NS&I Children’s Bonus Bond - Scam?

NS8685

Hi

I have some NS&I Children’s Bonus Bonds which were purchased for me by a parent in 1994. NS&I last wrote to me in 2004, confirming how much my bonds were worth and explaining that I did not need to take any action if I didn’t wish to cash my bonds. 

I would now like to cash my bonds and following a phone call to NS&I, I filled in the online withdrawal form. They mentioned that my bonds would’ve been moved to a residual account and there was a specific form for me to fill in. Following this, I was really concerned to receive a letter a few days later advising that my bonds had already been paid out. The letter also implied that they may not hold any further information about where my money has gone. I submitted a formal complaint, asking for further details. However, I was even more concerned to receive a response to my complaint indicating that they had done a search and that they were unable to trace any account relating to me. This was despite me including a copy of their previous letter and my original letter from NS&I confirming my bond number and value. 

Something about this feels very wrong and isn’t adding up. The money was invested for me with NS&I in good faith. I just wondered if anyone else had been in this situation or if anyone had any advice on how to proceed from here, please? Any advice would be really appreciated as I’m at such a loss following the confusing and contradictory responses from NS&I.

Thank you so much. 

nottsphil

NS8685 said:

Hi

I have some NS&I Children’s Bonus Bonds which were purchased for me by a parent in 1994. NS&I last wrote to me in 2004, confirming how much my bonds were worth and explaining that I did not need to take any action if I didn’t wish to cash my bonds. 

I would now like to cash my bonds and following a phone call to NS&I, I filled in the online withdrawal form. They mentioned that my bonds would’ve been moved to a residual account and there was a specific form for me to fill in. Following this, I was really concerned to receive a letter a few days later advising that my bonds had already been paid out. The letter also implied that they may not hold any further information about where my money has gone. I submitted a formal complaint, asking for further details. However, I was even more concerned to receive a response to my complaint indicating that they had done a search and that they were unable to trace any account relating to me. This was despite me including a copy of their previous letter and my original letter from NS&I confirming my bond number and value. 

Something about this feels very wrong and isn’t adding up. The money was invested for me with NS&I in good faith. I just wondered if anyone else had been in this situation or if anyone had any advice on how to proceed from here, please? Any advice would be really appreciated as I’m at such a loss following the confusing and contradictory responses from NS&I.

Thank you so much. 

The thread title implies that the Government's own savings arm might be operating a scam, which is somewhat unlikely. If you think you have been scammed by a 3rd party, you should ask whether your linked account was ever changed (although they're not going to tell you the new account number), or whether the bonds were redeemed by cheque (again, they're not going to tell you to which address if different from your own).
If they were unable to trace any account relating to you, I'm struggling to think why they would tell you that somebody else's account had been paid out.

Hoenir

A bond matures when it reaches its first five-year anniversary on or after the child's 16th birthday.  As the bond was purchased in 1994. I'd suggest that this was some years ago. 

Section62

NS8685 said:

Hi

I have some NS&I Children’s Bonus Bonds which were purchased for me by a parent in 1994. NS&I last wrote to me in 2004, confirming how much my bonds were worth and explaining that I did not need to take any action if I didn’t wish to cash my bonds. 

I would now like to cash my bonds and following a phone call to NS&I, I filled in the online withdrawal form. They mentioned that my bonds would’ve been moved to a residual account and there was a specific form for me to fill in. Following this, I was really concerned to receive a letter a few days later advising that my bonds had already been paid out. The letter also implied that they may not hold any further information about where my money has gone. I submitted a formal complaint, asking for further details. However, I was even more concerned to receive a response to my complaint indicating that they had done a search and that they were unable to trace any account relating to me. This was despite me including a copy of their previous letter and my original letter from NS&I confirming my bond number and value. 

Something about this feels very wrong and isn’t adding up. The money was invested for me with NS&I in good faith. I just wondered if anyone else had been in this situation or if anyone had any advice on how to proceed from here, please? Any advice would be really appreciated as I’m at such a loss following the confusing and contradictory responses from NS&I.

Thank you so much. 

This has come up a few times before (including the word 'scam', which should help with finding the other threads).

From what I remember the line NS&I took was that someone had withdrawn from/closed the bond, but it happened so long ago they no longer have details of exactly what happened and where the money went.  This seems to fit with what you are saying in your case.

If they last wrote to you in 2004 it suggests the money was withdrawn 21 years ago and they had no further need to write to you.  Unless you've moved and they continued to write to an old address?

Eyeful

1. Have you moved home since since 2004?
2. Did it not seem strange to you, that they never sent you statements for your account with them?
3.Why over the last 21 years, have you not been asking NS&I for the new interest rates and value of these bonds every 5 years?
4.Why did you wait for 21 years, before wanting to cash in these bonds?
5. Was it a Subject Access Request you made?

A subject access request (SAR) is a formal inquiry made to a company or organization by an individual to access the personal data that is held about them. This request allows individuals to review and verify the lawfulness of the processing of their personal data, and it is a right under the UK GDPR, which includes the Data Protection Act 2018.

NS8685

Eyeful said:

1. Have you moved home since since 2004?
2. Did it not seem strange to you, that they never sent you statements for your account with them?
3.Why over the last 21 years, have you not been asking NS&I for the new interest rates and value of these bonds every 5 years?
4.Why did you wait for 21 years, before wanting to cash in these bonds?
5. Was it a Subject Access Request you made?

A subject access request (SAR) is a formal inquiry made to a company or organization by an individual to access the personal data that is held about them. This request allows individuals to review and verify the lawfulness of the processing of their personal data, and it is a right under the UK GDPR, which includes the Data Protection Act 2018.

Thank you for your reply 😊

1. I have moved since 2004, but to this day my Dad has remained at the address my bonds were registered to. I’ve moved quite a bit so he kept that address on record rather than having to keep changing it. My Dad also forgot about the bonds for a while. 

2 & 3.  The original letter I have seems to imply that once 10 years had passed, the bonds wouldn’t increase in value any further ( please correct me if you think I’ve misunderstood though!). My Dad wasn’t expecting to receive any further updates and the letter implied that I didn’t need to take any action if I just wanted to leave the bonds as they were. 

4. Because I would now like to use the money following a house purchase. My Dad also lost track of the bonds and forgot about them for a while. 

5. I didn’t make a SAR, but following their first letter stating that the bonds had already been paid out, I asked in my complaint letter for them to confirm the date they were paid out to, and to whom. Their response was a further letter advising that they could not see any bonds or accounts in my name.

masonic

If they were not cashed in in 2004 or at any time in the following 5 years, your parent would have been sent a letter in 2009 with the option to either cash in or roll over for another 5 years. The bonds were always taken out for 5 year terms with a maturity letter offering the option to cash in or roll over. So an update should have been expected at least once per 5 year period. If after 10 years, in 2014, you had reached your 16th birthday, then you'd no longer be eligible to roll them over. If you did not respond to this final maturity letter then the bonds would have stopped earning interest while they wait to hear from you regarding repayment. Then in 2019, if you'd still not been in touch, as it was no longer possible to renew the bonds, the money would have been transferred into a Residual Account for safekeeping - essentially a lost money account.

You say that the letters in 2009, 2014, and 2019 were not received by your father's household. NS&I say that they do not have a Residual Account in your name and have therefore concluded the bonds were paid out. NS&I is required to keep records for customers whose money they hold, but is not required to keep records of accounts which were settled many years ago. NS&I has stated that it does not keep records of settled accounts beyond a few years.

It will be impossible to prove that the bonds were not paid out. It will therefore come down to the balance of probability and what is considered credible. It probably isn't considered credible that a customer would knowingly leave money in an account paying zero interest for over a decade, or forget about it entirely for 20 years since the last communication they received. If NS&I has robust processes to identify customer money and keep track of it, which it seems it does given how well it keeps track of other types of account, then it is more likely that a customer has forgotten cashing in the bonds and reinvesting the money elsewhere. It is possible that someone other than the customer was able to cash them in fraudulently, but by now that would be extremely difficult to establish.

Over the years, a handful of other people have posted similar stories, as mentioned upthread. None of them reported any success pursuing NS&I over the missing funds.

mattojgb

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80579034