Transfer Cash ISAs Discussion Area

egghead67

thank you badger . I did think that was the case initially but after speaking to Halifax I got more confused.

probably didn't quite clarify one bit. Halifax if I heard rightly on the phone told me that I can only transfer the whole lot (previous and current year ISA) and continue paying in, OR the previous year only. They wont accept just the current year £1000 I already started with HSBC to be transferred and to cont topping up after for this tax year - because I am , in quote 'only allowed to invest in one provider for the current year'.

I think i'll give them a ring again. But huge thanks!

badger09 wrote: »

You can certainly do what you were hoping, i.e transfer previous years' £8k to Santander - and all of your current year's subscriptions to Halifax, then once that transfer is complete you can carry on paying into Halifax, up to max £5640 for this year.

meanscot

My wife andI opened a Santander 2 year cash ISA on 20th March with £10 deposit.

I then sent Santander the ISA transfer forms for my wife and myself toSantander to transfer our ISA's when our Bank of Scotland ISA matured on May12. Both forms were contained in the same envelope posted to Santander. Theforms had been filled up on line and downloaded for printing.

My cash was transferred to my Santander ISA account on 24th April and BoS ISA accountclosed. Several days later my wife's ISA was still in her BoS ISA account. Oncontacting BoS they said they had had no request from Santander to transfer these.I contacted Santander who said they would resend the request to transfer mywife's ISA from BoS.

By 4th May still no sign of BoS ISA being transferred. After contacting BoSthey again said they had received no request from Santander for my wife's ISAto be transferred. On phoning Santander yet again young man said he thought theproblem was the bank address on the transfer form.

The transfer address on both forms was the same.

I explained that there was no Bank of Scotland in the online dropdown bank list.He said that he would resend the details to BoS to the fax address I was givenby BoS ISA transfer department. He agreed that my wife would get the differencein interest paid up from the day the form was received (BoS 0.5% and Santander4.0%)since it was Santander's fault for not sending on the form. He also said hewould give my wife an ex gratia payment of £20 into her current account for thetrouble and phone costs.

Today (15th May) still no ISA transferred from BoS. Another phone call to Boconfirmed that they had received no request from Santander. A further call toSantander and I was told the problem was the address given in the Details ofthe Cash ISA to be transferred. He stated it was given as Royal Bank ofScotland. I explained that I had a copy of the original form and there was NO Royal Bank of Scotland in the dropdown list. I then asked him to give me theaddress in the form. He then said he was having problems loading the form onhis PC but asked me to hold till he spoke to someone else. He then came backafter some time and said the address was definitely Royal Bank of Scotland. Hewould not accept that there was no Royal Bank of Scotland in the Dropdown menu.

After several times putting me on hold to speak to someone else he agreed toput me through to complaints. Then on hold for about 20 minutes, then acomplaints person (level 2) spoke to me and asked all the same questions, givensame answers and information with again several times and again put on hold so thathe could speak to someone else.

By this time I had been on the phone about 90 minutes, the complaints personagreed to up my complaint a level. I asked to speak with his supervisor, but hesaid his supervisor did not want to speak with me. I asked for name of UK CEO, hisaddress and telephone number. This was refused but he gave me an email addressto complain to [EMAIL="CEO@santander.co.uk"]CEO@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL].

On the form under:

2. Details of the Cash ISA to be transferred I put the ISA provider as LLOYDSTSB BANK PLC from the dropdown list of banks as there was no bank of Scotlandon the dropdown list and Lloyds TSB is the parent company of BoS'

Under address I put:

Bank of Scotland PLC

P.O. Box 548

Leeds

Postcode:

LS1 1WU

Telephone number (including area code):

08456075365

Luckily I kept copies of both puff forms.

Any suggestion how I can get this sorted out short of closing the ISA as the 4%interest rate is good and I don't want my wife to lose the interest she shouldbe getting paid by Santander.

Complaints seem to be a dead loss.

Meanscot

badger09

egghead67 wrote: »

thank you badger . I did think that was the case initially but after speaking to Halifax I got more confused.

probably didn't quite clarify one bit. Halifax if I heard rightly on the phone told me that I can only transfer the whole lot (previous and current year ISA) and continue paying in, OR the previous year only. They wont accept just the current year £1000 I already started with HSBC to be transferred and to cont topping up after for this tax year - because I am , in quote 'only allowed to invest in one provider for the current year'.

I think i'll give them a ring again. But huge thanks!

You are very welcome

To be honest, I wouldn't waste my time/energy/sanity on phoning:cool: If you've decided to go with Santander & Halifax, then simply complete online Santander's transfer form for your previous years' £8k and post that off. As soon as the £8k disappears from your HSBC ISA (or at the same time if you like a little danger - but I'd play it safe and wait :rotfl:) complete Halifax ISA transfer form for the balance.

Just a thought - and I'm not employed by nor have any particular allegiance to Santander but why not transfer your current year's £1k to their instant access Direct ISA at 3.3%?

egghead67

badger09 wrote: »

You are very welcome

To be honest, I wouldn't waste my time/energy/sanity on phoning:cool: If you've decided to go with Santander & Halifax, then simply complete online Santander's transfer form for your previous years' £8k and post that off. As soon as the £8k disappears from your HSBC ISA (or at the same time if you like a little danger - but I'd play it safe and wait :rotfl:) complete Halifax ISA transfer form for the balance.

Just a thought - and I'm not employed by nor have any particular allegiance to Santander but why not transfer your current year's £1k to their instant access Direct ISA at 3.3%?

badger you sure is one smart cookie:T, I like you! I did bit more research after posting my last bit and found that 3.3% direct access Santander deal you mentioned too. although...Halifax is tempting the devil inside me with their £100000 monthly prize draw among others - not that I would ever believe anyone would win .

I'll sleep it off tonight and hope to wake up with further wisdom tomorrow. Fingers crossed deals are still on when I wake up! Cheers.

badger09

egghead67 wrote: »

badger you sure is one smart cookie:T, I like you!

Why thank you kindly. Like you too

I did bit more research after posting my last bit and found that 3.3% direct access Santander deal you mentioned too. although...Halifax is tempting the devil inside me with their £100000 monthly prize draw among others - not that I would ever believe anyone would win .

I'll sleep it off tonight and hope to wake up with further wisdom tomorrow. Fingers crossed deals are still on when I wake up! Cheers.

Good idea to do your own research. If you're feeling lucky - go with Halifax. The difference in interest rates on £5640 is less than £17 in the 1st year. Sleep well :A

keiran

There's clearly a major problem with satander in not sending off transfer forms to the old provider

I sent Satander 3 forms in one envelope for 3 ISAs I had with the Halifax. I even attached a post-it note to indicate that there were 3 forms for 3 transfers. - They processed 2 promptly, but after very extensive investigations, I discovered they hadn't bothered to send the 3rd form to Halifax! They still haven't sent it, 35 days now since they sent the 1st 2 forms.

They keep no record, apparently, of which staff member sent the other 2 forms, and so there's no way of tracing and feeding back to that person. I'm also told that the customer-facing staff don't have phone access to the transfer department, and so all they can do is to keep sending them "prioritising emails"!!!

If they can't do this simple task competently, what are they good for .. .

One thing definitely to learn here, I think, is that it's worth sending each form for an ISA transfer in a separate envelope to minimise the chance of their rubbish staff being too thick/incompetent/uncaring to process all the contents in an envelope.

keiran

Although it's annoying, meanscot, and we'd rather they did the transfers in an efficient manner, I've now rationalised this problem thus:-

Let them take however long they want. They'll have to pay compensation following the complaint, and you can continue to earn interest on the old ISA, while Santander will have to pay interest on the same money after day 16 of the process( from when they were supposed to receive the form - the date they received the other form you sent)

meanscot

Thanks for that Kieran.

I have sent off email to Santander CEO to give details and complain as a Santander shareholder and ISA holder.

Meanscot

chrisips2

Hi

I've been trying to transfer my Cash ISA from Bank of Scotland to Santander since 13 April. Apparently they processed my form on 18 April but the money is still with Bank of Scotland, they have had no word from Santander. Santander are avoiding talking to me about it.

I've contacted Santander loads of times they just tell me to wait a few days longer. Or they hang-up the phone or put me through the wrong department.

Now, I'm not here just to rant, there is plenty of that going on I'm sure but, can I get a hands-up from anyone waiting in excess of 15 working days for a Cash ISA transfer to Santander with no clues as to what is going on.

I just don't want to feel alone really....

Thanks.

Chris

meanscot

Hi chrisips2

See my post above on Santander cockup of 15th May 2012.

I can understand your frustration. I sent complete details about my wife's application farce by Santander to the Santander CEO. I also included account details, phone number, my Santander Shareholders account number, etc to [EMAIL="CEO@santander.co.uk"]CEO@santander.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Next morning I received a call from the Customer Resolution Manager, Executive Complaints Team who assured me she would look into my complaints and apologised.

Yesterday,my wife's HBOS ISA money was paid into her new Santander account.

Give the Santander CEO an email and see if that helps.

Good luck.

Meanscot