When National Savings & Investments announced the start of sales of Pensioner Bonds at rates of 2.8% for one year and 4% for three years, demand was so large that its website crashed.
Customers complained about spending hours trying to get through by phone, said the Telegraph. NSI said it sold £1,150 million of bonds in two days to 110,000 people. The Chancellor had said that £10 billion had been allocated to the bonds by the Treasury and with many people likely to apply for the full £10,000 in both bonds, demand may well exceed that.