NS&I DONT!

Nick_C

I have an NS&I Savings Account and an Income Bond account.  Opened on line without any difficulty.

The website can be a bit clunky and debit card deposits sometimes crash and need to be manually reconciled, and occasionally bounce back.  This can be avoided by using a spare browser and clearing cookies before using online banking.

Also be aware that debit card deposits take 10 days to clear, withdrawals take a day to reach your bank account, and deposits to Income Bonds made after the 20th of the month will be pending until the 5th of the following month (but are backdated and interest paid).

These quirks are more than made up for by 1.15% monthly interest and easy access.

NS&I - DO!

shaun_from_Africa

JamesorHarold said:

If you are considering NS&I be certain that you will regret dealing with them. They have requirements for the form filling and document certification that are contradictory.

This I can agree with.
About  a year ago, I wanted to invest with NS&I and being non resident in the UK, I contacted them to ask what they required in the way of documentation to show my overseas residency and proof of ID 
I was informed that one official utility bill and copy of a valid passport would suffice and that these would have to be certified copies and that this could be carried out at some post offices so I submitted the application forms along with the stipulated paperwork and waited, and waited.

I hadn't heard anything for a couple of months so I called them up and was told that they had no record of my application and that it must have been lost so could I submit it again, something that I did a couple of days later.
Again, nothing was heard for a few months so I contacted them again and was again told that they had no record of the application.

About 5 months after the initial application, I received a letter from them which was posted to my overseas address (despite my mailing address having been given as the UK, something that is perfectly acceptable to them) and this letter contained my first application form and cheque. There was a letter stating that they couldn't accept it as the documents hadn't been certified by a solicitor (despite clearly telling me that the Post office would be suitable) and that one proof of overseas residency wasn't sufficient.

Another 2 months later, my second application was also delivered overseas. This time the enclosed letter stated that the number of documents supplied was satisfactory but they would need certifying as originals by a solicitor.

I then gave up and invested elsewhere.

colsten

shaun_from_Africa said:

JamesorHarold said:

If you are considering NS&I be certain that you will regret dealing with them. They have requirements for the form filling and document certification that are contradictory.

This I can agree with.
About  a year ago, I wanted to invest with NS&I and being non resident in the UK, I contacted them to ask what they required in the way of documentation to show my overseas residency and proof of ID 
I was informed that one official utility bill and copy of a valid passport would suffice and that these would have to be certified copies and that this could be carried out at some post offices so I submitted the application forms along with the stipulated paperwork and waited, and waited.

I hadn't heard anything for a couple of months so I called them up and was told that they had no record of my application and that it must have been lost so could I submit it again, something that I did a couple of days later.
Again, nothing was heard for a few months so I contacted them again and was again told that they had no record of the application.

About 5 months after the initial application, I received a letter from them which was posted to my overseas address (despite my mailing address having been given as the UK, something that is perfectly acceptable to them) and this letter contained my first application form and cheque. There was a letter stating that they couldn't accept it as the documents hadn't been certified by a solicitor (despite clearly telling me that the Post office would be suitable) and that one proof of overseas residency wasn't sufficient.

Another 2 months later, my second application was also delivered overseas. This time the enclosed letter stated that the number of documents supplied was satisfactory but they would need certifying as originals by a solicitor.

I then gave up and invested elsewhere.

Your rather unfortunate experience is, luckily, not shared by the 25 million existing NS&I customers.

RG2015

colsten said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

JamesorHarold said:

If you are considering NS&I be certain that you will regret dealing with them. They have requirements for the form filling and document certification that are contradictory.

This I can agree with.
About  a year ago, I wanted to invest with NS&I and being non resident in the UK, I contacted them to ask what they required in the way of documentation to show my overseas residency and proof of ID 
I was informed that one official utility bill and copy of a valid passport would suffice and that these would have to be certified copies and that this could be carried out at some post offices so I submitted the application forms along with the stipulated paperwork and waited, and waited.

I hadn't heard anything for a couple of months so I called them up and was told that they had no record of my application and that it must have been lost so could I submit it again, something that I did a couple of days later.
Again, nothing was heard for a few months so I contacted them again and was again told that they had no record of the application.

About 5 months after the initial application, I received a letter from them which was posted to my overseas address (despite my mailing address having been given as the UK, something that is perfectly acceptable to them) and this letter contained my first application form and cheque. There was a letter stating that they couldn't accept it as the documents hadn't been certified by a solicitor (despite clearly telling me that the Post office would be suitable) and that one proof of overseas residency wasn't sufficient.

Another 2 months later, my second application was also delivered overseas. This time the enclosed letter stated that the number of documents supplied was satisfactory but they would need certifying as originals by a solicitor.

I then gave up and invested elsewhere.

Your rather unfortunate experience is, luckily, not shared by the 25 million existing NS&I customers.

That’s pretty good odds on this thread. Two people with problems and 25 million without any problems. 

d63

RG2015 said:

colsten said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

JamesorHarold said:

If you are considering NS&I be certain that you will regret dealing with them. They have requirements for the form filling and document certification that are contradictory.

This I can agree with.
About  a year ago, I wanted to invest with NS&I and being non resident in the UK, I contacted them to ask what they required in the way of documentation to show my overseas residency and proof of ID 
I was informed that one official utility bill and copy of a valid passport would suffice and that these would have to be certified copies and that this could be carried out at some post offices so I submitted the application forms along with the stipulated paperwork and waited, and waited.

I hadn't heard anything for a couple of months so I called them up and was told that they had no record of my application and that it must have been lost so could I submit it again, something that I did a couple of days later.
Again, nothing was heard for a few months so I contacted them again and was again told that they had no record of the application.

About 5 months after the initial application, I received a letter from them which was posted to my overseas address (despite my mailing address having been given as the UK, something that is perfectly acceptable to them) and this letter contained my first application form and cheque. There was a letter stating that they couldn't accept it as the documents hadn't been certified by a solicitor (despite clearly telling me that the Post office would be suitable) and that one proof of overseas residency wasn't sufficient.

Another 2 months later, my second application was also delivered overseas. This time the enclosed letter stated that the number of documents supplied was satisfactory but they would need certifying as originals by a solicitor.

I then gave up and invested elsewhere.

Your rather unfortunate experience is, luckily, not shared by the 25 million existing NS&I customers.

That’s pretty good odds on this thread. Two people with problems and 25 million without any problems. 

pretty good odds on this thread, perhaps, but those 2 people here are not entirely alone experiencing problems, according to this article here:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-8475753/Savers-pounce-NS-ditched-plans-slash-rates.html
but even so a reported 2,384 complaints in the last month of May for about 25,000,000 customers is still, perhaps, not too bad, unless of course, you happen to be one of those 2,384 unlucky folk.

George_Michael

d63 said:

but even so a reported 2,384 complaints in the last month of May for about 25,000,000 customers is still, perhaps, not too bad, unless of course, you happen to be one of those 2,384 unlucky folk.

25 million customers but the great majority of them (about 22 million) are premium bond holders who generally don't have to contact NS&I too often.

colsten

George_Michael said:

d63 said:

but even so a reported 2,384 complaints in the last month of May for about 25,000,000 customers is still, perhaps, not too bad, unless of course, you happen to be one of those 2,384 unlucky folk.

25 million customers but the great majority of them (about 22 million) are premium bond holders who generally don't have to contact NS&I too often.

There's little reason for contacting NS&I if you hold other accounts with them, either. Near enough everything can be done online, and answers to common questions are available online. Take the example of the debit card clearance 'uproar' - - - 5 minutes browsing on the NS&I website provided all the information and - IMO - a perfectly satisfactory answer. This didn't stop several people to ring up NS&I , hold for 30 minutes or more, give some stressed out CS person an earful, and then rant for another 10 minutes on various websites about NS&I. Often people are their own worst enemy.

wiseonesomeofthetime

The attention is in the detail, and it appears from threads on this forum than, more often than not, many people do not read the T&Cs fully before applying for, and accepting, a product.

I was one of those, up until a few years ago when I got caught out on the detail of a credit card and it lost me a few quid. Now I read as much as possible before applying for any financial product.

clive0510

I can only speak from experience. I have more than a fiver with ns+i, and never had a problem. won £1k with them few years ago,.

dont_look_now

polymaff said:

So what part of that reference number includes your personal details?

0 = You are fat.

1 = You are thin.

And so on.

It's not just personal details. It's promoting body dysmorphic disorder. Disgraceful.