Registering for an online NS&I account

[diy_fun_uk]

What an absolute farce of a registration process ... if you're slightly disorganised like me

The security questions to prove your identity were along the lines of:

You may or may not have taken out a new credit card agreement in 2008. What lender was this with?
a) I didn't take out a new credit card agreement in 2008.
b) Nationwide.
c) Halifax.
d) Royal Bank of Scotland.
e) None of the above.

If applicable, what was the opening credit limit on this card?
a) £0 - £2999
b) £3000 - £5999
c) £6000 - £8999
d) £9000 - £12000
e) None of the above.

For someone like me, who around that time was taking out quite a few cards to exploit interest free periods, it's nigh on impossible (without doing some serious digging) to know what cards I had 15 years ago and what the credit limit was.

I gave up. Might try phoning instead in the hope there are other types of proof I can provide re my identity.

And yes, the moral of the story is to keep better records, I know

 

[Brigadier]

NS and I are, IME, the worst for this sort of thing.

Long story short, I needed a wedge out of my premium bonds, at short notice.

I got a question wrong - double-hit a space,, capitalised something I shouldn't have.

After hours on the 'phone (including being threatened with being cut off if I muttered "FFS" under my breath) I had to reset my account.

By post.

And, even then after posting whatever it was back to them, I couldn't fully reset it until I'd phoned them again (with the obligatory hour or more on hold), and do the final verbal confirmation of reset.


Stressful was an understatement.




All of this, in the name of "security".

I pointed out to the bloke on the 'phone that all of that faff will likely make it less secure, because people will pick easy-to-remember / hard-to-get-wrong passwords and answers, to avoid future issues.

 

[ellal]

NS and I are, IME, the worst for this sort of thing.

Try dealing with them over POA issues!

So far they are refusing to accept an invite/access code to view the document online, and insist on seeing the original document and not even a solicitor certified copy will do.

Of course if the original gets lost, then it's no mans land time!

It appears that the government savings scheme is ignoring it's own rules!

 

[Murdochcat]

I find the NS&I site excellent and reliable. Never had an issue in all the years I have used it

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The people who devise these systems, should be made to test them first on themselves. They say not to write down passwords and similar details, not to reuse the same passwords, how can anyone expect to be able to remember these details?

 

[JohnD]

You can get password management systems.

You can also write, in your little book

"Name of the street my chum Harry used to live in"

"Colour of mum's front door before she painted it"

"Anastasia's date of birth"

"Name of Mrs Higgens whippet"

"What sort of animal was Tommy? "

 

[conny]

If you make one mistake on financial websites, (banks, building societies, loan companies etc), it can have serious knock on effects.

On the 3 credit reference agencies that Santander use, I have V.Good on two of them and Excellent on the third one.
Santander sent me a 'fishing' email claiming I would very highly be accepted for a £10k loan at 5.4% over 60 months. As we are having some work done in my late FIL's bungalow, I thought I'd go for it. Had credit lots of times in the past and always paid up before the agreed finish date. So I applied and got rejected for not meeting their criteria. Long story but I queried it and was told to contact one of the following three agencies. I logged in to all three to check my scores then contacted them. They couldn't say why I was rejected and to contact Santander. I did. they referred me back. I did. They referred me back to bank as they don't make decisions, just provide the information. During all this, I got a similar email from Tesco Bank so applied to them. I got rejected for not meeting criteria. Eventually I got someone at Santander to tell me that the reason for rejection was because I applied with my shortened name of T****, instead my official name of T****** and, if I applied using the correct name, he could almost guarantee me being accepted. So I applied and got accepted. At 28.9% interest and payments of £288 per month instead of something like £184 per month. So contact Santander to find out what the hell was going on and was told my credit rating was a risk because too many searches had been made within the past month!
All because they couldn't be bothered to contact me by phone, text, email or even snail mail, to check if it was me making the application and, after verification, explaining what the problem was. I now need to wait at least 6 - 12 months to let my account 'stabilise' before applying to someone for credit!