MoS helps to win reprieve for Premium Bond cheques

PREMIUM Bond prize cheques have been given a temporary reprieve, after National Savings & Investments announced a U-turn on its plan to cull them.

The decision comes eight weeks after The Mail on Sunday warned NS&I boss Ian Ackerley that axeing the cheques would cause inconvenience and distress to customers. The Government-backed savings organisation had planned to stop sending cheques – known as ‘warrants’ – by post.

Instead savers were told they needed to register online or by phone to have prizes reinvested or put directly into their bank account.

Yet ongoing customer service issues mean many bondholders are struggling to register. Phone lines are jammed with call waiting times up to 30 minutes. A recorded message tells callers this is ‘due to the coronavirus’. Alan Holmes, a customer from Cheshire, says: ‘Their phone system is too busy while the internet resembles a minefield. The NS&I is not the same outfit I once knew.’

NS&I will now only start phasing out paper warrants once it has got its act together on customer service. On Friday, NS&I told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We recognise that some customers have faced difficulties and longer waiting times when trying to contact us to supply their bank account details. A decision has therefore been made to allow customers more time to do so.’

Demands on the organisation’s customer service teams are likely to escalate further in the wake of its dramatic savings rate cuts last month. Savers have withdrawn their cash in droves. Laith Khalaf, financial analyst at wealth platform AJ Bell, says: ‘Our consumer research suggests more than 40 per cent of NS&I customers intend to move their money elsewhere.’