Late relatives Premium Bonds unable to pay in cheques

[Ohchocichocolate]

NS&I have just sent me a large number of cheques for my late mother‘s premium bond winnings which were won in the period of administration after her death and until recently when I was able to claim her premium bonds money.

I paid in a couple of £50’s and they went through fine but a day later when I paid in a couple of £100’s they failed. The Bank said it’s unknown issue with NS&i. Spoke to ns&i and I’ve got to wait for their back office to get in touch with me.

Anyone had this problem?
Any ideas how long it takes to the back office to get in contact with you?

Probate is a bloody nightmare
Nothing I’ve done is straightforward other than the Kent reliance who paid out two hours after I left their office.

The only thing I would point out is they need to be signed by the payee. Have you tried this? You could put pp and your signature. Alternatively contact them and ask for them to be paid into a bank account.

Can only go by a friend going through probate and they were absolutely the worst to deal with.

It should read it’s a known NS&i issue

I honestly thought the prize dies with the person

When you buy a Premium Bond you are effectively lending money to the government and they owe it to you, which makes it an asset like an NS&I bond or a savings account with a bank or building society. The prizes are the equivalent of earning interest. The fact that the holder has died doesn't affect any of that. The executor is the legal owner of the Bonds from the holder's death until probate is granted and then they can be realised and the cash put in the pot with everything else to be distributed to the beneficiaries. Any prizes earned during that time are just like interest on savings accounts or dividends from shares.

But only for the first year after the death, you have to cash them in after that

This was on watchdog or ripoff Britain type of program
I think somebody further up was right there’s a timescale then it’s gone

The cheques were made out in my name as the Executor.

The period of administration is the time from death until in the case of the premium bonds I was able to provide a grant of probate document, they then paid mums PB holding to me as the executor. (It took almost a year to organise and finalise Probate, it took HMRC months to do the paperwork).

Then a week later they sent my lots of cheques, which were the prizes won on the holdings during the period after her death and my being able to reclaim her PB monies. (Which I’m now trying to pay into my bank into an account all mums money is in but the bank is rejecting the cheques).

hope that answers a few questions, after a few phone calls today a few on the cheques have now been cleared ok (but I have no way of knowing which ones they’ve accepted as they don’t show the cheque numbers against them).