Nationwide ISA

astock

:j hooray, at last my transactions have been sorted out and the transfer money been added to my this years ISA. made a phone call to ISA transfer team early in the morning 9AM and was through straight away. they have put an an automatic explanation when your phone gets connected explaining the general reason to the delay, but dont be put off that just hold on to the line and you will get through to someone. ask them what stage your application/transfer is at and if you are not getting any joy then remind them of the HMRC 30 day rule if transferring/adding funds. myself I didnt need to remind them of 30 day rule but when Mrs called them the trick worked for her though. as I said I called today and the money was added today in the afternoon, great. next time hope Nationwide anticipates high volume of accounts and drafts extra staff to deal with the workload. i was told that they have 30000 applications to deal with yet and temporarily suspending new transfer IN applications from other providers.

Stavros_3

What number did you ring?

Croasdaile

I am also a customer of 25+ years standing and becoming increasingly disillusioned with Nationwide and their poor service.

My ISA application was posted directly to the ISA Transfer Team on 7 April. I wanted to transfer an existing Northern Rock ISA and simultaneously top up with £3600 being the 08/09 allowance. Additional funds (£3600) were lodged in my FlexAccount so that they were available to top up the ISA. I notified NR of my intention to transfer.

By mid May and in the absence of any communication from Nationwide I made a series of telephone enquiries. It proved almost impossible to get through to anyone that could help and on those occasions when I did get through I was generally put off with vague assurances that “they are doing all they can” or that “I will hear from them shortly”. However now aware of scale of processing delays I reluctantly waited to hear from them.

On 15 June I received an undated letter from Nationwide stating they have requested the transfer cheque from Northern Rock and the following day I had a letter from Northern Rock stating they have sent a cheque to Nationwide.

Today I receive a generic type letter stating that my account should be opened within the next few weeks and that Nationwide will ensure I am not financially disadvantaged as a result of the delay and “we will ensure that the interest you earn on the account is backdated to either the date on the transfer cheque that we receive from your existing ISA provider or the date we receive your completed application form, whichever arrives last”.

This is confusing, what does it mean? Surely the transfer cheque will always arrive following the date the completed application is received. Also it does not address the loss I have incurred through the new ISA funds (£3600) to this day still sitting in my FlexAccount earning 2.8% nett interest when they should be earning 6.15%.

Welcome views.

paparossco

I had a call from NW a couple of nights ago (perhaps because I raised a formal complaint??). Having applied on the 9th April I got an ISA Bond Certificate through last week that covered my transfer from NS&I but the £3.6k was still sitting in my Flexaccount for this years allowance. I'm promised a new one back dated to 1st of May (when NW recieved the cheque from NS&I) that will include this years allowance. So in effect I've 3 weeks reduced interest on the £3.6K that was in a higher interest account.

The £3.6 has been taken so I'm hopeful that the end is in sight.....

john_s_2

Those who've been following my posts will know what trials I've had over the last five months. But NW have really taken the biscuit now.

I received a letter today thanking me for my recent application to transfer my Portman ISA to them.

I have done no such thing! I have never held an ISA with Portman! I can only assume they have muddled my records with some other poor soul's application. I am tempted to just leave it and hope they will realise their mistake. But given my experience of them I doubt it very much. So knowing that there is an innocent customer out there who has just naively entered their den it is with a heavy heart that I shall be phoning them once more tomorrow morning.

Their incompetence knows no bounds. I am now obviously worried about the security of my own savings with them. They are disgraceful.

GreyPilgrim

April 5th, I applied to have two ISAs transferred to Nationwide: One from Bradford & Bingley, one from Barclays

To date, Bradford and Bingley have submitted their cheque, but Barclays say that Nationwide has not even requested a transfer - this is despite me calling Nationwide numerous times and (by my reckoning), Nationwide RESENDING the transfer request.

I have now found out that even though Nationwide have had the Bradford and Bingley cheque for almost two months, they have not actually opened an account BECAUSE THEY ARE WAITING FOR BARCLAYS TO SEND IN THEIR CHEQUE...

And the circular argument I am having with Nationwide is:

Me: "So, you have sent a postal request to Barclays three times now, and Barclays have not received it"
Nwide: "Yes"
Me: "Does that not suggest that something is not quite working, and that you need to investigate why?"
Nwide: "Yes, it does. We will liase with Barclays to see why this is happening"
Me: "Erm, how are you going to liase with Barclays?"
Nwide: "We will send them a letter"
Me: "You are going to find out why barclays have not received three of your letters, by sending them a letter"

AAAAAAAAAARrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhh
When I found out that Nwide have not even opened the ISA from the B&B cheque, I asked them to do so and process the Barclays cheque seperately....
This cannot be done without me going into the branch apparently.
---

Now it turns out that they HAVE NOT MADE any more transfer requests since the original one on April 5th. Apparently the other two re-request are not mentioned on my account, therefore are either a product of my imagination or a blatant lie on my part.

I feel completely powerless here...what do you advise? Nationwide customer services (01793 576757) are about as much use as a marzipan dildo. I cannot transfer the B&B cheque to another provider, and I can see this dragging on for months and months and months.

I hope you will excuse the rant - I'm usually a lot more calm than this, but it's the first time a customer service call has left me fuming (I'm still grumbling to myself seven hours after the call)
Any advice would be welcome

(I should add to this that on top of the numerous calls to the helpling I've also written a letter to the customer service department - unacknowledged, had promises of three 'callbacks within 48 hours' - non have happened yet, and a formal telephone complaint 'which will be responded to within 5 working days', today being the sixth working day and no response)
Deep breath

john_s_2

You have my full sympathies, I know exactly how you feel. If it helps I transferred in two ISAs from different providers and these were opened separately with no intervention from me (as in, they were opened separately - there was a lot of intervention required but not to open them separately).

In fact at one point they told me they had to be dealt with separately as the cheques had different dates on. I bet they can't deal with them separately yet just in case - JUST IN CASE - your Barclays cheque, when they get it, has the same date as the B&B cheque. Nothing would surprise me about them.

Good luck. I can only advise to be patient. It's going to be like this all over again when we leave them next year.

john_s_2

I spoke to NW about my Portman ISA transfer that appeared out of nowhere yesterday (see my previous post - I have no ISA with Portman!)

They couldn't explain why I had been sent the letter but assured me it wasn't someone else's application that had been muddled up with me. They told me to ignore it.

Stavros_3

GreyPilgrim wrote: »

April 5th, I applied to have two ISAs transferred to Nationwide: One from Bradford & Bingley, one from Barclays

To date, Bradford and Bingley have submitted their cheque, but Barclays say that Nationwide has not even requested a transfer - this is despite me calling Nationwide numerous times and (by my reckoning), Nationwide RESENDING the transfer request.

That is a mirror image of my situation Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Happychappy

Same boat with Nationwide and the NS&I, they closed my ISA on 15th May and sent the funds to NW who have written to me this week saying NS&I have not responded to their letter?

I have written three formal letters of complaint, the first in May promised reply by 1st July, I have now written to the Ombudsman and filled in the complaint form on their website, so hope before old age sets in I can see the fruits of my labour in the form of an interest bearing tax free ISA ?

I really shouldnt ask for so much ?