Cashing in of 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bonds

Primrose

I have some which are due to mature on 16 January 2018. NS&I have contacted me saying I can only cash them in online.


That's fine, but they show a balance and I'm not sure whether this is the balance including interest at today's date or it will be the balance on maturity. They invite me to CASH IN, but if I cash in now will I lose a month's interest? Should I wait until 16 January before I finalise this transaction?


Their website doesn't make this clear, only saying that no penalty will be charged..

mary

I'm in the same situation. Same date. This is the first product I have had with them. I was expecting to see "when your bond matures" , you can either a) b) or c). The only options seem to be "get a valuation" or "cash in".

Primrose

My fear is that if you press the Cash In button, you are effectively losing a month's interest.
Normally with fixed rate bonds, as you say, you are given a variety of options but there is no specific option for you to "cash in on maturity date". I know a lot of retired people like us probably rushed to buy these bonds on the first date they were available so maybe NSand I will come up with a more full explanation. They actually emailed me initially saying my One Year Bond would mature shortly, instead of the longer term issue and had to include an apology.

robber2

If you have no success getting further information I'd simply suggest you press the Cash In button on the 17th Jan.

Rob

higueron

I want to transfer mine to another NS&I product on maturity but dont see an option for this if anyone finds a solution please let us know

ColdIron

When you set it up did you not nominate another account for withdrawals and payments?

Primrose

I think the issue here is that whilst the Money originally came from a nominated bank account, since the introduction of these three years bonds, NS&I have introduced another product without giving the 65+ bond holders the option of transferring maturing funds directly into the new product.

Instead it looks as if they may have to cash in the bonds, take the money back into their nominated bank account and then reapply from scratch which is a more complicated process. They don’t seem to have thought ahead to make it easy for their investors.

retiree

Please note:
"We’ll then need to receive your instructions no later than two working days before your investment matures"

retiree

This may help (from NS&I website):


What will happen when my Bond reaches the end of its term?

We will send you a printed pack explaining your maturity options 30 days before your 3-year 65+ Bond reaches the end of its term. (For joint investments we’ll only send this to the first-named investor.)
The pack will give you all the information you need to decide what to do when your Bond matures. You don’t need to do anything until your pack arrives."

ColdIron

Primrose wrote: »

I think the issue here is that whilst the Money originally came from a nominated bank account, since the introduction of these three years bonds, NS&I have introduced another product without giving the 65+ bond holders the option of transferring maturing funds directly into the new product.

Instead it looks as if they may have to cash in the bonds, take the money back into their nominated bank account and then reapply from scratch which is a more complicated process. They don’t seem to have thought ahead to make it easy for their investors.

I can well imagine that you cannot set up a new account and fund it directly from a maturing one. A solution to having to transfer out to an external account and back in to NS&I would be to set up something like a Direct Saver. When I set up my Guaranteed Growth Bond recently I was offered the choice to select my external account or the Direct Saver as the nominated account for withdrawals. Once you create the new account (min £1) it's very easy to change online and could prove useful in the future

Primrose

I called NS&I today (Tel: 08085 007 007)
The email we have received is a preliminary one and you cannot apparently give them maturity encashment instructions until you are within a 30 day window of your maturity date.


Once you are within that window time, further details will be sent with all the options available.