NSandI linked bank account problems

jelv

I recently opened a new bank account and changed the nominated account on my National Savings and Investments Income Bond. When I attempted to withdraw money it failed and I had a phone call from NSandI saying the name verification failed. As a test I then had my daughter attempt to transfer money to my new bank account from her NatWest account; it confirmed that it was able to verify the name on the account and the transfer succeeded.

Thinking I had maybe tried too soon after opening the account I tried a withdrawal again a couple of days later - it failed again. This time I told the person who called from NSandI about the successful transfer from NatWest. He said their system uses a different method, there are problems with it and they don't know when it will be fixed.

Has anyone else had issues withdrawing money from NSandI?

ColdIron

The issue here maybe the new bank which you have not named. Which one is it?

jelv

Nationwide. It's a new account in my name only whereas previously the linked account was a joint Nationwide with my wife.

Daliah

Yep, had similar issues with NS&I, twice. Once with a Starling account, and once with a Santander one. I could resolve the Starling issue by sending them a Starling statement but I gave up on the Santander one as life is too short to fight with the peculiarities of the NS&I system.

xylophone

He said their system uses a different method, there are problems with it and they don't know when it will be fixed.

This is not a satisfactory explanation.

How can the system for making a transfer from NS&I to a sole Nationwide account be different from the system for making a transfer from NS&I to a joint Nationwide account?

Make a formal complaint.

https://www.nsandi.com/files/published_files/asset/pdf/complaints-brochure-print-friendly.pdf

jelv

The only thing that I wonder about is that the new account is on a different sort code to the old account - is anyone successfully receiving payments to an 07-08-06 account?

If I win anything on the Premium Bonds next month it will be interesting as I've changed the account for that as well!

jelv

xylophone said:

How can the system for making a transfer from NS&I to a sole Nationwide account be different from the system for making a transfer from NS&I to a joint Nationwide account?

My wife also has an Income Bond which is linked to her own Nationwide account - she's having no issues.

jelv

xylophone said:

Make a formal complaint.

https://www.nsandi.com/files/published_files/asset/pdf/complaints-brochure-print-friendly.pdf

Done.

They tried to discourage me making the complaint by saving their security team were saying it had to get a score of at least seven and it fell short (but couldn't/wouldn't say why)* and that the complaint wouldn't achieve anything. It will achieve something because if they don't fix it, having made it a formal complaint and received a final response letter I can take it to the Financial
Ombudsman Service.

They didn't even offer the option of me sending a copy of a bank statement as per Daliah's response above.

I've checked with Nationwide and they can't see anything about the account that would cause it to fail.

* A classic case of "the computer says no".

eskbanker

jelv said:

They tried to discourage me making the complaint by saving their security team were saying it had to get a score of at least seven and it fell short (but couldn't/wouldn't say why)* and that the complaint wouldn't achieve anything. It will achieve something because if they don't fix it, having made it a formal complaint and received a final response letter I can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Not defending NS&I in any way here, but just out of curiosity, what do you believe that escalating to FOS would actually achieve?  Many get some sense of satisfaction from knowing that such escalations will often cost the institution a case fee of £750 and that each registered complaint ultimately contributes to published figures, but the FOS remit is only to review the way in which NS&I handled your complaint (and they'd probably be unimpressed with attempts to discourage you from raising it), so they can't force them to fix the underlying technical/design issue that led to the complaint in the first place....  

jelv

I'm not the only person that has had issues (see replies above) so there are obviously defects with NSandI's systems and procedures:

1. The initial contact they made did not ask me to verify the details I had provided of the new account.
2. There is apparently no procedure or alternative process to allow them to verify account details that fail the automated processes.
3. I'm lucky, I have an alternative account that allows me to withdraw money (for as long as my wife is alive as it is a joint account) - others may not be in a such a position and be unable to withdraw their money if the only accounts they have fail their checks.

So if FOS are not the right people, who should I alert to the fact their systems/procedures have issues?

Daliah

May be you don't have to go as far as the FOS. May be NS&I will fix it, based on your complaint