NS&I has issued a password warning after one customer struggled to access their account.
NS&I, backed by the Treasury, addressed the query from the concerned Premium Bonds holder on Twitter.
The customer asked: “If you insist on 2FA [two-factor authorisation] to log in online, why don’t you make phone number a mandatory field when registering? [sic]
“I’ve just registered, tried to log in, been told I need to ring you to get a number added, rang, fought the virtual assistant.
“Got put through to someone who was on a terrible phone line, who then said their system crashed and asked for a different two letters of my password (which seems dodgy).” [sic]
NS&I responded to the customer on Twitter, explaining: “When authenticating a customer on the phone, we need to ask for two digits of the password.
“The agent does not know what the password is and is given two blank boxes to enter the digits.”
However, the customer noted: “It’s when I give two digits, then get told the system crashed and they ask for a different set of two digits that things get fishy.”
In response, NS&I said: “If there is an error with the system which fails the attempt or the characters are incorrect, the system does ask for two different characters instead. You only get five chances to log in until the system suspends the password.”
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, offering a range of savings and investments to more than 24 million customers.
The financial institution guarantees 100 percent capital security for all its products, thanks to its backing from HM Treasury.
The money invested in NS&I products is used by the Treasury to raise cost-effective financing for the Government.
The savings products range from Premium Bonds and Direct Savers to Income Bonds.
Premium Bonds are one of the providers’ most popular products. Savers investing in these can win sums worth anything between £25 and £1million every month through randomly generated prize draws.
Prizes are split into three value bands – higher, medium, and lower – and each band receives a percentage share of the monthly prize fund.
The prize fund rate for Premium Bonds is 4.4 percent from the March 2024 draw. The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize remain the same at 21,000 to one.
While the “interest rate” is determined on Premium Bond investments by the prize draws every month (which means sometimes, people may not earn anything), NS&I’s Direct Saver Income Bond products offer regular determined interest.
Income Bonds are a lump sum investment that pays out monthly income at a fixed rate of interest over a set period (called ‘investment term’). Interest is calculated daily and is paid into the customer’s nominated bank account.
Meanwhile, the Direct Savers allow regular deposits and typically apply interest to accounts annually.
