National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has today announced sweeping changes to its saving and investment schemes.
By 2013, only its Premium Bonds will still be available through the Post Office, as NS&I looks to increase direct interaction with its customers and to streamline its service.
Applications for the NS&I Investment Account will cease on November 28 2011 and will return as a postal-only service from May 2012 at a higher rate than the 0.20 per cent to 0.30 per cent currently provided.
The Easy Access Savings Account will be scrapped from 28 November this year, completely closing for existing accounts in July 2012, with customers encouraged to transfer to the Direct Saver account, currently paying 1.75 per cent gross/AER, or the Investment Account.
The changes will affect 2.3 million people with Investment Accounts and 260,000 with Easy Access Savings Accounts.
NS&I has said it will contact customers in December to explain the options and urged them not to take action until then.
The state-owned savings bank claims the changes will deliver the 10 per cent saving by 2015 ordered by last year’s Spending Review.
Chief executive Jane Platt claimed NS&I would ‘work with our colleagues at the Post Office to support our customers through the changes.’
She said, ‘Since 2007 we have been working to simplify and modernise our range of savings and to encourage our customers to invest with us directly. At the same time the Post Office has grown its own range of savings products.’
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