Inside Money: 35 (Business) days later...

File photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Regular reader(s) may recall the launch in April of the inaugural KiwiSaver transfer competition.

As per the rules of the game, a transfer window of 35 days was allotted to enable the various providers involved to flick the appropriate switches or fiddle the right knobs, whatever the case may be.

And the results are now in.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, the transfer initiated via an old-fashioned paper route came in well ahead of the internet-enabled approach.

About three weeks after the request was filed, the new KiwiSaver provider confirmed the funds had been officially shifted across. Congratulations go to AMP Wealth (formerly known as Axa) for this display of administrative prowess: and it won't really miss the money it sent, there's plenty more fish in the sea (or is there?).

Mercer, meanwhile, spent a couple of weeks longer shuffling the transfer paperwork in its back-office. While a letter confirmed Mercer had arranged the transfer within the legal deadline, the receiving provider had yet to register the funds in the new account by the time 35 days were up.

Chasing up the matter with the new KiwiSaver provider prompted this reply:

Dear ...

Thank you for your enquiry about your KiwiSaver account.

... it actually takes up to 35 Business days for the funds to be transferred from your previous KiwiSaver provider. I should imagine you will be able to see the funds in your KiwiSaver account in a week or so.

I do love the precision of that answer. But the administrator's imagination wasn't powerful enough to actually make the funds appear in the account even within the extended 35 'Business' day limit.

As at the time of writing, the account I have been informed remains a zero balance.

What have those funds been up to in the interim?

We'll give it another (Business) week or so before calling in the Serious Fraud Office.

In the meantime, please share your transfer stories below take as long as you like.