Shocking situation at NS&I

[JanuaryJonez]

My parents have £45,000 invested with NS&I which they were expecting to release to pay a very large bill that is due imminently.

They went on their website but when they put in their account number it said the account was postal only.

They then rang customer services and hung on for about 40 minutes before they were told that they had to print out a form and send it by post to the other end of the UK, which they did.

It's been over a week now and no money has appeared so I called NS&I again on their behalf. When I got through (after waiting another 40 or so minutes) I was told that, as the account was postal only, he could only give me limited information. He confirmed that they'd received the form and that a letter had been sent back to them requiring a signature, which they then have to post back.

It's a shockingly poor and quite unnecessary process and my parents are now very worried that the money won't be released in time. I've now Googled NS&I and it seems there are legions of people who currently can't get their savings out of NS&I because of either technical or customer service issues.

I'm starting to think it's a massive conspiracy and not sure what to do next - contact my MP, the tabloids..!

I just wondered if anyone on here has had a similar or hopefully a more positive experience with them. I feel so bad for my parents - they really deserve better after investing so much with them. You can't email them and live chat isn't available to postal-only customers like them, so our only option is to hang on for ages only to be given limited information.

Noises in that one sorry @Trumplosttheelection. It might be best to ask in legal matters

@nothingnessandeverything can I ask how long ago you withdrew money. I'm getting bit worried now as it's been two weeks and we've heard nothing.

This too is how Wikipedia describe NS&I:

The aim of NS&I has been to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purpose of funding the government's deficit.

And the Daily Mail suggested yesterday in an article that NS&I should be helping to fund our now huge national debt by issuing recovery bonds!

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9221557/RUTH-SUNDERLAND-gloriously-British-way-war-against-2-TRILLION-debt.html

It was around two years ago. So sorry if that's no longer helpful but I definitely remember the same inconvenience. It was an account my parents opened for me when I was a baby and they had to sign all the forms too agreeing to allow me access to the money - even though everything was in my name. There was a lot of back and forth beforehand but once the completed forms were sent the money appeared in my account very quickly. Do they not have forms online you can print off?

If you opened account with them years ago before everything went digital, you automatically get classed as postal-only.

This means you can't do anything online, you can't email them so you have to print out and post a withdrawal form to them.

When I called last week to chase it, I hung on for almost an hour and when I got through I was told as it's postal only they can only give me limited information, ie that they'd received the forms and that the money should be in their accounts in two weeks. I was treated like a nuisance in a way.

It's all very worrying in light of that article I linked to and the fact that they were set up in the first place to fund the national debt. It's harder to stop digital customers withdrawing but very easy to block postal withdrawers.

Their service has been quite slow recently as they dramatically cut rates in November (1.16% on income bonds to 0.01%) So a massive number of withdrawals and account movement.

They've said they won't release money, even with probate, for five weeks after they've had the papers! Disgraceful.

@Trumplosttheelection gosh where did you read that??

Well these reviews say it all...sadly I don't think I'm overreacting.

uk.trustpilot.com/review/nsandi.com

@JanuaryJonez in the letter they sent us, it says any funds due won't be released for five weeks. And yet when my aunt died the Halifax were able to put a five figure sum in a bank account next working day.
National savings are a disgrace

Gosh I know this company. I tried to move my kids JISA there a year ago. Think i got paperwork from their website and once I'd filled out everything and posted to appropriate place.

I just couldn't every get hold of them on their website or phone and my emails till this day were never returned. So I wrote to them and said I no longer wish to transfer funds in (never ever heard back).

I managed to stop it by getting in touch with existing JISA provider and said not to release the funds and explained why. Terrible service! I dodged a bullet.

And the Daily Mail suggested yesterday in an article that NS&I should be helping to fund our now huge national debt by issuing recovery bonds!

Well, yes, it's a state owned bank. That's what it's for.

Live chat doesn't work,there is no email contact and their phone lines are hopeless. I've had problems trying to switch my premium bond account to paperless for months. The instructions given don't work for some reason but can I get through to anyone?
Instead they send me reminders to go paperless. Very frustrating.

To be fair - practically no ones live chat is working during lockdown. So many companies are not utilising it at this time when you'd imagine they would be.

I have savings with them and was thinking of swapping to premium bonds. Those trust pilot reviews are terrible - I would expect ones about things taking a long time given the situation, but ones about money being inaccessible or "lost" is really worrying me. This is all of a (modest) inheritance from my parents. It does make me think, if it's down to extra/untrained staff etc, might be safer to just leave it there till things are a bit more normal! But I don't know.
Hope it works out for you, OP.

NS&I are gold plated as far as keeping your money safe - as per previous posters, they've been inundated with requests for withdrawals after interest rates were reduced, and so many people have had NS&I savings/investments for so long, many accounts are paper based. Couple that with the postal service being so slow at the moment and it's a recipe for delay.

I submitted an online form to let them know of a bereavement and the confirmation after submission said I can expect a response in five weeks.

Bloody good job mum doesn’t need the money now FFS.

Two weeks later they sent a letter saying they would be dealing with the request when they can.

Nothing since.... one month and three days later.

My Mum died on 11th January, and we had money from her account in to mine on 3rd February. Can't knock that. Obviously no probate involved though.

After a bereavement you should have the money in three working days or less. That's what people need. Five weeks or more is not customer service.

We've just cashed in a bond my mum had which had reached its maturity date. I did it online for her and the money was in her bank account the day after maturity.

My parents got their money paid in last Friday, phew!

About a week before that they both received letters from NS&I asking them to confirm their bank account details, which I sent back by recorded delivery (advised by a previous poster).
I also emailed their customer complaint email to say I'd done this and that the situation was urgent.

For those still waiting here's the email address:

[email protected]

I do wonder if we were one of the lucky ones, especially as it was a postal-only account, as the Trust Pilot reviews are shocking.

I really hope anyone on here still waiting gets things resolved soon!!

Name change for my mum completed yesterday! One month, nine days so scraped in their five week expectation.

NS&I are fine, just struggling with the volumes... been an awful year for many people...

Unfortunately, NS&I aren't a investment, so honestly, you can easily get better returns elsewhere and many many people do... So, we have many more millionaires and nearly 2000 billionaires in the uk and i only see it growing one way, up...

sadly, the financial knowledge required for just about anyone to be a millionaire comes too late in life for many, and we don't teach it in schools, or colleges and in the case of my degree, not in university either... £25 a month, started early enough will total about £19k in savings, which over time will make you a millionaire... inflation may mean that's doesn't mean what it's worth is less than before, but hey, it's still a level most think it out of their reach, yet isn't...