ISA chaos strikes with HSBC under fire as customers unable to access £10,000s in savings

HSBC customers are experiencing significant delays when attempting to transfer their ISA after Britain's largest bank launched an attractive cashback switching promotion.The surge in applications has left the lender struggling to process requests within standard timeframes.Britons are speaking out over the issue as many customers appear to be struggling in accessing their savings with the high street bank.Kayleigh, a 39-year-old retail worker from near Neath in Wales, has found herself unable to access £70,500 of her savings for close to two months.She initiated a transfer from her previous provider Tembo on April 8, drawn by HSBC's one-year fixed ISA offering 4.5 per cent interest combined with the bonus payment.Although Tembo confirmed on May 18 that funds had been released, the money has yet to appear in her HSBC account.Ahead of the 2026 tax year, multiple high street banks rolled out cashback incentives for customers opening or switching to qualifying ISAs.The promotion proved enormously popular, with savers flooding in to take advantage. However, the volume of applications appears to have exceeded the bank's capacity to handle them efficiently.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSBritons need £845,000 pension savings for comfortable retirementRachel Reeves plots ISA tax raid as £12BILLION in British savings face 22 chargePension blow as parents sacrifice retirement savings to fund children's university costsIndustry standards stipulate that cash Isa transfers should complete within 15 working days, while other transfer types should take no more than 30 calendar days.Ms Kayleigh described the situation as hugely disappointing and accused the bank of creating its own problems.She told The Telegraph: If a headline product gets oversubscribed, they should have closed it early. It smacks of greediness on their part, they've created this problem and haven't staffed up properly to be able to deal with it.Her husband faces an identical predicament, with an additional £71,000 trapped in transfer limbo.It is a lot of money not to be able to access in case of an emergency, she added, noting she has lodged a formal complaint.Frustration has spread across social media platforms, with one X user branding the service appalling after waiting over a month.On Trustpilot, an elderly customer reported being denied access to a substantial portion of their life savings despite repeated branch visits and phone calls.In communications to affected customers, HSBC stated that this meant some transfers are taking a little longer to complete. A HSBC UK spokesman said: We're currently experiencing higher than usual ISA transfer volumes following strong demand for our savings products, which regrettably means some transfers are taking longer than expected to complete. The bank has sought to reassure customers that their funds remain secure and any interest lost during the delay will be compensated. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter