Don't touch NS&I with a barge pole if you think you might want your money back any time soon!

happyandcontented

I have just opened both NS&I and PB accounts to service large deposits but the online balance is abysmal. I sent over two test deposits via bank transfer 4 days ago and they are still not showing. I have a Marcus account and that shows instantly.

The attraction with NS&I is clearly the extra protection but is it worth the hassle?

colsten

happyandcontented said:

I have just opened both NS&I and PB accounts to service large deposits but the online balance is abysmal. I sent over two test deposits via bank transfer 4 days ago and they are still not showing. I have a Marcus account and that shows instantly.

The attraction with NS&I is clearly the extra protection but is it worth the hassle?

If you want to see your deposit instantly, use your debit card. Whilst this takes several days to clear and to be debited from your current account, you earn (the now derisory) interest from the day you made the deposit if you put your money into an NS&I interest-earning account. 

Why would you compare Marcus with PBs? They are like chalk and cheese. One gives you guaranteed interest, at however small a rate. The other gives you no interest at all but you might win some prices if you have left your money in the account long enough to qualify for a draw.

In answer to your question what the attraction of NS&I is: ignoring what the attraction was in the past, PBs clearly still attract the interest of millions of people, and they are still an ideal repository for the cash element in a balanced investment. NS&I is also one of the very few outfits which allows deposits by debit card - something which is much valued by a number of people, incl myself. I have never considered NS&I a hassle but I definitely consider my NS&I accounts worth my while, despite the savage rate cut. If it's hassle for you, just don't use them.

cricidmuslibale

"I have never considered NS&I a hassle but I definitely consider my NS&I accounts worth my while, despite the savage rate cut."

I assume, despite your clear willingness to stick with other NS&I accounts besides Premium Bonds for the time being, that you have enough sense not to have very much if any money in Income Bonds at present with their now appallingly low interest rate of 0.01% whilst still requiring a minimum £500 balance and transfer amount (which effectively means that a minimum balance of £1000 is actually required if you want to transfer in net amounts under £500, which one can do through first transferring £500 out and then £500 plus the amount you actually want to transfer in back in!) The very least NS&I could do if they are going to stick with the dire 0.01% interest rate for Income Bonds for the time being is to reduce the minimum £500 balance and transfer amount to say £100 at most for both! If NS&I had done this before the huge interest rate cuts of 24th November I, and I reckon lots of other NS&I savers, would have felt able to retain their Income Bonds account with a much lower minimum balance and transfer amount and await better interest rates some time in the future. As it was, many of us had no reasonable option other than to close our Income Bonds en masse in the days surrounding and including 24th November, which of course has given NS&I an awful lot of 'traffic' to deal with in a short space of time and clearly has caused quite a lot of problems for quite a lot of people! 

DCFC79

Rhanks for that OP but Im going to carry on using my NS&I account but I may review this now the rates have been cut.

VXman

soulsaver said:

VXman said:

sharp910sh said:

 I also have a Marcus account, its a much better account. I transferred £10ks from there no additional security no issues at all. Forget my password reset with ease. They use two factor authentication like all the other banks. No issues there at all. 
 NS&I would learn a thing from Marcus and other bank accounts. 

I would question the security of Marcus. I have just gone to the Marcus site on my computer. The PC remembers my log in which is just my email and a simple password so I just click log on. After that you can transfer up to £20,000 a day with no further security. OK, it can only go to your nominated account but even so access is the same level as NS&I.

Also, no issues with withdrawing/transferring money at NS&I. Never had to phone them up as online has worked well.

Marcus hasn't made your PC remember your login detail - YOU have.  

I wasn't suggesting otherwise but my point is Marcus allow it - most bank sites will have some element of the log in process that is not able to be remembered.

Ifts

I was one of those that left it to the last minute to withdraw my Income Bonds and fortunately didn't experience any problems making the withdrawal.

24th November: Signed into my NS&I account and opted to close my Income Bonds account and withdraw the money to my linked account.

27th November: The money landed in the linked account.

Reading the posts on here I was prepared for a little delay due to the amount of people making withdrawals but luckily all went smooth. Good luck to those still waiting, hope you get reunited with your money soon.

As Thrug says "In a few weeks this storm in a teacup will have passed."

coachman12

First, I think this thread should have been on the Vent Forum rather than on this one.
Second, the whinging that is taking place during the worst pandemic in our living memory is pathetic.
Third, I have been using NS&I for very many years and have never once in all the years have I encountered one single problem----and I can't say that about many financial institutions ( which, banks included,) have the reputation of used car salesmen as far as I am concerned.
Fourth, NS&I are the safest place anyone can keep their money in this country. If you have problems, they are Covid-related due to very stretched resources, self-inflicted because of lack of knowledge or just one of those things that can happen to anyone at any time.
Fifth, NS&I came in and helped a lot of people in 2020 to provide the best home for their savings in terms of interest rates and safety. Newcomers found them difficult to use because they did not know what to do. And even now, as NS&I gets back to its "normal" customers, it is followed by such customers who are shouting and screaming because they still do not understand NS&I, their ways of working and their continuing difficulties in dealing with a huge upsurge---and now downsurge----due to a pandemic which has altered just about everyone's way of life, let alone a complex system of deposits and withdrawals and a deluge of pestering questions from people who expect miracles.
NS&I money is safe as the Bank of England ( and is similar in that it is state owned, headed by The Chancellor of the Exchequer and is a Government Department). Nobody can ever lose any money if it is with NS&I and is less than £1 million.
To those with bad stories, just remember that NS&I are not used to "surges", they are not used to pandemics and they are not used to being harassed by people who should be grateful to know their savings are 100% safe.

DisablednProud

I had no problem withdrawing from them, you probably just hit them during the busy time after they dropped their rates and everyone was withdrawing

I do think they wasted everyones time by offering amazing rates for about 2 weeks and then cutting them!

sharp910sh

Note that if you do not have access to your account you can still withdraw your money. See the link here:
https://forms.nsandi.com/gateway/online-forms/index#/form/withdraw-income-bonds
I filled the form on Friday and got a message today saying I will receive my money in 2 days. So not too bad. Seems like the best way to get your money is to call them and tell them you want to close your account. 

happyandcontented

colsten said:

happyandcontented said:

I have just opened both NS&I and PB accounts to service large deposits but the online balance is abysmal. I sent over two test deposits via bank transfer 4 days ago and they are still not showing. I have a Marcus account and that shows instantly.

The attraction with NS&I is clearly the extra protection but is it worth the hassle?

If you want to see your deposit instantly, use your debit card. Whilst this takes several days to clear and to be debited from your current account, you earn (the now derisory) interest from the day you made the deposit if you put your money into an NS&I interest-earning account. 

Why would you compare Marcus with PBs? They are like chalk and cheese. One gives you guaranteed interest, at however small a rate. The other gives you no interest at all but you might win some prices if you have left your money in the account long enough to qualify for a draw.

In answer to your question what the attraction of NS&I is: ignoring what the attraction was in the past, PBs clearly still attract the interest of millions of people, and they are still an ideal repository for the cash element in a balanced investment. NS&I is also one of the very few outfits which allows deposits by debit card - something which is much valued by a number of people, incl myself. I have never considered NS&I a hassle but I definitely consider my NS&I accounts worth my while, despite the savage rate cut. If it's hassle for you, just don't use them.

My deposits were both returned to my bank account. I put all the information on that was requested but I assume I must have done something wrong!  I will go to the bank tomorrow and get them to do the transfer.

Is there a limit for use of a debit card? I know there is a daily banking limit of 25k in the case of my bank but could I transfer that by debit card or is there a lower limit for that type of transaction?