Savers who transferred money to NatWest’s best buy two-year cash Isa in the summer have been facing transfer delays of up to four months, This is Money can reveal.
Last week, we revealed how NatWest took more than two months to transfer a customer’s £20,000, leaving their money in limbo and losing out on interest it was supposed to be building at a rate of 5.9 per cent.
It was only after This is Money stepped in that the money was tracked down and the account sorted.
Since then more than a dozen cases have come to light, with customers missing six figure sums in the worst cases, suggesting the bank hasn’t been able to cope with demand.
The total value of missing Isa transfer money reported by 15 of our readers is £941,887.84.
Broken: Customers who took out NatWest’s best buy two-year cash Isa over the summer have faced transfer delays of up to four months
This is Money asked NatWest to look into the majority of the cases we’ve been sent and explain what’s going on – and the high street giant says that ‘extremely high demand’ is to blame.
One customer, David McKay, had £170,000 go missing for four months between now and when he opened the Isa in July.
The 74-year-old retired headteacher from Exeter, Devon, opened NatWest’s two-year fixed rate Isa on 4 July 2023.
He transferred his life savings from a stocks and shares Isa over worries about how the stock market has been performing and wanted the guaranteed return of NatWest’s 5.9 per cent Isa over two years.
It wasn’t until two months later on 6 September that NatWest finally accepted the transfer out of his stocks and shares Isa.
To his dismay, by 14 September the transfer had been returned to his stockbroker due to ‘invalid details.’
His stockbroker was advised by NatWest to send the sum to a NatWest holding account from where NatWest would be able to internally transfer it to David’s Isa.
The money has still not reached David’s Isa, over four months since he opened the account.
David said: ‘I am very worried that my money has been missing for this length of time because it is a significant chunk of my assets that I don’t know there whereabouts of.
‘I am 74 years of age now and retired and as you get older you just don’t deal with stress well.
‘I have received no communication from NatWest. Despite my pleas for them to move the money into my Isa or return it to me to put into another Isa, I have had no response other than an automated messages.
‘I had to travel five miles to a branch in Exmouth to get any information about where the money was as no one on the phone could help me.
‘Even in the branch no one could tell when my money would be moved to my NatWest Isa or why it was sitting in a NatWest Holding account.’
NatWest is still investigating the botched transfer, with the money still in limbo.
Two month wait… and no compensation
Charlie Northey, a supply teacher from Brecon, Wales, opened NatWest’s two year fixed-rate Isa on 9 August 2023.
The transfer request of £131,870.77 from his Nationwide easy-access Isa was finally accepted over a month later on 12 September 2023.
By 13 September his Nationwide Isa had been closed and the funds sent to NatWest.
Charlie received a letter from NatWest dated 15 September saying it could not proceed with the transfer because Nationwide had rejected it, despite Nationwide sending Charlie a Chaps reference number and closing statement.
£131,870,77 may be pocket change to NatWest but these funds are my entire life savings. The stress of this ordeal has brought on such bad vertigo that I have been off work for six weeks.’
Charlie Northey
Charlie was told by a NatWest agent to ignore this letter as it was automatically generated and to wait for the funds to materialise.
Finally, on 9 October, the funds arrived in Charlie’s NatWest Isa without any notification or explanation as to the delay.
According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, transfers to a cash Isa from another cash Isa with a different provider should take no longer than 15 days.
Charlie had to wait two months between opening the account and the funds being transferred.
One of the main problems Charlie faced was that no one at NatWest would confirm in writing that the bank had his funds, even when he asked if they could.
Charlie says: ‘£131,870,77 may be pocket change to NatWest but these funds are my entire life savings.
‘The stress of this ordeal has brought on such bad vertigo that I have been off work for six weeks.’
Extreme stress: Some customers are missing whole chunks of their retirement money which has caused health conditions like vertigo in one case and sleepless nights in others
Charlie claims NatWest categorically rejected that the transfer delay was its fault.
He says: ‘One time when I rang, a NatWest agent practically screamed down the phone and told me, ‘stop calling us, this is nothing to do with us’, blaming Nationwide for the delay.’
‘To keep customers in the dark wondering where their funds are and disappear to is unprofessional and a poor reflection of a UK regulated bank.
Charlie has asked for compensation for the time he has been forced to take off work due to stress-induced vertigo.
Months of waiting for these savers
NatWest topped the table with its two-year fixed-rate Isa in the summer with 5.9 per cent interest. That same Isa now pays 4.65 per cent.
After our story last week, 14 more cases have come to light, including that of Szliard Nagy – whose surname we’ve changed at his request.
He transferred £110,000 to NatWest’s two-year fixed rate Isa from a Vanguard Stocks and Shares Isa.
He has been waiting over three and a half months for his money to be transferred to the NatWest Isa.
The Isa was opened on 12 July and NatWest confirmed by text that it had received the transfer request on 3 August. However, the funds have not arrived.
He has lost months of interest and said he had to rearrange his financial goals and planning because of his savings going missing for this length of time.
Leslie Smith, whose name we have changed at her request, applied for NatWest’s two-year fixed rate Isa by post on 13 July.
Like Szilard, on 3 August, she was told by text that NatWest had received her transfer request and aimed to complete it within 30 days.
She has heard nothing from NatWest about where her money has gone apart from messages saying the bank is ‘working on it’.
‘What do I want for Christmas?’ the Isa I took out in July’ she tells us.
Frances and David Reeve, a couple from Surrey, have been missing over £80,000 between them.
Frances transferred £41,341.36 to NatWest’s two-year fixed-rate Isa on 8 August 2023 and David transferred £39,941.71 on the same date.
David’s NatWest account was credited with his Isa funds on Friday 17 November, 95 days after his transfer request. He was given no indication of whether the interest will be backdated and received no compentation.
Frances’ money is still missing after three months and both Frances and David have lost thousands of pounds in interest.
Another customer who does not wish to be named has been waiting for their £100,000 life savings to be transferred since the end of October.
Sarah Robinson, whose name we have changes at her request, has been missing £20,000 of savings since she transferred them to an RBS (part of NatWest Group) two-year fixed-rate Isa on 29 August 2023.
Graham Woodhouse from South Cumbria had £20,000 of savings go missing between the NatWest Isa he opened on 31 August 2023 and his NatWest current account. The money was eventually deposited into his NatWest Isa on 4 October 2023.
Philip West, whose surname we have changed at his request, is still missing £13,000 which he transferred from Virgin Money to a NatWest Isa on 2 August 2023.
He has spent six documented hours waiting on the phone trying to track down his money.
What’s gone wrong?
Almost all of the cases reported to This is Money relate to NatWest’s two-year fixed-rate Isa, which topped the best buy tables for most of the summer.
The Isa proved more popular than NatWest anticipated, and the bank quickly became overwhelmed by a flood of demand.
Some customers were told by NatWest agents that they were working through a ‘backlog’ of applications.
Anna Bowes, a savings expert and founder of website Savings Guru says: ‘It is unusual to have a high street bank at the top of the best buy tables.
‘NatWest Is one of our big banks, so of course it’s going to be popular and NatWest should have been able to anticipate the demand.’
NatWest declined to answer This is Money’s question about whether they’ve taken on extra staff to cope with high demand or work through the backlog.
Savings expert Anna Bowes says it is unusual for a highstreet bank to have an account at the top of the best buy tables but a big bank should have been able to cope with demand
NatWest says: ‘We apologise for the delay some customers have experienced in transferring their Isa.
‘All customers will get the rates they signed up for and we are backdating all interest so no customer will be left out of pocket.
‘Extremely high demand has led to some customers waiting longer than usual for their Isa to be switched and we are working hard with other financial institutions to resolve the few outstanding cases.’
Some customers were told their money was being kept in a NatWest holding account, gaining no interest at all.
Pleas from customer to release the money to their NatWest Isas or the original accounts from fell on deaf ears.
NatWest declined to comment on why customers’ money was moved to NatWest holding accounts instead of their Isas and whether this was standard procedure.
Bowes says: ‘That doesn’t sound right at all that the money was moved into a holding account.
‘This would be stressful for customers because their life savings are in limbo earning no interest in any account.’
What are your rights?
A transfer from a cash Isa to another cash Isa should take a maximum of 15 days, while a transfer from a stocks and shares Isa to another stocks and shares Isa with a different provider should take a maximum of 30 days.
A spokesman from the Financial Ombudsman Service says: ‘If consumers are concerned that they haven’t been treated fairly, they should contact our service and we’ll see if we can help.
We have details online on how consumers can complain about a financial firm.
‘If we uphold a complaint, we’ll put the consumer back into the position they’d have been in if the mistake or error didn’t occur, which could mean awarding compensation for financial loss.’
Anna Bowes says: ‘I would think that there has to be some compensation due to these readers even if it’s just a case of the interest being backdated.
‘It is not the customers’ fault that the new provider is messing up these transfers and the customers should not be out of pocket because of this.’
