Frequently asked questions

No. NS&I usually offers a number of products that can be held in a SIPP or SSAS, although some of these are not currently on sale. Those permissible for this purpose are either fixed term products or those that are expected to be held for a long period of time, and not account products that result in regular transactions. As our Investment Account product is generally used for regular savings transactions, it is unsuitable to be held in a long-term product such as a SIPP or SSAS.

Yes.

Yes, but we would need two separate Terms of Business Agreements, and two separate Letters of Authority from the client.

Yes, but not during initial registration.

The system will only generate one automated registration email. However, once the first ‘super-user’ has registered they will be able to register other ‘super-users’, and grant them full admin rights. The ‘super-users’ can then add other staff with normal access.

Having multiple ‘super-users’ would be particularly useful for the larger advice firms with more than one office, or to cover absences.

Yes, we will need a Letter of Authority for each client. In the case of joint holdings, each individual must supply a separate signed Letter of Authority. You must use the NS&I template for this, no other templates will be accepted.

No, just one ‘Terms of Business Agreement’ is needed per advice firm.

Yes, unless one has already been registered with us since March 2018.

We launched a new template in late February 2018, as part of the introduction of our new adviser phone service. As a result, we will need a new one completed for every client that has NS&I holdings and that you would have access to (unless you’ve supplied one after the beginning of March 2018).

However these are now held on file and so once registered with us they will be retained for future reference for as long as the arrangement remains in place and in line with our record retention policy.

Only this template can be used to access information on your clients’ NS&I holdings.

NS&I does not offer ‘adviser charging’. This is because we view charging to be a form of commission from the product provider to the advice firm, and following the FCA’s Retail Distribution Review in 2012, financial advice firms should be receiving their income from client fees and not product providers.

No. Since we introduced the £1 million jackpot prize in 1994, we’ve seen winners in every country in the UK and every county in England, as well as five winners living outside of the UK. It may appear that the South East wins more than any other area, but that’s because there are more Bonds held there compared with the rest of the UK.

No, we do not currently allow transfers into our Direct ISA from other ISA providers. As NS&I is both a government department and an Executive Agency of the Chancellor we have to balance the needs of our savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services market. One of the ways we do this is by making sure we operate as efficiently as possible.

Jackpot winners have a varied amount invested – one winner of the £1 million jackpot only had £17 in Premium Bonds! However, the more Bonds you hold, the better your chances of winning.

It’s a popular myth that holding Premium Bonds in a sequence can improve your chances of winning, but this simply isn’t true. The machine we use to generate the numbers for each prize draw—ERNIE—generates numbers completely at random, which are then matched to our database of eligible Bonds to determine the winners. Since no Bonds are actually entered into ERNIE, it doesn’t ‘know’ anything about the Bonds themselves, such as whether the Bond number is part of a sequence of numbers or not. The only thing that can increase your chances of winning is holding more Premium Bonds – but holding them in sequence won’t make any difference.

Index-linked Savings Certificates are still a popular investment with a unique combination of index-linking plus a small amount of additional interest – all tax-free. This means they will guarantee your clients inflation beating returns.

Please find information on how to access clients’ holdings with NS&I on the obtaining client information page.

Obtaining client information

If a Bond renews automatically for another fixed term, your client can cancel within 30 days of receiving confirmation of their renewed Bond. Clients can do this online or by phone if they are registered for this service. If not, they will need to write to us explaining that they want to cancel and quoting their name, address and account number for the renewed Bond.

We’ll then repay the money to the client’s nominated bank account, normally within 5 working days of receiving their cancellation request.