NS&I Junior ISA - Terrible Customer Service

Redkiwi

Opened a NS&I Junior ISA for my 2 boys last month and have had nothing but issues since. Their processes don't work, their customer service people are nice but don't seem to know much and don't allow customers to speak to the Junior ISA Team who are a 'backroom team' so there is lots of putting you on hold while they relay messages back & forth between you and the 'backroom team'. Really regret not going with another provider, even at a slighter lower rate :-(  Hopefully hearing this is useful for other people considering them as a provider.

Mark_d

Can you vote with your feet and transfer elsewhere?

refluxer

I know where you're coming from. I transferred a building society Child Trust Fund into an NS&I Junior ISA a good few years ago and the transfer took 2 months to be completed. The general issues with NS&I's banking processes being slow are compounded when it comes to transferring ISAs because they don't use the (electronic) BACs ISA transfer service and therefore transfers both in and out are carried out by using paper forms and funds are sent by cheque through the post, which leads to even more delays.

While the slow transfer in was obviously annoying, the reason I ended up transferring away from NS&I in the end was the huge delays you can sometimes experience when paying into the account. I think the record for me for a standing order that I set up to pay in on the first of each month was 7 days (and that wasn't over Christmas or even a bank holiday weekend), which is completely unacceptable for an electronic payment into a bank account.

I ended up transferring the JISA from NS&I to Tesco and my experience was the exact opposite - payments into Tesco savings accounts really are instant and usually credited in less time than it takes to open their banking app to check. Considering Tesco are currently paying the same rate for their JISAs as NS&I, I would choose Tesco over NS&I without hesitation. Tesco's banking arm is in the process of being taken over by Barclays however, so I'm not sure what effect this will have.

Like you, I was keen to use a JISA provider that provided online access (for balance checks) but Tesco's rate fell behind and I ultimately ended up moving again, this time to a small, local building society who are paying a much higher rate. Despite it being a passbook account and not being listed as having online access, a parent is able to check the JISA balance on their online banking site if they have other accounts there. With that in mind, it's definitely worth exploring the rates on offer from any of your smaller, local building societies as these usually pay the best rates and you may still be able to monitor the balance by phone or online, without the need for a branch visit.