Tag Archives: National Savings and Investments

Banks, Bonds, Checking & Savings, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Financial Statements, Investment, ISAs, Money, Personal Finance

National Savings And Investments Is Increasing The ISA Allowance On Both Its Direct ISA And Cash ISA For Its Over 50s Customers

The revised allowance will come into effect from 6 October 2009. This change will enable existing Direct ISA and Cash ISA customers who will be 50 years or over on the 5 April 2010 to deposit up to £5100 into their ISA in the current tax year. From 6 April 2010 more than 400,000 of NS&I’s Direct ISA and more than 231,000 Cash ISA savers will be eligible for the higher allowance.

These changes reflect the Chancellor’s announcement in his 2009 Budget which stated that cash ISA customers aged 50 years or over should have an increase to their tax-free ISA allowance, increasing the maximum investment from £3600 to £5100 from 6 October.

The interest rate paid on NS&I’s Direct ISA is currently 2.50%, and 0.5% per annum on its Cash ISA.  John Prout, Director of Customer Sales and Retention at NS&I, said: “We have contacted the 365,000 of our ISA customers who will be 50 years or over on the 5 April 2010 to let them know that they can make use of their higher allowance from 6 October. They can do this by calling NS&I on our new freephone number, 0500 007 007.

At NS&I we pride ourselves on being straightforward in both our communications and our savings bond range. We urge all of our eligible ISA customers to take full advantage of the increased allowance available to them.”

NS&I has changed its general enquiries number. Customers will now need to call the freephone number 0500 007 007 to contact NS&I directly. The former chargeable enquiries number, 0845 964 5000, will continue to operate but customers may incur a charge from their provider. NS&I’s sales line will continue to operate through 0500 500 000.

Via EPR Network
More Financial press releases

Banks, Bonds, Checking & Savings, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Financial Statements, Investment, Money, Personal Finance

National Savings And Investments, The Government-Backed Savings And Investments Provider, Today Announced Its Annual Results For The Year To 31 March 2009 And For The First Quarter Of 2009-10

Highlights for the financial year for year ending 31 March 2009 included net financing of £12.5 billion – against a revised November 2008 forecast of £11 billion (within a range of £2 billion either side) – due to unsolicited savings deposits following the ‘flight to safety’ which began in mid-September last year and making sales of £8.5 billion through premium bonds – an increase of almost £2 billion from the previous year.

The ‘flight to safety’ is now over and NS&I is operating in a more challenging savings environment; however, the focus remains on balancing the interests of savers, the taxpayer and supporting stability in the wider financial services marketplace by maintaining an appropriate competitive position

Jane Platt, NS&I’s chief executive, said: “The global financial crisis, which began last September, meant that demand for our products increased dramatically despite us cancelling all discretionary marketing and led to us delivering £12.5 billion of net financing last year. I’m proud of the way the teams at our operations centres responded to this challenge and helped to ensure we remained open for business and maintained our high customer service standards, in spite of the unsolicited inflows of money.

“As the Bank of England base rate continued to fall rapidly and financial markets remained unusually volatile, we agreed with HM Treasury that NS&I’s Value Add target for 2008-09 would be temporarily suspended and no target set for the coming year. Our decision-making is now driven by the need to maintain a balance between offering a fair rate to our customers, delivering cost-effective finance to Government, and the need to support stability across the wider financial services marketplace by maintaining an appropriate competitive position.”

NS&I’s Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 were presented to the House of Commons on 15 July 2009, pursuant to section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000.

About NS&I
NS&I is one of the UK’s largest financial providers with almost 27 million customers and over £94 billion invested. It is best known for premium bonds, but also offers inflation-beating savings accounts, guaranteed equity bonds and guaranteed growth bonds in its range. All products offer 100% security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

Via EPR Network
More Financial press releases

Banks, Bonds, Checking & Savings, Financial, Financial Services, Interest Rate, Investment, Money, Personal Finance

NS&I’s June Jackpot Of £1million Has Been Paid To A Surrey Resident, Who Bought His Winning Bond In March 2006

The winner, a gentleman from Surrey who wishes to remain anonymous, became ERNIE’s 233rd Premium Bond millionaire. He said of the win: “When Agent Million knocked on my door and told me that I’d won the jackpot I thought it was a practical joke! I’m still in shock but once the news sinks in I cannot wait to share the good fortune by treating my family to a lovely summer holiday.”

In Surrey, more than 535,300 people hold Premium Bonds worth £1.4 billion. There are more than 13,500 unclaimed Premium Bonds in total worth at least £796,000. This is the 13th time that the £1 million jackpot has been won in Surrey.

In March, NS&I announced that from the April prize draw onwards, one of the two monthly £1 million Premium Bond jackpot prizes will be replaced by a wider mix of other prizes in the monthly draws.

Similarly, a new £25 Premium Bonds prize has been introduced to the draws alongside the existing prizes (ranging from £50 to £1 million). These changes have been introduced because Premium Bond holders say that maintaining the chances of winning tax-free prizes on a regular basis is particularly important to them.

In June’s draw ERNIE paid out more than 1.1 million prizes, amounting to more than £33 million in value. There were 40,520,994,477 eligible numbers in the Premium Bond draw.

1. In June there were 1,125,583 prizes and a total prize fund of £33,767,475.
2. All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
3. Pictures of ERNIE (including the new ERNIE 4 machine), Agent Million and people buying Premium Bonds are available in high-resolution jpeg format from the NS&I media team.

About NS&I
National Savings and Investments is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, offering a range of savings and investments to almost 27 million customers. NS&I is best known for Premium Bonds, but also offers a range of savings accounts including easy access savings accounts, savings bonds, investment accounts and children’s bonus bonds. All products offer 100% capital security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury. Further information and digital images are available from the NS&I media team. An ISDN line is available for interviews.

Via EPR Network
More Financial press releases