In December, as a result of Vanguard’s price hike, I initiated an ISA transfer from my S&S ISA in Vanguard to my IE S&S ISA. The estimated date for completion was 12/01/2025 and it’s gone through the Request, Valuation, Transfer, Settlement phases already.
However, for about 3-4 weeks now it appears to be stuck on the Completion stage. This is my first time doing a transfer between ISAs so I’m not sure what the typical timescales are, but this seems like a long time for it to be held up.
Is to be expected or is this something I need to contact support about?
An in specie ISA transfer should generally take up to 30 business days, but regularly take in the 6 - 8 weeks range, it is also certainly not unheard of them taking over 3 months to complete.
Hi @jtfm
Sisaket’s response covers ISA Transfers where you are transferring investments.
I transferred cash-only from Vanguard in September and it took just over a week.
Hello @Sisaket
My ISA with Vanguard that I transferred to IE was an S&S ISA too - I sold my investments to cash before transferring it though. It was still called an S&S ISA, though it held only cash.
They tend to move quicker then - but you are out of the market for a week or so, of course.
Unfortunately, the shorter Govt targets are for Cash ISA transfers - a S&S ISA vendor could reasonably claim their more generous target applies, even if moving only cash.
Thanks both. At the time I selected an in specie transfer so perhaps that’s the cause of the delay. It sounds like selling to cash first is the way to go if you want it done quickly, even if the investment will be the same. Wish I’d known sooner!
As you imply @jItfm: it wouldn’t generally be best to sell to cash when transferring, except for the transfer time.
Taking longer shouldn’t really matter if happy with the portfolio, as you are still invested - excepting the charges of course, it could still make sense if someone’s current S&S is expensive.
I was looking at different investments after my transfer, so selling down was necessary anyway - and fortunately the money also moved quickly.
