Transfers between NS&I accounts

Speedbird676

I have decided to put £50k into Premium Bonds, just for fun, given the woeful interest rates.

Currently this cash is sitting in my NS&I Income Bonds account and I'd like to keep it there as long as possible earning interest before moving it across to my Premium Bonds account.

Are transfers between NS&I account instant, including in the period at the end of the month when NS&I do their voodoo magic to calculate interest on the income bonds? Ie: can I wait until 30-Jun to move the money across or should I do it prior to 20-Jun?

RG2015

You will earn interest on a daily basis for the actual dates the money is in your Income Bond account.

Bear in mind though, that the premium bonds will not be eligible for the prize draw for a full calendar month. If you transfer on any date in June they will enter the draw on 1st August. Therefore you would lose a minimum of £48.83 in interest.

eskbanker

RG2015 said:

Bear in mind though, that the premium bonds will not be eligible for the prize draw for a full calendar month. If you transfer on any date in June they will enter the draw on 1st August. Therefore you would lose a minimum of £48.83 in interest.

But losing £48.83 of interest on the income bonds for the month of July doesn't matter if instead winning the median average of £50 on the premium bonds - both would be paid out at the start of August so there's no material difference, as both are effectively paid out in arrears.

Buying PBs at a sub-optimal time can lead to lost returns but OP plans to optimise the purchase at the end of June, reducing any differential to rounding error size....

RG2015

eskbanker said:

RG2015 said:

Bear in mind though, that the premium bonds will not be eligible for the prize draw for a full calendar month. If you transfer on any date in June they will enter the draw on 1st August. Therefore you would lose a minimum of £48.83 in interest.

But losing £48.83 of interest on the income bonds for the month of July doesn't matter if instead winning the median average of £50 on the premium bonds - both would be paid out at the start of August so there's no material difference, as both are effectively paid out in arrears.

Buying PBs at a sub-optimal time can lead to lost returns but OP plans to optimise the purchase at the end of June, reducing any differential to rounding error size....

But was the OP born under a bad sign?

For the uninitiated.

Born under a bad sign
Been down since I began to crawl
If it wasn't for bad luck, you know I wouldn't have no luck at all

Written by Albert King and immortalised by Cream

PS @eskbanker
We had this exact same conversation in March 2018   

Speedbird676

Thanks for the replies.

I'm aware the Premium Bonds will only be eligible for the August draw onwards, hence I want to buy them as late as possible in June.

The question was more about the NS&I voodoo period between the 20-Jun to 05-Jul when they're calculating interest. I know this can lead to a delay in payments being credited to accounts, albeit the interest is backdated to the deposit date, but are there likely to be any delays transferring between NS&I products from the Income Bonds to Premium Bonds account.

RG2015

@Speedbird676 , I understand. The normal expectation is that it would be instantaneous but who knows now?

All I can say is that I have made several transfers into NS&I from third party accounts and the value date has always been the same as the date on which the payment was made.