I'm annoyed with NS and I

Familyguy1982

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

But the whole point of the earlier posts was to emphasise that the parent can't 'take back control' once the child reaches 16, as the money is within the child's control from then on?

I'm not talking about the parent taking back control, I'm talking about the child having to prove to NS&I who they are so they can have control of their own bonds and online account.

Familyguy1982

Eyeful said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

It would have been fairly simple for NS&I to send an email or text or even a message through the website that a significant change was about to happen to the account, plenty of other companies seem to be able to manage this (Google, Apple, etc).

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

It is also simple & easy for you to read the "Key Facts" information that NS&I send you when you open one of their products.
It is also simple & easy for you to set a reminder to yourself, for when the child reaches 15 years old.
If you had done that you would not have to jump through hoops to take back control. 

That's a really helpful response, thank you! Apologies for not remembering the details of a key facts document that I may have read over a decade ago!
If I'd realised we needed to take action before my daughter turned 16 I would have done so.
My point is why can NS&I not send out a reminder that a significant change is about to happen with the account?

Familyguy1982

Kim_13 said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

Firstly I appreciate I'm replying to a 4 year old post, but the topic is still relevant.
This has just happened with our daughter's premium bonds account after she turned 16.

I'm surprised by most of the responses on here, they seem to be attacking the OP for not knowing the finer details of NS&I's T&Cs.
How many people can honestly say they read and understand all the T&Cs of all the accounts they own?

It would have been fairly simple for NS&I to send an email or text or even a message through the website that a significant change was about to happen to the account, plenty of other companies seem to be able to manage this (Google, Apple, etc).

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

I agree that NS&I ought to send a reminder - 16 years is a long time, and it is common if not required for banks to advise you when a product of a much shorter duration is reaching the end of its term. It could be automated for them, yet it’s easy to see how parents would forget. In the case of the OP, a reminder made to move the money when the child was 15 could easily have been missed given that would have been the height of COVID. NS&I are handing potentially large amounts of money to minors with no reminder that this is about to happen when it would be perfectly legitimate for the parents to move it elsewhere so that it would only be under the control of their child when they turned 18 (which is probably how the average person would expect it to work.) 

Thank goodness there are other reasonable people on this forum! Thank you for seeing my point of view, which others on here seem to have difficulty grasping.

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent and organised person, but some of the responses on here were making me doubt this.

Familyguy1982

poppystar said:

Also why would a financial institution want to remind people to withdraw money from its products when there is no need to other than the parents own choice? How could NS&I know that’s what the parents wanted?

It's not about what NS&I want or know or don't know, it's about giving customers the chance to make their own choice, which is the transparent and right thing to do.

dunstonh

That's a really helpful response, thank you! Apologies for not remembering the details of a key facts document that I may or may not have read over a decade ago!

Would you remember how old your child is?  After all, it was 16 years ago.

If you set up an account for your child that you knew was being passed to them at 16, that is a very hard thing to forget unless it is peanuts.  

eskbanker

jamesgibbons1 said:

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

But the whole point of the earlier posts was to emphasise that the parent can't 'take back control' once the child reaches 16, as the money is within the child's control from then on?

I'm not talking about the parent taking back control, I'm talking about the child having to prove to NS&I who they are so they can have control of their own bonds and online account.

OK, but if you re-read what you posted (as quoted above) you'll see that there's only reference to the parent, not the child (who couldn't take back something they didn't have in the first place)!

Familyguy1982

dunstonh said:

That's a really helpful response, thank you! Apologies for not remembering the details of a key facts document that I may or may not have read over a decade ago!

Would you remember how old your child is?  After all, it was 16 years ago.

If you set up an account for your child that you knew was being passed to them at 16, that is a very hard thing to forget unless it is peanuts.  

I know how old my child is.

I didn't realise the account was being passed to them at 16, that is the whole point.

Why is that so hard for people to grasp?

Familyguy1982

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

But the whole point of the earlier posts was to emphasise that the parent can't 'take back control' once the child reaches 16, as the money is within the child's control from then on?

I'm not talking about the parent taking back control, I'm talking about the child having to prove to NS&I who they are so they can have control of their own bonds and online account.

OK, but if you re-read what you posted (as quoted above) you'll see that there's only reference to the parent, not the child (who couldn't take back something they didn't have in the first place)!

I know what I posted, it is you who have misinterpreted it.

1) I don't have a problem with the account coming under my daughter's control.

2) I do have a problem with NS&I for not notifying/reminding the Responsible person (me) that the change was being made, regardless of what is in their key facts document.

threads76

Although you may wish to withdraw the money to do something else with it for your child, IMO it doesn't feel like something they should need to notify people about.

I agree with the point made that some people may be treating their child's account as their own money and NS&I notifying them just gives them that reminder to potentially withdrawal it all from the child's account to transfer back into their own name. 

As a parent of a young child and looking into options for saving for them, I researched how saving for children works and a quick bit of looking it up told me that the money in this account would become theirs at 16 and I've chosen to save accordingly with that in mind, so one should be aware how the saving account you're using works at the point of opening it and being ok with that - yes a reminder would be useful, but on balance potentially with the risks noted above, i can understand why they might reasonably choose not to.

Section62

jamesgibbons1 said:

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

eskbanker said:

jamesgibbons1 said:

The reason for a parent needing to know about this change in advance is so they can make the decision whether to transfer the money into another investment or not, rather than having to now jump through hoops to take back control of the account and bonds from NS&I.

But the whole point of the earlier posts was to emphasise that the parent can't 'take back control' once the child reaches 16, as the money is within the child's control from then on?

I'm not talking about the parent taking back control, I'm talking about the child having to prove to NS&I who they are so they can have control of their own bonds and online account.

OK, but if you re-read what you posted (as quoted above) you'll see that there's only reference to the parent, not the child (who couldn't take back something they didn't have in the first place)!

I know what I posted, it is you who have misinterpreted it.

1) I don't have a problem with the account coming under my daughter's control.

2) I do have a problem with NS&I for not notifying/reminding the Responsible person (me) that the change was being made, regardless of what is in their key facts document.

I read your comment the same way eskbanker did, but if it is any comfort, those hoops your child has to jump through to 'take control' would have to be jumped through at some point regardless, if they want to keep saving with NS&I, and would be the first of many hoop-jumping experiences they will have in life (even if they stick to just the one financial services provider).

If you don't have a problem with the account coming under your daughter's control, then why are you so upset with NS&I for doing what they said they would do?  There are reasons why reminding parents what will happen when their child reaches 16 would be a bad idea, in effect it could be viewed as a reminder "If you want to defraud your child out of their money then remember you have to do it before they are 16"... which obviously isn't true in your case, but NS&I have to think about other situations as well.