Pensioner Bonds Guide

rtho782

If these bonds were for "under 65s" there would be cries of ageism.

Why is it that only over 65s get to earn 4% interest? Especially given that a 65 year old now, was 59 at the time of the financial crisis, so it's their generation that is now retiring having spent the last 10 years at the top getting us in to this mess.

colsten

Eatchips wrote: »

Can these over 65 NSI Bonds be topped up? So, could I "open" a Bond with £500, then add another £9,500 later. Or, is this a one hit only affair?

The Pensioner Bonds are for single lump sums only. You cannot top them up, they are typical fixed-term savings accounts that only take one deposit.

If you want to make regular deposits, consider Regular Savings accounts - HSBC, First Direct and M&S all offer 6% Regular Savers, and Lloyds have a 4% one.

colsten

rtho782 wrote: »

Why is it that only over 65s get to earn 4% interest?

Why it is that only children get JISAs?
Why is it that only 16-18 year olds have a £19,000 annual ISA allowance?
Why is it that only first time home buyers are entitled to state help?
Why is the earth not flat?

rtho782 wrote: »

....it's their generation that is now retiring having spent the last 10 years at the top getting us in to this mess.

Sounds just as mindless as blaming all muslims for the terrorism we are seeing.

bellybuttonfluffman

rtho782 wrote: »

Why is it that only over 65s get to earn 4% interest?

As far as I can see, all ages can better the NS&I 65+ 3 year bonds by opening the following three accounts:

Club Lloyds Current = 4% on £5K.
TSB Classic Plus = 5% on £2K.
Nationwide FlexDirect = 5% on £2.5K

So, £9.5K savings returns approx. £425 in the first year, whereas the NS&I bond returns £400/year on £10K.

What's more, opening a Club Lloyds Monthly Saver (4%) and drip feeding it the max £400/month will earn an additional £100 or so.

Admittedly, the Nationwide account only lasts for a year, so then one would ditch and switch at that time.

Another advantage with the above accounts over the NS&I bonds is they're not fixed term, so we can get at some or all of our dosh whenever we want.

verntern

nilrem wrote: »

Nothing, Placed the cash in my current account applied for the bonds by post and I have heard nowt and the money is still sitting waiting to be collected, if it ever will be!

TBH I thought that given the chaos of on line applications Post would be the best way to proceed but I am now having my doubts!

Sigh, so did I. Obviously equal chaos with processing postal applications. Maybe the bonds will be dated from when applications and cheques were received rather when NS&I get round to paying them in.

Aged

rtho782 wrote: »

If these bonds were for "under 65s" there would be cries of ageism.

Why is it that only over 65s get to earn 4% interest? Especially given that a 65 year old now, was 59 at the time of the financial crisis, so it's their generation that is now retiring having spent the last 10 years at the top getting us in to this mess.

How nasty and immature!

bellybuttonfluffman

verntern wrote: »

Maybe the bonds will be dated from when applications and cheques were received rather when NS&I get round to paying them in.

FYI, I applied for both bonds online on the 15th, but the cash didn't go from my account until the 19th. However, I see the bond maturity dates are exactly 1 year and 3 years from the date I applied.

Geoffo_M

verntern wrote: »

Nothing notified to me. My form and cheque should have reached them last Monday. Cheque remains uncashed.

Identical to mine, even to the point of being received last Monday. Reassuring it's not just mine.

dc43

Eatchips

Below taken from the brochure:

How much can I invest?
You can invest from £500 up to £10,000
in each Issue of each term.
You can buy more than one Bond, as long
as the total amount you invest in each term
isn’t more than £10,000.

So it would seem that you could buy another bond for the same term with the other £9500

Terry98

miller wrote: »

My thoughts on reclaiming interest:

Already under Self Assessment: You'll get repaid straight into your bank account relatively quickly if you're due.
Not under Self Assessment: You could ask to be registered to benefit from the processing above, bit of a slegehammer to crack a walnut though.
R40: You'll be repaid by cheque relatively slowly (!!!!!! does the form ask for bank details I hear you ask).

The last R40 I sent was processed in about 3 months and they inputted (or a computer scanned) the numbers totally incorrectly resulting in too big a refund when they reconcilled it (PAYE) against annuity income which they seem to do in July. The numbers were corrected by phone, then they obviously wanted the extra money back. All in all a total shambles.

If receiving a pension taxed under PAYE, I'd recommend simply phoning them with your bank/building society interest figures (gross amount, net amount and tax deducted across all accounts), waiting for the reconciliation/P800 and a cheque will be issued automatically.

Thanks,that is very useful information.

I think HMRC are going to be inundated with queries just because NS&I are not registered to pay gross interest.

Perhaps they were in to much of a rush to get these out before the election they did not care about the consequences!