Premium Bonds customer hits maximum amount but is ‘well under’ £50k limit – NS&I responds | Personal Finance | Finance
A Premium Bonds saver was alarmed as they couldn’t buy more Bonds despite being well under the £50,000 holding limit.
The concerned customer got in touch with the NS&I team over X. They said: “I am trying to buy more Bonds currently account is well under the limit of £50,000 but the message keeps saying you are at the maximum amount.
“This has been like this for more than 24 hours. Is this a glitch?”
A representative of the savings provider responded asking if they had recently attempted to buy Bonds but didn’t complete the purchase.
The customer replied to say that this was the case. The representative then explained: “The headroom, which is the amount you can invest changes when you attempt to deposit funds.
“This changes even if the payment doesn’t go through. My apologies for any inconvenience this causes, it will revert back to what it should be in a couple of days.”
The customer then responded: “Many thanks I did wonder whether there was something. Note to self: – ensure you type correct number in!”
Another important rule to note when buying more Bonds is you have to purchase at least £25 worth. Each £1 Bond has an equal chance of winning in the monthly prize draw once it becomes valid to be entered.
A customer recently contacted NS&I as they had accidentally purchased less than £25 worth when buying more Bonds.
They asked: “Will the payment be returned to me automatically or can I send an additional payment so the total sent is over £25?”
A representative of NS&I said in response: “The money will bounce back to your bank, this is automatic and will take two to three working days.”
NS&I was also contacted by another concerned saver, after the maximum amount they could invest appeared to have reduced.
They said in a message over X: “The amount that I can invest into Premium Bonds is less than it should be.
“The transaction failed a couple of times and each time it did the maximum I could invest went down. Is there any way to fix this?”
The savings group said in response: “Your account’s ‘headroom’ is reduced to prevent any further deposits from being made that will take your account over the maximum holding.
“The deduction on the account’s headroom is automatically reduced as soon as the amount you wish to purchase is keyed on the system, as we expect the sale to proceed successfully.
“Your headroom will return to normal after a full 24 hours since the last attempted deposit.”
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