Why did it take almost a month for Plum to transfer £16,000 from my Cash ISA to my bank?

I have an Easy Access Cash ISA with Plum. On 5th July, I requested £16,000 to be transferred from the ISA to my bank.

Fast forward to today and my bank, Santander, has been trying for weeks, but Plum is not responding to Santander’s transfer requests.

They also have a strange system of NI numbers instead of normal bank accounts, which causes further confusion for no reason.

I was under the impression that money from a Cash ISA should be transferred within 15 days, but 1* reviews on review sites suggest others are having issues with Plum too.

Why does the transfer take so long?

Helen Kirrane from This is Money responds: Plum, a cloud-based app, has one of the best ISA interest rates on the market at 5.17%. Many savers like you have turned to the platform for this reason.

As you say, ISA transfers are supposed to take no more than 15 business days for cash ISA transfers.

This is Money asked Plum if it could review its case to see what went wrong and to explain more generally how it processes ISA transfers.

In its case, Plum told me that the original transfer request was not processed when it was first received on July 5.

Plum assured me that his transfer to Santander has now been completed. Plum said he is investigating why this happened and will take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

This is Money also asked Plum if he had been overwhelmed by demand for his best buy ISA.

James Blower, founder of Savings Guru, said: We often see that new suppliers do not understand the volumes that are achieved at the high end of the market, the operational impact, or how to prepare for it.

Plum is paying a very high fee, and has done so for some time.

Outbound transfers should be low in number due to the fees they are paying, I suspect they are prioritizing inbound transfers.

A Plum spokesperson said: We are delighted that our Cash Isa has been so popular and we have been able to attract so many new customers to Plum who are enjoying a positive experience including a market-leading rate.

We also want to highlight that the vast majority of customers are very happy with Plum, as evidenced by our high ratings on the App Store (4.7/5) and Play Store (4.6/5).

How long should an ISA transfer take?

James Blower’s responses: All providers have 15 business days to complete transfers, so they must report any failure to do so on a regular basis.

A Plum spokesperson responded: The timeframe varies, but we generally aim to process ISA cash transfers within 15 days.

Helen Kirrane from This is Money responds: The 15-day deadline does not apply to transfers from a Cash ISA to a Stocks and Shares, Innovative Finance or Lifetime ISA, or vice versa. As yours was from a Cash ISA to your bank, I see no reason why the transfer should have taken longer than 15 working days.

How do I make a PLUMB ISA transfer?

A Plum spokesperson responded: The transfer process varies between providers due to their different communication methods. However, we aim to simplify the process and deliver requests as quickly as possible. It should be noted that some providers insist on sending transfer requests by post, which often delays the process.

As Plum is not a bank, payments must be made through our e-wallet and payment provider. That’s why we use customers’ personal details and social security number to identify their account, ensuring that money can be tracked at every stage of the process. Many other cash ISA providers work in a similar way.

We can confirm that this customer’s transfer request has been processed on our end and the money is now in Santander.

In this unusual case, the original transfer request was not processed when it was first received on July 5. We are investigating why this happened and will take steps to ensure it does not happen again.

We would like to apologise to this customer as we aim to process all ISA cash transfers within 15 business days.

We would like to reassure customers that this is not the case with transfers from Plum. The vast majority of transfers from Plum Cash Isa are processed quickly and without any issues.