MSE News: Pensioner Bonds launched today: go quick if you want one

mgdavid

66Thyme99 wrote: »

.....
This is a klunky application and should have been properly tested, and certainly NS and I should have taken professional advice on how to manage what could reasonably have been expected to be a high demand.

do you imagine NS&I run their own IT?
They outsourced to Siemens getting on for 15 years ago, and a successful partnership ensued, which is on record in Hansard. However 3 or 4 years ago Siemens IT division together with all the customer business was sold off; I'll have to leave you to guess who to.

miller

mgdavid wrote: »

Siemens IT division together with all the customer business was sold off; I'll have to leave you to guess who to.

Whoever RBS are using?

greenglide

Siemens IT Services and various divisions formed ATOS Origin which eventually became ATOS (presume as it was no longer "origihal").

Now, of course, ATOS have a long and glittering history history in government systems and other outsourcing so this is a mere hiccup.

Of course NS&I will have done what government departments always do and expect the IT to run on the same clapped out servers that have been running for 10 years or more.

I remember a few years ago when my employer at the time was forced to scour eBay for spares for obscure servers that had long since been out of maintenance by the manufacturer but the department wouldn't pay to replace them but wanted to keep them running.

Customer facing government IT has always been fairly dreadful (look at the DWP pensions Forecast site) and is pretty clunky.

HMRC Self Assessment is pretty good these days though - it just works without adverts or the pointless bells and whistles that others have.

mgdavid

The usual business model would be for the IT outsourcer to own the hardware; they would charge a service charge based on an algorithm which might include storage, processing power, transaction rate etc etc, and would include renewal of servers every so many years, typically 5. It's the outsourcer who will try to sweat the assets...

GG are you ex-BBC by any chance?

greenglide

Never worked for BBC or Siemens or (thank god ) ATOS!

Lots of rules as to what you can and can't do in government contracts. We couldn't do anything "for free", the department wouldn't fund server replacement, we desperately wanted shot of them but the department would have had to fund the necessary software changes to re implement on a new platform so we ended up with short funding to keep it going in the short run.

The kit may still be running!

Sledgehead

margaretclare wrote: »

I still don't see what's so attractive about this offer. More interest/more growth? My S&S ISA is doing far better. Someone explain?

This offering is exclusive to individuals over 65, ie the retired. So when we are considering risk aversion we should trammel our thoughts with this in mind.

Now, I know it's fashionable to talk about pensions' freedom and income drawdown etc, but it wasn't so long ago that the powers that be held a VERY different view on what those in retirement, and indeed approaching retirement, should be doing with their savings.

Annuities exist and existed for a reason: the retired have fewer options than the young when it comes to deriving income and thus, if things go wrong with their savings, it's easy for them to find themselves in 'queer street'.

Only annuities offer a guaranteed income til you die at a reasonable rate. Savings sacrifice some of the rate for access to capital, but also promise returns only for the short term (5 years for an FRB). In that respect, as we see with theses emergency low rates, savings income is risky. Yes you read that right, savings income is risky by comparison with annuities. So given that one can see savings income is risky, how should one view stock market investments?

I'd have thought the answer to that obvious. Just look at the carnage of 2000-2003, or 2007 to 2009. Just look at the decimation of dividend income that followed, based on the irrefutable logic that lower share prices meant dividends could be cut yet still offer (new) investors (the only ones they are really worried about) a good yield.

The simple fact is retirees need security. I accept that fact and so have governments, investment firms and IFAs. Indeed one of my pensions even has an option to switch funds into an automated reallocation portfolio that takes ones investments closer to cash as one approaches retirement. And that approach was the norm for decades.

So there you are: on the one side there's you, George Osborne looking for a GDP boost and a bunch of guys eager to make money from pensions deregulation, and on the other side there's stock market history, decades of pensions and investment advice and all previous post war governments.

Sledgehead

miller wrote: »

They are saying the application is likely to be cancelled and the funds returned.

Interesting. I got to the same situation (entered payment details in debit card box) and was presented with a time-out message, telling me if I wanted to apply I should give it another go. I tried to phone them (hopeless) and then emailed them (no reply - it turned out for 24 hours), so I took them at their word and resubmitted in the early hours, getting a ref num etc. A casual perusal of my bank account showed no deductions from the supposedly failed transaction.

miller wrote: »

The money was removed from an interest bearing account and no mention was made of plans to make good that loss whilst the funds are in limbo .

trip to the ATM revealed they had lined up debits totaling £50,000 between my wife and I. Of course, I'd only budgeted for £40,000 (2x3yr, 2x1yr).

miller wrote: »

(I'd guess they'd be back by Wednesday at the earliest, that's if they've sorted out the mess in their database and actually processed the refund).

FWIW I'm hearing this "Internal Server Error" has happened to quite a few people.

When I (immediately) asked them to remove the erroneous transaction, their reply merely instructed me on how I might make a formal complaint: absolutely no offer to rectify the cluster-f***, despite a job description of "customer service".

As Osborne says : "huge success!" :rotfl:

miller

There are several threads on the MSE forums now and I've noticed others have been told various things contradictory to what I was told. Only time will tell what actually happens I guess.

cz7gdm

The 65+ online on line application absolutely stinks.

When I first tried to use it, I couldn’t get beyond the initial screen – a bug subsequently fixed. Now I can get all the way to submitting the request to verify by Visa, and the transaction is declined. At that point, I have no choice but to cancel the transaction, which means I lose ALL the data on me that has been entered so far, and the system does not set up an account for me. When I next come in to try again, I have to re-enter everything from scratch. That is pathetic, lazy programming.

I have contacted my Bank. From their point of view, there is nothing appearing and there is no problem they are aware of with my account. I suspect there is a problem with the link from the NS&I site to VISA as the email confirming the declined transaction contains no VISA codes, only the NS&I site information.

The ‘Help’ line is continually engaged, so that is not much help.

mgdavid

Dates? times?
It seems to have been working OK for most people since Friday, once the initial panic-buying attempts had all been dealt with.