Savings experts say that while personal and business bank account providers have streamlined their ISA transfer process to the point where the majority of switches are accomplished within 15 working days, more can be done to make things even quicker.
With transfers now taking 15 working days (a 21 calendar day total) across 90 per cent of ISA savings providers, this can be seen as an improvement on the sometimes more than 30 day span that a full quarter of transfers took between 2008 and 2010. Even the best transfers during this period of time averaged around 26 calendar days, experts say.
Despite these improvements, ISA transfer experts insist that banks and building societies have much more room for improvement. While 15 working days may sound impressive, the realities of a 21 calendar day average means that there have only been a true gain of six days over 2010 figures.
ISA transfers could be completed in as little as 48 hours, said James Clark, a former Pegasystems executive recently said. The global IT firm’s ex-bank director said that there are no technological barriers to accomplishing transfers in just two days, especially with the advent of new ‘fast payments’ technology that allows instantaneous funds transfers, but banks and building societies still insist that reams of paperwork is necessary to move funds in ISAs within HMRC guidelines.
The new 15 working day transfer rule was instituted by the OFT after massive complaints volumes were registered in the spring of 2010 as far too many customers saw precious months of high interest wasted as their funds were lost within the shuffle from one retail banking giant to another, most notably Nationwide and Santander.