Pensioner Bonds now on sale

[Deleted User]

we are going to be sent confirmation letters to sign and return, we have the e mails with reference numbers and the money has left our accounts for both bonds. Anyone else got the same about confirmation letters?

mike88

mgdavid wrote: »

somebody's misunderstanding - but I've no idea if it's you or us!
I will simply repeat what I've said in various earlier posts (there are now multiple threads running, it is getting confusing and tedious).
I registered back before Christmas, using the 'I don't have any other NS&I products' option.
I received my Number and one-time password.
I logged on, changed my password, and then saw that I had £3 in Premium bonds showing against my account! (they go back to 1957 apparently, I had forgotten them).
I have been able to log on at will ever since, and on Saturday my 3 yr Bond appeared in the list too - despite my session on Thursday morning crashing after payment authorisation, no ref number, and no email.
I find patence pays off, I really don't get what people gain out of all the ranting and raving, what exactly does it achieve?
I have my bond, I have my sanity, and I've had a belly full of laughs from many of the other posts in these threads, what's not to like?

That is different to my experience. Your situation is completely different.

You have pre registered so your experience is not the same as those of us who registered as part of the application process. The first question on the application asks if you are registered. If you are not, the website indicates that you will be registered automatically during the application process.

There are several people on here who applied and paid and then found the website crashed before confirmation which issued the NS&I reference number. So the money has left our accounts but has not been claimed and NS&I are unable to tell us whether we have a bond or not.

rfsmith7

I applied for a 1-year bond in joint names with my wife. She has an NS&I number which we used for the application, but mine was to be generated as part of the application. The application worked fine and we got an email immediately to confirm this. However it does not disclose my new NS&I number, which I understand is being sent by post. Seems daft to me: I was made to choose a password, so why not email the NS&I number immediately?

We then applied for the 3-year bond, but suffered from the crash just after the verified by Visa bit. Money for both bonds has been taken from our account.

Having an NS&I number does not help as it does not display the status for either bond, even though the first application completed successfully.

mike88

rfsmith7 wrote: »

Having an NS&I number does not help .

Yes it does. If you telephone NS&I the first thing they ask you for is your NS&I reference number. If you have one they will be able to help; if you don't have a number there is nothing they can do.

rfsmith7

mike88 wrote: »

Yes it does. If you telephone NS&I the first thing they ask you for is your NS&I reference number. If you have one they will be able to help; if you don't have a number there is nothing they can do.

OK - I was referring to logging on to the website with your NS&I number and looking at your "bond summary". But there's nothing there yet for me, for either of the bonds.

Rollinghome

Sledgehead wrote: »

You seem to know an awful lot about IT. Doesn't that subject also involve requirements analysis and the like? Only a simple soul like me imagines that the requirements of the issue involve raising money through the sale of debt instruments. I'm pretty certain people have done this before and have worked out how it can be achieved without attaining peak cluster ****. Oh, sorry, did you only just realise I'm being heavily sarcastic?

Not necessarily, but I do run a high-spec dedicated server for a fairly well-known website I own. That server easily copes 99.99% of the time, and while there can be rare problems when it staggers, it would make no sense to buy in more capacity at considerable cost just for those rare occasions. (And yes, I did assume you were making a somewhat lame attempt at sarcasm but thanks for pointing it out in case I missed it.)

If you were using this site, MSE, yesterday when I was, you would have notice that it too ground to a halt for a period when the servers couldn't cope with demand. The BM server also dumped me out at login at 5 pm today when I was trying to arrange a transfer of funds to replenish the money that will be taken by NS&I from my interest paying current accounts tomorrow. I had to go back later.

Such is life, it happens and neither tantrums nor tears seem to help in my experience.

People need the sense to realise that with the best will in the world, systems, whether servers or telephone staff, may be overwhelmed due to unusual demand. It just wouldn't be make economic sense for tax-payers, even if possible, to take on and train hundreds more telephone advisers or to upgrade server systems for a one-off situation that may never re-occur.

For many of the people who are panicking this isn't even such a wham-bam offer when they can already get up to 5.00% from interest-paying current accounts and without locking in their money for 1-3 years.

Instead of desperately trying to grab themselves a bond before someone else beats them to it, they'd save themselves a lot of hassle if they waited a few days if necessary until it quietened down a bit and perhaps spent that time considering whether another interest-paying current or regular saving account might be better for them. If you can't get through to grab your bond then chances are the people you're trying to beat will be having similar problems.

I've no idea how long the bonds might be on offer but if they were pulled in less than 4 weeks and oldies missed out after the repeated assurances from both NS&I and Osborne that they'd be available for "months rather than weeks" then HM Opposition would be queueing up to beat the bejesus out of him on your behalf - just in time for the election.

mgdavid

mike88 wrote: »

That is different to my experience. Your situation is completely different.

You have pre registered so your experience is not the same as those of us who registered as part of the application process. The first question on the application asks if you are registered. If you are not, the website indicates that you will be registered automatically during the application process.

There are several people on here who applied and paid and then found the website crashed before confirmation which issued the NS&I reference number. So the money has left our accounts but has not been claimed and NS&I are unable to tell us whether we have a bond or not.

Not 'completely' different; just slightly.
The NS&I number (for login purposes) and the Reference number (issued at the point the Bond application is accepted) are two different numbers. I sense from other posts that some people are getting these confused.
The bit I've underlined is exactly what happened to me.
Following up, I waited a few days until the Bond appeared on my account. If you could login there is a good chance you would see your bond too, but you have to wait until your NS&I number and one-time password reach you by post. However there's also a chance that the session timed out after payment accepted but before the Registration process completed, in which case the letters won't arrive and the payment will bounce back into your bank.

Primrose

There is one point I'd like to make about these bonds, which although being desirable from an interest point of view, have one drawback for pensioner couples who are investing in them. They are not tax free ISAs which from the recent budget which can now for the first time be inherited on a continuing tax free basis by spouses after their partner has died.

If the maximum money invested in individual bonds (£20,000) had been invested in an ISA instead and that spouse dies, the equivalent of £20,000 could be carried forward and inherited by the remaining spouse as a one off tax free ISA allowance after their death, possibly for the remainder of their life.


This tax free concession will not happen with Pensioner Bonds. Any tax free interest on £20,000 (in cash ISAs , or equity growth/dividends) will not be a huge amount in any one year if inherited but if the surviving partner does inherit and continues to live for a number of years, that cumulative tax free concession could mount up

whattochoose

I'm not 65 until December, so I wonder if these bonds, or something similar will be on sale this time next year?
It's probably a forlorn hope that by this time next year interest rates will have risen enough to see a more attractive increase in the rates of interest banks offer us to induce us to invest in their ISA's and deposit accounts.

Archi_Bald

whattochoose wrote: »

I'm not 65 until December, so I wonder if these bonds, or something similar will be on sale this time next year?
It's probably a forlorn hope that by this time next year interest rates will have risen enough to see a more attractive increase in the rates of interest banks offer us to induce us to invest in their ISA's and deposit accounts.

With a small amount of effort, you can very easily get 3 - 4% AER, or more, on £20K (or even £50K) any time you like, as long as you are over 18 and have a half decent credit history. No need to hope for Pensioner Bonds.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-loophole

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/6932895#Comment_6932895