This morning I get 2 prize cheques for £25: very nice, Thank You. BUT two envelopes, 2 cheques to pay into the bank, two inserts in each envelope, and two lots of postage. What a waste of resources, especially as previously it probably would have been one envelope with one £50 cheque. There is one insert in each envelope saying how NS&I has listened to its customers and made some changes (viz £25 prize). Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS. Don?t come up with the standard reply about how NS&I can?t pay via BACS because it would mean having to change T&C: T&Cs must have been changed to allow £25 prizes, so it?s possible. NS&I can still write to the prize winners (as per its T&C) just the money goes straight into the bank (I dare not suggest NS&I might use e-mail to advise of prizes lest NS&I die of apoplexy at the thought of using e-mail). Of course, it will be a nice little earner for NS&I to hang onto the money a little bit longer while the cheques are posted and processed (BACS is quite quick these days!). If NS&I looked at the comments attached to the recent (23 May 09) article in the Times on the Times? website, it would see a selection of comments asking to have prizes paid direct into mandated bank accounts. Why doesn?t NS&I get into the 21st century with its payment methods.
Premium Bond prizes (Rant) (again): payment via BACS?????
Jun 12, 2009
15 Replies
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It might surprise you, but there are still people who do not, or will not, have a bank account. And they'll use the recent shenanigans as evidence that their decision is a wise one.
Fair enough. It's a free world. But at least offer BACS as an option.
Well, NS&I have to be complemented on the speed of their reply, and it's reasonably comprehensive:
================= We have investigated amalgamating prize warrants and continue to look for options. Unfortunately at this time our systems do not have the capability to collate all the prizes into one envelope. The prizes are grouped by value and Bond number not customer name.
Not all customers are lucky enough to win multiple prizes or indeed on a frequent basis. As some customers may not be as familiar with winning a prize the 'congratulations' slip is to inform our customers exactly what has been sent to them. It also contains important information on what they needto do with the warrant to claim their prize. It would be unfair for us to assume that customers would automatically recognise the warrant as a prize and know what to do with the warrant.
Under the Association of Payment and Clearing Services (APACS) guidelines we are unable to print anything on the reverse of the warrant. We do make use of the counterfoil by printing the customers name and address and winning Bond number details. We do not have control over the quality of paper, therefore printing on the reverse may impact the visibility of the name and address. To avoid this we print separate 'congratulations' slips to communicate important information to our customers.
We do appreciate that it is frustrating to see identical envelopes arriving every month, but I hope this information helps clarify the reasons for our methods. We continue to look at efficiencies in our business.
I understand your frustrations regarding not having your prize wins paid by BACS, however there are currently 23 million Premium Bond customers so making any changes becomes far more complex.
As part of our review of our IT systems NS&I is looking at providing additional options including the option to have Premium Bond prizes automatically paid to bank accounts but significant changes to the IT systems are required.
A major review of our IT systems is taking place over the next few years but at this point in time I am unable to provide any further information.
=================
So what will they do with the crossed cheque from the premium bonds? It has to be paid into a bank account does it not?
Robert
"RobertL" wrote
NS&I don't give you crossed cheques from premium bonds...
How do they cash their Premium Bond Cheques? Derek
They, er, cash them. That is, they convert them to cash.
What they obviously can't do is bank their Premium Bond cheques. But if they don't want to, that's not a problem for them.
Mark
They're not cheques, they are warrants (whatever that actually means). As the other poster says, the Post Office will pay out cash on them. The last time I tried, they do this in return for an unchecked signature so possibly they are "pay to bearer" instruments.
tim
I didn't know that. So if a stolen one is cashed the thief cannot be traced.
RIn message , Tim wrote
Although they are called warrants (NS&I state that they are like cheques) they are crossed with the words "ACCOUNT PAYEE ONLY"
The accompanying slip says " Please sign the warrant and pay it into your bank as soon as possible" No other method for payment is specified!
So going back to your original point about security... if they're not crossed, there's no security. And if they are, well, I guess you can still "open the crossing" by signing across it. Or am I getting confused in my old age?
"Alan" wrote
Exactly ... they are crossed warrants, *not* crossed cheques...
Is there a difference other than in name? They are described as "like cheques", but in what way(s) are they unlike cheques?
If they are capable of being cashed directly (as someone up-thread claimed could be done, for example by people who don't have a bank account), this would seem to imply that the crossing on the warrant is ineffective.
You did not have to prove your identity? Derek
It's ages since I took one into a post office, so no!
tim
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