NS&I - Online application for new account requesting transfer by debit card?

EasyToAssemble01

I'm trying to apply for an NS&I Guaranteed Growth Bonds account, and the end of the application requests the funds to be transferred via debit card(?). Is that normal? I would have thought this would involve a standard bank transfer. Should I have any reason to be wary that the site is requesting card payment?

ColdIron

A card payment is the usual way of paying into NS&I

lr1277

My guess is there are two types of products. Those that have unlimited availability and those that have limited availability.

Unlimited availability like premium bonds and income bonds can be topped by bank transfer.

Those with limited availibility can only be topped by debit card.

As it says on this page: https://www.nsandi.com/products/guaranteed-growth-bonds 

under the section titled can I top up my bonds:

"No, once you’ve bought a fixed-term Bond, you can’t add any more money to it.

You can buy more Bonds though if they are still on sale, up to a total value of £1 million per person in the current Issue.
Each Bond you buy is a separate investment with its own maturity date."

The phrase 'if they are still on sale' to me suggests a limited availability product. And if you do a bank transfer, there may be no bonds available to buy. But if you do a debit card transaction, the system can check if there are sufficient bonds available at the time of purchase.

lr1277

If you choose to do a debit card transaction beware that your bank my not pay the intended sum. I think last week a poster was complaining their bank Halifax wouldn't let them pay for the amount of guaranteed bonds they wanted (and I can't remember if they wanted growth or income bonds).

Their bank told them the amount they wanted to spend online was over the debit card limit.

I checked with my bank FD who said online transactions should work as long as there is sufficient money in the account. When I pressed them a bit further, they suggested for large online transactions, I would be better off calling them first to know about intended transaction.

Pure speculation on my part, but for online transactions in excess of £25k (or at least more than you regularly spend), you should call your debit card provider and let them know you are making such a transaction.

PloughmansLunch

Guaranteed Growth and Guaranteed Income bonds can both be funded from a Direct Saver transfer, which you can top up beforehand by bank transfer(s) before committing to a bond. This also enables you to add more than your bank’s debit card limit. 

BooJewels

I think the Guaranteed Growth Bond operates the same way as the Guaranteed Income Bond - you can invest one of three ways - in a single debit card payment, by transferring funds from their EA product the Direct Saver, or by transferring from Income Bonds or Premium Bonds, which requires a paper form to be posted to them to make that transfer.

As the debit card or account limit might be less than you want to invest, perhaps the easiest way is to open a Direct saver, gradually put funds into that until you get the balance you require, then open the Guaranteed Income Bond by transferring from the Direct Saver.  I think you need to make an initial debit card payment to open the DS, but once you have an account no. etc., you can put funds in by brank transfer.

EasyToAssemble01

OK, thanks all. The amount is under the maximum card payment limit, so that's fine, and it seems transfer by card payment is normal by the sounds of things.

km1500

Open a direct saver - this can be funded by faster payment from your bank

Then it's a simple internal transfer into whichever product you want