NS&I utter disgrace

jrs101

Hello

I want to share my experience over the past month and a half.

You will be fully aware of the many issues plastered all over the media, over websites like trustpilot and on Martin's site along with many articles. And the CEOs words.

I cannot put into words what an utter disgrace my whole experience has been since a month ago when I tried to access my account and my money. Login issues, letter sent with password not working, being told my 100% correct answers are wrong the list is endless.

I have repeatedly phoned up literally 15 times with the usual long wait of around 40-60 minutes and it has been a stressful frustrating time. I have a complaint in of course and have spoken to the f/ombudsman who say I have to apparently wait until they respond - I am told they have 8 weeks!!??

Now my lack of confidence in this institution means I STILL after over a month have no access to my account and my money. I am petrified the money is gone. I have zero confidence in their system, the lying and constantly being told be different people with different answers. It has been officially the worst experience in my entire life with any company.

Can anyone offer some advice here? I have had four identification checks over a month, one of which I gave no permission to! Do ID checks impinge on anything?

Has anyone downloaded the form whereby you fill in your address etc etc and they supposedly send you out a temporary password? I put in some example details and it said they would send out an ns&i number which would be of no use to me! I already have that!

As I say I have no confidence my money is even there - can anyone tell me what to do? Who can I report this to further? To treat people like this who in good faith invested there money with this joke of a setup is utterly disgusting.

thanks

eskbanker

You're far from alone in experiencing poor service from NS&I but don't worry about your money having disappeared, you'll get access to it eventually, even though it'll clearly take longer than you're (reasonably) expecting.  Your route of formal complaint with them and then escalating to FOS if necessary is the correct process to follow....

NottinghamKnight

Tonbridge wells quiet today then.

xylophone

It is clear that you have had a very poor experience with NS&I but I think that you can be confident that the money will not have been lost.

masonic

jrs101 said:

Can anyone offer some advice here? I have had four identification checks over a month, one of which I gave no permission to! Do ID checks impinge on anything?

No, ID checks do not have any impact on your credit files.

EdGasketTheSecond

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-8775437/NS-plunges-meltdown-Delays-rates-tumble.html

wiseonesomeofthetime

Interesting read, particularly as my dealings with NS&I over the last 12 months has been smooth and painless.

Even transactions yesterday were processed smoothly.

Guess I was just lucky.

feet_up

Curiously I have just returned from posting the letter (remember those !) of complaint and witthdrawal form to take my money from the Income bond

I deposited money in August and never did manage to get internet access or receive the number to enable me to get it. I had to send off my signature witnessed by someone else (remember when you needed signatures to do stuff!) but still no joy.

Each time I rang the voice told me to go online and look at my account. Adds insult to injury.

Paying 65p for the stamp hurt!

There will be lots of reasons. Covid for one, but really it's a shambles. And as a taxpayer I guess I own it.

JGB1955

Since my father died in June I've moved over £500K of my money, and his, around several bank accounts.  NO problems what-so-ever, other than the annoying void between 2*th of the month and 5th of the next, when all records are invisible.  Having successfully closed both my Income Bond and Direct Saver over the past few days... back to just the premium bonds.

greatcrested

That link is old.

And the source seems to be the Mail on Sunday so....

Yes they had some issues when the rate cuts were announced and 1000s of people all tried to withdraw at once, but the problem (for vast majority) did not last.

I withdraw £80K without any difficulty.

I suspect the same may happen again on/around 24th Nov when the rate cut takes effect and again, there will be mass withdrawals.

OPs problems seem to be multiple and revolve around passwords and security. This can happe with any institution and frankly I'd rather know it was a bit too difficult than believe any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry could access my account.

colsten

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Interesting read, particularly as my dealings with NS&I over the last 12 months has been smooth and painless.

Even transactions yesterday were processed smoothly.

Guess I was just lucky.

Same here. I have closed my Income Bonds now but continue to use my Direct Saver quite extensively for now, and also have Index Linked Bonds and Premium Bonds. Whilst NS&I have some peculiarities (which organisation doesn't have them), I can't find anything to complain about them, and I do like a complaint 

A lot of the many moans about NS&I I have seen were from people who had not tried to find an answer to their questions in the pretty comprehensive Help on the NS&I website. There are one or two complaints which point to really bad service from NS&I (e.g. ISA transfers) but these justifiable complaints  are far and few between.