How do you get money out of an FNB tax free shares account?

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Zellephant

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It’s time to buy a new bicycle, and as it happens, I had a tranche of money invested into an ETF that hasn’t been performing up to expectation over the past few months.

The reasonable thing to do seemed to be to sell the shares in that ETF, cash out the proceeds and pay for the new toy. But lo and behold, after putting the trade in on Thursday afternoon (inside trading hours), the shares disappeared from my portfolio, but seemingly so has the money - it doesn’t reflect anywhere in my account. Not as a pending credit, not as free cash to buy more shares with, not as anything.

FNB says it can take up to 5 days for the funds to reflect as available in the account. I can then use them to buy more shares immediately, but if I want to cash them out, it will take another minimum of 48 hours for the funds to reflect in my cheque account???

What the hell? What if I wanted to sell the poor performing shares and immediately buy a share that is growing? 5 working days seems a ridiculous period for that - also where the hell does the money go for 5 whole working days, when the trade is closed in near real time?
 
Sadly, that is reality. Even debit orders have a 60day waiting period now to reflect.

Just start the process .... simple as that

Just one question .... you want to cashout your TFSA, to buy a new toy ? Seriously ?
 
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zerocool2009 said:
Sadly, that is reality. Even debit orders have a 60day waiting period now to reflect.

Just start the process .... simple as that

Just one question .... you want to cashout your TFSA, to buy a new toy ? Seriously ?
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Also want to know.

Whatever you withdraw from a TFSA can never be replaced.
TFSA imo, is there to make as many contributions to as legally possible, and watch it grow in whatever you invest it in..

Maybe one day you'll cash it out.
 
Honestly, if you have a life threatening issue, and need cash, by all means, but a toy!

So tell us what Toy you wanna buy ....

And then, read up the TFSA rules, its not to difficult to understand.

I started my TFSA portfolio in 2015 actually (also with FNB), and in 2020 moved it away, as the product itself SUX (trust me I know, been in that boat). Move your TFSA, that is also very good advice!
 
zerocool2009 said:
Sadly, that is reality. Even debit orders have a 60day waiting period now to reflect.

Just start the process .... simple as that

Just one question .... you want to cashout your TFSA, to buy a new toy ? Seriously ?
Click to expand...
Not all of it, just a portion. I’m not really too concerned about not being able to “return” the money back into the TF Shares account. I have already hit my lifetime contributions limit.

My reasoning is, I want a new bicycle. I could have taken the money out elsewhere, but the specific ETF was currently only losing me money. So made more sense to sell and cash that R40k out, instead of taking it out of another investment that is actually showing growth.

Nevertheless, since it is now Wednesday, and I sold the shares on Thursday afternoon last week, and the funds are still not available in my account to transfer out, or buy another share - I have made alternate plans to buy the bike, and will now begging looking at moving my whole TF shares portfolio away from FNB
 
Yeah look that's good to know; I've got some TFSA pennies with FNB that I don't add to but the money is sitting there, might be worth also moving it out to my live one if this is their process. I probably should move it regardless.
Question is, is there anything specific to TFSAs that they'll all work like this and take a while to pay out, or is this an FNB thing? Never cashed out from a tax free account but I've done other stuff with FNB and can't remember it being that bad in terms of paying out.
 
@Sepeng ...

You dont need to SELL any share to move it.
EasyEquities, or any other provider, if they have the SAME ETF's, you can move your portfolio cashing it out. I did that in 2020. Its not quick, a bit of admin, but move it to a provider that really makes your money work for you.

If you have FNB top40 and FNB midcap, move it (but dont sell it).

Something I know, in 2020 a HUGE FNB TFSA client base moved their portfolio's, and that is when FNB said, no more TFSA fees!

Sorry to say, to little to late
 
When people think TFSA is like a normal savings account..... Why not just take out the dividends ?
 
Puffy_Nipples said:
When people think TFSA is like a normal savings account..... Why not just take out the dividends ?
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Even that is BAD, as it is like shooting you in the foot.

Anything leaving the account, going from TFSA to your own account, you are snipping the MAX CAP which is R500 000

Lets say you have now R1000 dividends paid out, and you take it out, your future contributions will be R500 000 - R1000 = R499 000

That is how I see the rule! (anything leaving the TFSA wrapper, the above rule kicks in)
 
zerocool2009 said:
Even that is BAD, as it is like shooting you in the foot.

Anything leaving the account, going from TFSA to your own account, you are snipping the MAX CAP which is R500 000

Lets say you have now R1000 dividends paid out, and you take it out, your future contributions will be R500 000 - R1000 = R499 000

That is how I see the rule! (anything leaving the TFSA wrapper, the above rule kicks in)
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Yes it is shooting yourself in the foot but does not reduce your lifetime contributions.
 
Zellephant said:
It’s time to buy a new bicycle, and as it happens, I had a tranche of money invested into an ETF that hasn’t been performing up to expectation over the past few months.

The reasonable thing to do seemed to be to sell the shares in that ETF, cash out the proceeds and pay for the new toy. But lo and behold, after putting the trade in on Thursday afternoon (inside trading hours), the shares disappeared from my portfolio, but seemingly so has the money - it doesn’t reflect anywhere in my account. Not as a pending credit, not as free cash to buy more shares with, not as anything.

FNB says it can take up to 5 days for the funds to reflect as available in the account. I can then use them to buy more shares immediately, but if I want to cash them out, it will take another minimum of 48 hours for the funds to reflect in my cheque account???

What the hell? What if I wanted to sell the poor performing shares and immediately buy a share that is growing? 5 working days seems a ridiculous period for that - also where the hell does the money go for 5 whole working days, when the trade is closed in near real time?
Click to expand...
Think very hard about pulling money out of a TFSA - you are fighting lifetime limits that cannot be corrected. Rather sell out of the ETF, but keep the money in the TSFA account and buy into another ETF that you think is better.
 
Scooby_Doo said:
Think very hard about pulling money out of a TFSA - you are fighting lifetime limits that cannot be corrected. Rather sell out of the ETF, but keep the money in the TSFA account and buy into another ETF that you think is better.
Click to expand...

I read this up actually today. Contributions are seen as inputs. Dividends can be pulled out of the TSFA, and that doesnt affect the 500k limit.
 
zerocool2009 said:
I read this up actually today. Contributions are seen as inputs. Dividends can be pulled out of the TSFA, and that doesnt affect the 500k limit.
Click to expand...

Yes, but thats not the point - you want to keep as much money in the account as possible for as long as possible to maximise the tax component. Pulling anything out for any reason other than I am retired is short sighted if you have other sources to pull from.
 
Zellephant said:
It’s time to buy a new bicycle, and as it happens, I had a tranche of money invested into an ETF that hasn’t been performing up to expectation over the past few months.

The reasonable thing to do seemed to be to sell the shares in that ETF, cash out the proceeds and pay for the new toy. But lo and behold, after putting the trade in on Thursday afternoon (inside trading hours), the shares disappeared from my portfolio, but seemingly so has the money - it doesn’t reflect anywhere in my account. Not as a pending credit, not as free cash to buy more shares with, not as anything.

FNB says it can take up to 5 days for the funds to reflect as available in the account. I can then use them to buy more shares immediately, but if I want to cash them out, it will take another minimum of 48 hours for the funds to reflect in my cheque account???

What the hell? What if I wanted to sell the poor performing shares and immediately buy a share that is growing? 5 working days seems a ridiculous period for that - also where the hell does the money go for 5 whole working days, when the trade is closed in near real time?
Click to expand...
^^ are you not contradicting yourself there ?

but I agree... its a long time to wait.
 
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