.......savers won't be able to withdraw their cash with a phone call

Around 470,000 savers who took out National Savings & Investments Pensioner Bonds will be barred from withdrawing their money with a telephone call. The Government savings bank has changed the small print of its 65+ Guaranteed Growth bonds, which means anyone who took out one of these deals has to use the post or internet to get a payout. The changes have happened just a few weeks before the first one-year growth bonds, which pay 2.8 per cent start to mature. It means that even savers who took one out over the phone using a debit card now can't simply give NS&I instructions over the phone to have their money and interest credited to a current account. The growth bonds were so popular that the NS&I switchboard was jammed under the stampede from pensioners when they went on sale in January

A spokesman for NS&I says: 'As we approach the end of the investment term, we want to make sure that we give these customers a simple and effective service. 'Due to the unprecedented number of customers who will be making their decisions at the same time, we have decided that we can provide them with the best service for giving us their maturity instructions by post and online.' Savers will receive a maturity pack by post around a month before the date their 65+ Bond is due to mature. You can still contact its call centre to discuss your bond, but you won't be able to give maturity instructions over the phone. The 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bond is a special issue and NS&I says it can't guarantee that another one will be available when it comes to the end of its term. It offers those in its old one-year fixed-rate Guaranteed Growth Bond - where there is no age restriction - 1.45 per cent if they want to reinvest for a further year......Read more here