ns&i wont give me my money!

[gertinthebackofthevan]

would appreciate any thoughts of experience on an issue im having

I have an isa with ns&I which I am trying to transfer to another bank (can do this without penalty as ive had it a while)

New bank says they have sent the transfer request and my info including two chasing emails to ns&i

Ns&I are claiming that no emails have been received and that they have no record of a transfer request

Both refuse to communicate other then via email

It has been going on for months with neither party budging.

I have put in a formal complain to both banks as I don’t know who’s at fault but I suspect its ns&I as how can you not receive three separate emails to correct email address (I verified the address) ?

Has anyone had any experience of this?

I’m at a loss and it’s taking hours of my time

Is this what the financial ombudsman is for?

Any advise on what to do next is appreciated. At the moment I am stressed that my savings are seemingly out of my control

Can you withdraw the money from them and then transfer yourself?

This. Something is bugging me about when we withdrew ours it had to go into the bank account named when it was opened- no other way of getting it out.? Took around a month to get. (That but I can remember!)

You can't transfer them yourself as you will lose the tax free status of the account.

I had considered this but am i correct that if i withdraw it I would:

1. lose the benefit of the money having been put into an isa ie being tax free and have to use next years allowance to put it back in

1. lose the interest I should have gained months ago transferring it from ns&i into a substantially higher rate at this other bank

At the moment other bank say they are covering me with an 'isa guarantee' so will honor the interest i should have got but i think id lose this if i pull out of the transfer?

was this with ns&i ? it took a month to get out ?

i really dont trust them any more and just want access to my money freely.

Yes with nsandi. It was 2 years ago - hence me not remembering and a lot of money was being shifted around at the time all with different times and authorisations required. I do know it took a month to go through and land in our account. It was time sensitive for a house purchase! Would have been twitchy bum time for to have been any longer. I may well be wrong/out of date, but I thought it had to go into the same bank account as was nominated when we opened the nsandi account. But we were shifting moneies around to meet certain dates.
nsandi account held via poa for mil (five years plus ago not sure that account is even offered now) definitely had to go into the nominated account it was originally opened into - but again things could have changed as that would be 2017.

a quickie google seems to suggest a lot of problems in the the last 2 years trying to get money out for all sorts of reasons, from it issues to not recognise AMG some banks like mondo. Which is a bit wierd.

write to The Sunday Times for help - often they miraculously get things moving with their Money Section getting involved

Will your new bank copy you in on the email to ns&i?

Then if they say they haven't recieved it you can tell them exactly when it was sent, to where, and forward it to them while they're on the phone to you if necessary.

NS&I seem to have really poor admin processes. There was a thread on here before Xmas about them.
I'm trying to update addresses for me and the dc's and they really are a nightmare.

i was thinking of doing something like this but really hoped they would just sort it. thankyou

Thankyou i might try this but cant imagien they will let me get that involved, worth a shot though. I got the exact date of all three emails and ns&i said there was no record of them. other bank says no bounce back email. its driving me insane and wasting so much of my time.

Wow - this must be massively frustrating! Assuming it's a bog-standard cash ISA transfer, the rules are that the funds must be transferred to new bank within 15 days of them receiving your instruction. Obviously, if what new bank is saying is true, then the problem lies with NS&I.

When did you make your complaint(s)? Ordinarily they have 8 weeks to resolve before you can go to the FOS, but as this has been dragging on for months (!) I would give the FOS a call for advice, they're usually pretty helpful.

Whatever you do, don't withdraw the cash as you will lose its tax-free status.

Thank you for confirming. I have now received a letter from ns&i apologising that they haven’t dealt with my complaint yet due to internal delays (!) and saying i am able to contact ombudsman. which i will do now. I just wonder how much they can do really or how seriously they are taken?

Note to all… avoid ns&i at all costs

No firm likes to get an email from the Ombudsman - apart from anything else they get charged £750 for each complaint investigated. However, it probably won't be quick - around 3 months for a case to be allocated, though you may get lucky.

NS&I should continue to try and resolve your complaint in the meantime - did they tell you when they expect to be able to give you a final response?

NS&I are fucking useless and also have ridiculous over complicated processes that they won't budge an inch from regardless of practicalities .(eg the refusing to communicate other then by email!). I didn't find complaining about their unhelpful and convoluted processes very productive. However if you don't get anywhere with complaining to them FOS will likely be helpful in your case albeit it'll take ages.

Thank you. Really appreciate your experience.

FOS are much quicker now and I'm sure will be helpful.

I know this may sound silly, have you triple checked the email address?

I only ask as my mum had a problem with her bank regarding something done by email, and an i or l had been put in as a 1, or O as 0, something like that anyway.

I hope you get it sorted soon!

You absolutely CANNOT do this if you're transferring ISA to ISA