Customers will have three different ways to make payment to their accounts as NS&I is rolling out ‘Pay by bank account’ over the next few weeks.

Currently when online customers want to top up their easy-access variable rate accounts, including Premium Bonds, Direct Saver, Direct ISA, Income Bonds and Junior ISA – they can choose to carry out a bank transfer or debit card payment.

NS&I confirmed there are 22.9 million variable customers, but six million are registered to manage their accounts online.

Once customers have logged in to their online NS&I account, they’ll be able to select ‘Pay by bank account’, where they’ll be transferred to Ecospend and asked to select the bank or building society.

As part of the process, the customer’s NS&I account details are pre-filled and users will need to authorise the payment before returning back to nsandi.com.

While this makes the process quick, easy and more secure as it reduces the risk of incorrectly adding the wrong details, not all banks and building societies use this technology (see the list below for those that are using Pay by bank account).

Pay by bank account is already a payment method for those making a self-assessment payment with HMRC, paying a credit card bill or making an online charity donation.

It’s free to use but different firms have varying limits on how much money can be sent via Pay by bank account with typical limits between £10,000 and £50,000.

NS&I added that online customers will still be able to continue to make payments via bank transfer and debit card while those unable to transact online can call its customer service teams to add funds to their savings accounts using a debit card as usual.

Dax Harkins, NS&I chief executive, said: “I am pleased that NS&I is able to offer our customers the benefits of the latest banking technology to top up their easy-access savings accounts. Customers with most UK major banks and building societies will soon find that they can smoothly make transfers into their NS&I variable savings accounts as we start to roll out Pay by bank account over the coming weeks.”

List of bank and building societies offering Pay by bank account

Alpha FX
Arbuthnot Latham & Co Ltd
Bank of Ireland 365 Online and Bank of Ireland Business Online
Bank of Scotland Business, Bank of Scotland Commercial and Bank of Scotland Personal
Barclays Personal, Barclays Business, Barclays Corporate, Barclays Mobile, Barclays Wealth and Barclays Wealth Mobile
C Hoare & Co
Cashplus
Cater Allen
Chelsea Building Society
Coutts
Cumberland
Danske Personal
Danske Business
Halifax
HSBC Personal, HSBC Business and HSBC Kinetic
ICICI Bank UK
Investec
Kleinwort Hambros
Lloyds Business, Lloyds Commercial, Lloyds Personal
Mettle
Monzo
Nationwide Building Society
NatWest Bankline, NatWest International EQ, NatWest International Online and Mobile Banking, NatWest One Account, NatWest Online and Mobile Banking
Royal Bank of Scotland Bankline, Royal Bank of Scotland International, Royal Bank of Scotland International EQ, Royal Bank of Scotland The One Account, Royal Bank of Scotland Virgin One Account
Revolut
Santander
Silicon Valley Bank
Starling
Tesco
Tide
TSB Bank
Ulster Bank NI Anytime Internet Banking and Ulster Bank Bankline
Virgin Money
Wise
Yorkshire Building Society