NS&I Avis 10 870

Absolutely horrendous customer service, arrogant, tell lies and poor processes and appalling help received. They withdrew £6,500 out of my account for no reason, they kept telling me it would be back in my account in 3 day. It took over a month to receive the funds back. They weren't apologetic at all and was just one lie after another.

I have been trying to claim my deceased mother's premium bonds since December 2025 and I am at the end of my tether. It is now the end of April and I still have no confirmation of when the funds will be paid. I have had documents get lost within the system, been told my case has been expedited, subsequently told there is no expedition possible, then told again my case has been expedited twice. I have had a written request for probate to be sent (probate was was already confirmed as received in writing before this!). The processes are a complete shambles and create unacceptable stress and delays, particularly after a bereavement. I am currently shuttling between the complaints department, Durham customer care team and the general premium bonds team. I was told the bereavement team are back office and are unable to be contacted via telephone (even within NSANDI which I disputed!). Today magically someone in the CCT managed to call the bereavement team supposedly. Week before last I was offered a non-automated support arrangement to expedite my case for the third time to ensure I could be paid the funds I need to complete on my house purchase in time...despite this process seemingly working I am still in no mans land. Feeling incredibly stressed about losing my house due to no funds forthcoming and I am yet again back in the Bermuda triangle that is NSANDI. I received a complaint payment of £125 a few weeks ago which doesn't go anywhere near to compensating me for the wasted time on daily calls or mental distress suffered. What a broken broken system we have...incredibly depressing and clearly needing a complete overhaul.

Good service

So easy to do

It was quick and easy to do. Simple.

Whilst dealing with complicated health and marital issues, I suddenly needed to use some of the money I had in my nsandi. MAJOR FLAWS in their system.

Because I hadn’t withdrawn anything in so long and had only been adding to the account, whilst I logged in to my account fine, I failed ONE out of three questions that are asked when WITHDRAWING only, and got locked out of my account.

Not only did I have no money and need the money urgently, but I had to change address because of my marital situation and their records didn’t reflect my correct marital name despite completing the correct forms.

I went WEEKS, with no money, no answers, and sassy customer service agents patronising me whilst providing useless information. Despite actioning the exact requests they had, and PASSING security on the phone multiple times, providing CERTIFIED EVIDENCE of my identity (despite the cost and me having no money to pay for it) I wasted WEEKS trying to gain access whilst struggling emotionally, physically and financially being led by inconsistent, poor, ‘advice’.

Train your customer service team better!!! You had £50k of my money and couldn’t get your acts together to allow me to provide my identity and documents and regain access. I nearly had a mental breakdown trying to sort it out and suffered immensely from the stress of each action meeting a dead end and starting from scratch with another agent.

If you are going to hold money like it’s in Fort Knox, you need to provide the absolute best customer service possible. Alongside it. Everyone should know the protocol for situations where clients need to update their details after divorce/change of address/accidentally locking yourself out (which does happen if you withdraw once after 3 years- some people must forget after 30+) provide clear and consistent guidance.

Very quick to take the money. Disappointing to hear all the rumours about NSandI ‘losing’ clients money but based on the experience I’ve had- makes sense!

Don’t use because if you need support from them and something goes awry, you may never see your money again, even if you prove your identity with all your documents.

My husband unexpectedly became ill and died a traumatic death at a local hospital because the hospital firstly sent a high risk patient home from A&E with acid reflux. When he returned to A&E just two days later there was no chance to save him. He was too poorly to recover. He was put on so many machines together with having to spend each day in a cpap hood before he died 10 days later.

We kept our joint savings in premium bonds. Easy access to your money is what they state should you need it. During my husbands time in hospital - I could not ask him to release the premium bonds in his name back to our bank account even though I would need that money to bury him and pay a number of other immediate bills because he was so poorly.

When he died I contacted premium bonds and told them I needed immediate access to that money. The best that they could offer would be for me to present them with an invoice from the funeral home and they would pay it. No other money would be made available to me even though it was our joint savings with the majority of it being in his name to keep a high amount in one account for better odds. The funds going into premium bonds always came out of a joint account and any prizes were paid back to that joint account.

I finally managed to send them a grant of letters which takes months to obtain. You can try to obtain this document by yourself if the estate is just savings but for more complicated estates, it is prudent to use a solicitor. It has cost me £2132. This amount of money is spent just to obtain my savings back from premium bonds.

My husband died in August 2025. It has taken me 7 months to obtain the document and even though they now acknowledge receipt of that document they state that they will choose to take a further two months to release my money. Please take precautions not to find yourself in my position.

I have asked them to repay the £2132 to me that it cost for the grant of probate document. They will not do this. Instead they tell me that I don’t need to use a solicitor to get a grant of probate. They do not have a clue and are quite reckless with there comments. However they have given £75 compensation. 🧐

We left our joint savings in premium bonds for many years without receiving very much in prize money but you leave it just in case. There is £136 billion in premium bonds and only around 6 million prizes which means it is difficult with those odds to make any money each year.

It is a very high probability that most of us will make much more by depositing our cash in one of the many savings accounts and Isa’s on offer with the high street banks and building society’s

I have read some of the reviews on premium bonds and feel that they are thoroughly antiquated in every respect unless of course you are giving them your money. They make that process very easy.

I have always had bonds for years and have not been let down at all online or phone👍.

I have had a saving account with NS&I for a long time. I put a little away each month. The direct debit was easy to set up and maintain. The account is easy to check and when I want to use my money it is a straight forward process to transfer money into another account.

This is about the Premium Bond Draws... which are held on the 1st of every single month, what I find hard to accept is that they are all hidden and out of slight behind closed doors personally I find this very suspect because it can lead to all manor of abuse and underhand activity... infact these days there should be available access to the viewing of the live draw every month particularly with the technology that we have at our disposal today but this is not being allowed to happen for some strange reason...

Transactions are always straightforward and website is simple to use.

Best decision I have ever made in joining them, I have had great returns and certainly accumulated more than a normal savings account would be able to offer

I have just tried to download the App but you keep asking me to change my keyboard before it will allow me to input my security information?

Great app
Very clear and easy to use
Interest rates could be better but safe place for your money

Easy and straightforward

Web site is crap. Continually locked out endless problems and no cert of interest for tax. Cumbersome in the extreme

Easy to use interface, clear and intuitive

Great to save for any special occasion. Build a nest egg.

prompt service - good digital communication and I like the Apps