tdrinker

Do you know this from personal experience? If this is true, NSI is still an option if someone's UK bank is closing their account - transfer the funds from the UK bank to NSI and withdraw them to Wise in due course. But I suspect NSI will neither accept deposits from (as confirmed by other posters) nor pay withdrawals to Wise based on:

"To save with us, you’ll need a UK bank or building society account in your name. This is because we can only make payments to, and receive payments from, a UK account in pounds sterling."

If NSI knows Wise is a non-UK bank when receiving deposits, surely it knows it when making payments.

philat98

I cashed in an NSI growth bond and I wanted to buy premium bonds with the proceeds. NSI wouldn't accept payment from Wise.

Helen1964

Hi
Philat98 says they’ll pay out to a Wise account.
I should have confirmed this with the NS&I operator I “chatted” to the other day.
Maybe you could put the question to them?
It would certainly be interesting to know.

philat98

I spoke to the operators a few times. I think Wise was outside of their knowledge.

tdrinker

Even if NSI send money to Wise, it's risky because it could be an oversight which they'll close later, and you couldn't really dispute it with them as their T&C's are clear.

Helen1964

I agree.
It’s really only suitable then for people who do have a parallel, fully-fledged UK bank account but, for example, are earning zero interest on their savings in that account. And/or have savings above and beyond the £85 000 covered by the government’s compensation scheme.
Also, if there’s a possibility that your UK bank might close your account at some point in the future (the situation of many Brits in France) the NS&I will really only be of interest if you know for sure that you’re going to be moving back to the UK in the foreseeable future and will therefore be in a position to open a new UK bank account (in which to receive any funds paid out by NS&I in due course).
So definitely not a good option for everyone.

tdrinker

The Wise website says:
"We hold your money with established financial institutions, so it’s separate from our own accounts and in our normal course of business not accessible to our partners."
"We safeguard your money in accounts by holding it in dedicated bank accounts or high-quality liquid assets."

The Wise UK bank account sort code is 23-14-70, which appears to lead to a Wise Payments Limited account held within Barclays bank, so I think this is where your money in a Wise UK £ account actually sits.

Wise is great for moving money between currencies and collecting funds and moving them on, but not for holding large balances.

MidAtlantic

I think this is the issue. NS&I, like many other financial institutions, require funds to come from an account in the investor's name. Presumably that is to help with the prevention of money laundering and/or the ability to track funds if an issue arises..

tdrinker

It could be, but many banks / building societies - those that aren't clearing banks - hold accounts with the clearing banks. So when you send your funds to your account with x (non-clearing bank), it will actually go to their account with y (clearing bank). I've seen a twitter post from NS&I telling someone they won't accept funds from Wise because it isn't a bank, although I don't know why that matters as you can send funds from a bank to Wise. A year back, I wanted to open an account with a UK investment platform, and they also said they wouldn't send funds to Wise.