The NS&I website doesn’t seem to like iCloud Private Relay. Have to turn it off to log in. If it’s on, it’ll let me log in and then a moment later sign me back out for ‘security reasons’.
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Their website is atrocious in general. Doesn’t let you refresh the page or use the back button for no discernible reason I can think of.
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Sometimes it decides that you even if you didn’t click the back button you might do, so is probably best for all concerned if you were logged out instantly.
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Premium Bonds have always been £1, and originally there was no minimum number; you could just buy one bond if you wanted. My parents bought me, and my brothers and sisters, a £1.00 bond each. We never won anything, and my dad cashed them in years later.
Back in the 80s I bought myself £5 worth, and I still have them. I might buy some more now I’ve retired.
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This is why I don’t use the website if I can avoid it 
although you have to use it for a withdrawal which is frustrating. I mainly use the apps to check winnings/balances.
You don’t have to use the website for a withdrawal… you can post them a form!
(I’ve done this a few times in the past as I wanted to keep my oldest ones invested - they now have an online form for this but it looks like it’s still a fairly manual process)
Yes, in the good old days you could buy a £1 premium bond and they’d actually send you the paper bond.
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still annoyed that I can’t find my original paper bonds - I do have the original bank book from my Investment Account though.
In the even better old days, you could buy a £1 bond in the post office and they’d hand it to you there and then.
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The NS&I website is atrocious, whatever security measures they have in place are over sensitive. I often get accused of pressing the back button (when I haven’t), I suspect it is something written in their rules that doesn’t like an IP address switch within the same session, you’ll get this if you access via the mobile network or a VPN as these can trigger it.
Yeah, as a web developer of 15 years there is no reason I can think of for it being quite so strict, even online banking for regular banks doesn’t do it.
The only real issue with hitting back is during some sort of form submission process, where the page you’re on was rendered directly after a form submission. If you refresh or go back and submit it again it can cause issues unless it’s handled server-side, but that is also handled at browser-level (you’ll get a popup saying resubmitting the request may cause issues).
Stopping you using the back button or refreshing the page when simply navigating around your account area is completely nonsensical. So many times I’ve habitually hit Back and it goes “lol, no, sorry, you’re logged out haha”. Over the top.
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Had to call them yesterday to replace my mobile number because I couldn’t get into my account. Their virtual assistant was scarily realistic and I had to ask if I was speaking to a human.
When I got through to a human I asked again if he was real and he laughed and said that loads of customers ask them that 
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It was the general intonation and “ermm” now and again that made it so realistic. It was only when I asked “him” to repeat something because the line was crackly that I started to get suspicious because he said the same thing with exactly the same intonation and “ermm” 
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I still remember post offices having a special dispenser for NS&I and Girobank forms. I always wanted a Girobank account in my early teens but I suspect Alliance & Leicester had swallowed them up by the time I was old enough.
Broadly relevant:
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I don’t think so if you login to your account and apply from there.
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22,000:1 odds for each £1 bond, so statistically you should have ~2 winning bonds each month if you have the max £50k sitting in premium bonds?
There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
If you already hold an account with NS&I you don’t normally need to have further ID checks.
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Ooft, someone’s won £100k on a fiver they’ve had for 48 years 
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If they are still alive/can be found!