When you invest with NS&I online, you may not see your new savings balance straight away. Don’t worry if this happens – there are sometimes a few things we need to do behind the scenes before we update your balance.

If you used Pay by bank account or bank transfer:

The money will normally reach your NS&I account in less than two hours, but it can take longer depending on your bank.

Please remember: if you're investing with us by bank transfer, all the details you enter when making your payment (including our details as the payee) must be correct. Otherwise your payment won't be successful.

If you’re not sure your payment has been taken by debit card:

There’s no need to try again, as your payment might be taken twice. Instead, call us on the next working day and we’ll be able to confirm your payment has been received.

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If your Income Bonds balance is ‘pending’ in your online account:

If you opened your account by debit card between the 20th of a month and the 5th of the following month, your deposit won’t show in your balance until the next banking day after the 5th. This is because we use this period to start calculating and preparing all the monthly interest payments.

You will, however, be able to see your deposit in the ‘Pending transactions’ section of your online account.

If your balance hasn’t updated at all:

Sometimes we need to ask for evidence of your identity and address before we update your account balance, especially if you’re investing for the first time.

If you haven’t received a request to provide evidence of identity, or would like to know if your money has been received, just call us.

Interested in your interest?

As soon as you give us your card details and your bank authorises the payment, we know that the money is on its way to us. We calculate the interest from that day, even though we don’t receive the money from your bank straight away. This means you’re earning interest on your savings before the money is actually in your account!

Bank transfers are a bit different, because we don’t know that your money is on its way to us. So you’ll start earning interest from the day we receive your money.