needed to stay in the ISA system… thanks. Still though, it’s a disgrace that 2 banks like these can’t get it done and offer no solution