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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/mon...cle6345045.ece

On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:


Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS.

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.

Tiddy Ogg wrote:
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:


Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS.

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.

Allan wrote:

This morning [snip]

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.

==================

On Jun 12, 11:33*am, Tiddy Ogg wrote:
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:

Well, why not listen to this. *Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS. *

It might surprise you, but there are still people who do not, or will
not, have a bank account.

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
So what will they do with the crossed cheque from the premium bonds?

NS&I don't give you crossed cheques from premium bonds...

"Tiddy Ogg" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:


Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS.

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.

How do they cash their Premium Bond Cheques?
Derek

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:37:45 +0100, Derek F put finger to keyboard and
typed:


"Tiddy Ogg" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:


Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS.

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.

How do they cash their Premium Bond Cheques?

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
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

"Derek F" wrote in message
...

"Tiddy Ogg" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:00:50 +0100, Allan
wrote:


Well, why not listen to this. Stop wasting paper and postage, make the
prize payments more secure, and start paying prizes via BACS.

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.

How do they cash their Premium Bond Cheques?

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

On Jun 12, 7:25*pm, "Tim" wrote:
"RobertL" wrote

So what will they do with the crossed cheque from the premium bonds?

NS&I don't give you crossed cheques from premium bonds...

I didn't know that. So if a stolen one is cashed the thief cannot be
traced.

R