little moan about IceSave!

Annabee

Went to set up an ISA with them on 20 March. I thought there should be enough time. Arranged it so that they would take out £1,000 automatically on 31 March (today) which was the earliest date they gave me. I thought when it was set up with the Direct Debit link to my bank account I could easily add the other £2,000. However I could not do this until I got my user ID from IceSave in the post. This did not arrive until last Thursday, 27th.

On 27th I then tried to set up the additional payment of £2,000 to go out on 31 March but the IceSave system told me 'the earliest date available is 2 April'. 'Why so long?' I wondered but thought it would be OK as it was a Direct Debit, they would get the money straight away.

Fortunately I rang up check today, and turns out they have 'clearing' time on Direct Debits, so the £2,000 would not have arrived before the start of the new financial year. No warnings on their website at all!

I have now had to cancel my Direct Debit to them, and tomorrow arrange a CHAPS payment of the £2,000 from my bank account to them, for which my bank will charge me £21!

Not happy at all and think that when it is coming up to the end of the financial year IceSave should put some warning on their homepage about this. Setting up the ISA on 20 March online should have been ample time to arrange it all, I would have thought.

IceSave's systems seem quite inefficient.

chodges84

I was quite impressed by there system.

I transferred my ISA from Halifax and once Halifax has released it (that took them 7 days) I was almost instantly ready to go. I did already have an account though and transfers could be quicker.

I did this back in february though. I expect they will be very busy from mid march onwards as people try and get themselves the best deal.

Lastly, the tax year ends on 5th April, so a direct Debit last Thursday would have made it in time.

Paul_Herring

Any particular reason you've left it so late in the tax year to try and dodge the cut-off date?

Annabee

Well we had a lump sum of money that we thought we were going to be using towards buying a house, but only just found out that we won't be needing it for this, so decided to put some into an ISA for the time being.

The thing is I tried to set the Direct Debit to go through last Thursday (27) and the 1st date IceSaves system would let me do if for was next Wednesday (2 April), nearly a week later, and THEN it transpires they don't count it as cleared til 4 working days after that or something. Never knew Direct Debits had to be 'cleared'.

When I had an account with Ing they had the same system of setting up a Direct Debate link to your current account, then they would 'pulll' the money from the current account to them. But in their case they did it straight away, no waiting aroiund for a week which I can't understand.

So I can't really understand IceSave's procedures - they seem lacking. At least they should warn people this might happen.

Paul_Herring

Annabee wrote: »

The thing is I tried to set the Direct Debit to go through last Thursday (27) and the 1st date IceSaves system would let me do if for was next Wednesday (2 April), nearly a week later, and THEN it transpires they don't count it as cleared til 4 working days after that or something. Never knew Direct Debits had to be 'cleared'.

When I had an account with Ing they had the same system of setting up a Direct Debate link to your current account, then they would 'pulll' the money from the current account to them. But in their case they did it straight away, no waiting aroiund for a week which I can't understand.

So I can't really understand IceSave's procedures - they seem lacking. At least they should warn people this might happen.

The "clearing time" refers to the time between it hitting your account and starting to earn interest, and the time you are able to withdraw funds on that amount. Other banks don't credit your account until after it /has/ cleared. It's similar to banking a cheque in LTSB - it appears on your account immediately for the purposes of interest, but you cannot draw on those funds for a few more days while it clears.

Regarding the DD - you will find that in most institutions the first direct debit will take slightly longer if you try to set it up immediately (since it needs to be set up,) and there will be a 3 day lead time (i.e. you cannot set up a DD less than 3 days in advance) but having set it up (and especially IME with IceSave) after that you'll find that it will leave your linked account and arrive in your IceSave account on the same day.

Note that money going the other way (from IceSave) /will/ incur the 3 working day delay that affects other accounts (since it isn't using the DD system.)

Annabee

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Regarding the DD - you will find that in most institutions the first direct debit will take slightly longer if you try to set it up immediately (since it needs to be set up,) and there will be a 3 day lead time (i.e. you cannot set up a DD less than 3 days in advance) but having set it up (and especially IME with IceSave) after that you'll find that it will leave your linked account and arrive in your IceSave account on the same day.

Well the first payment on 31 March arrived in my IceSave acc same day, but is showing as 'processed funds' not 'cleared funds' and they said on the phone that because the payment due tomorrow would not have time to 'clear' for 5th April this meant it would not qualify for the 2007/08 ISA. Luckily I had phoned and discovered this, so as I have already put some into the IceSave ISA I am now stuck with paying my bank £21 for a CHAPS transfer to transfer the remaining £2,000.

I see on another thread someone mentioned that with Ing they were told if Ing received a cheque by this Saturday (5th) it would be OK, never mind about clearing. Maybe I should have stuck to Ing!