Icesave ISA - transfer in experiences

tiptoe_mouse

I've noticed plenty of posts about the problems people have had transferring their ISAs to A&L and Abbey, but not much on Icesave. It seems to me that Icesave are offering the best rate for transfers in with easy access - is this right? What are people's experiences of transferring to it? The institutions that we will be transferring from are:

NS&I
Halifax
Barclays
Kent Reliance BS

Thanks

tiptoe

Baldur

Transferred the whole of my current tax year's (2007/8) & partial previous tax years' Cash ISA funds from Abbey to Icesave in February - everything went very smoothly after an initial slight hiccup, when they said that they could not accept partial funds, this stance was reversed as soon as I pointed out the HMRC's transfer guidelines.

Lavendyr

I transferred my NS&I ISA to Icesave in end of Jan/early Feb. Absolutely no problems at all, transfer was completed (from my initial application to the money showing up in my Icesave account) in 16 days, and only spent 2 days outside of either account (i.e. earning no interest).

SoozyJ22

I transferred my NS&I ISA to Icesave earlier this month. I sent off the transfer form on the Monday of one week and the money appeared in my Icesave account the Tuesday of the next week - exactly one week after they'd have received my transfer request.

tiptoe_mouse

Thanks for the responses so far - all very positive. I've applied online for the ISA - am I right in thinking that I don't have to wait for my account details to send in the transfer forms? Just need to put my reference number on them?

Also I've just come across the following on another thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11925707&postcount=5

Personally I would avoid ICESAVE for the simple reason that they use the Passport Scheme for Financial Compensation in the event of their failure. This means that you would be looking to the Icelandic compensation scheme to give you your money back. Iceland is a very small country (population wise) and so may struggle to do this. All the Credit Rating agencies have marked down Icelandic Banks to reflect this risk.

Any thoughts on this? I'm thinking of transferring all our ISAs, which represent the bulk of our savings.

Thanks,

tiptoe

Paul_Herring

One slightly negative; my experience: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=765539

Got sorted (i.e. backdated) in the end, but did take a while.

tiptoe_mouse

Hmmm - I don't know how I missed that thread. Not quite so perfect, then.

tiptoe

darude

Transferred mines from West Bromwich Building Society - no problem, took just over 3 weeks.

mac12

NS&I to Icesave.
I sent my transfer request last monday.
by wednesday i got a letter confirmation from Icesave awaiting for cheque from NS&I.
by Friday I got a ISA statement from NS&I confirming my transfer from them to Icesave.

Very smooth indeed. Lets see how long it will take for the money to arrive to Icesave...


Make sure you apply for a ISA online first with Icesave as they will not accept your form without it!

dawny10

I've just transferred into Icesave from NS&I, Nationwide and Barclays. NS&I and Nationwide money appeared within less than 2 weeks, very impressed.
Barclays felt the need to write to me to check I wanted to transfer and ask me to fill out another form (which they forgot to enclose!), and best of all, forgot to frank the envelope so I had to pay a visit to the sorting office and pay £1.27 to get this info!

So glad I didn't go with Barclays this year, they really are terrible!

oldagetraveller

Transferred to Icesave from NS&I soon after their ISa was launched. Took about 7 days (not all working days).
So full marks to both NS&I and Icesave for that.