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Posted Fri, 19 Jul 2024 09:08:55 GMT by RebeccaB1984 Bee
At the end of May I sent several thousand pounds via a bank transfer to pay several years missing National Insurance from abroad (I live in an EU country and am only eligible to pay Class 3 so it was expensive). It's coming up to 8 weeks now, and i've heard absolutely nothing and my NI record is not updated and still shows those years as unpaid. Obviously I'm starting to worry. I had previously paid a few hundred pounds to cover one year and I received a letter pretty fast (about 4 weeks) regarding that, and now with this large amount i've heard nothing at all! What to do? Must I call them? It's extremely expensive to call from abroad unfortunately, each time costs 25+ euros due to the long queues. Should I be worried? I am 99% sure I used to correct reference and details because I have done it before with a much smaller amount and it ended okay. As a side note I think it's quite alarming that the only way to pay NI from abroad is via a bank transfer that gives no real receipt, rather than a payment through a website or some other means where you can easily choose which years you're paying for rather than blindly sending money into the ether and hoping that they select the correct missing years (and then when they don't I still have to make an expensive phone call) Thanks for any reassurance or guidance! Thanks
Posted Fri, 26 Jul 2024 09:30:11 GMT by HMRC Admin 25
Hi RebeccaB1984 Bee,
 The current timescale for the team who will be allocating your payment is 35 weeks, they are currently processing work received on 18 November 2023.
To check if your payment has been received, you would need to contact the National Insurance helpline on +44 (0) 191 2037010.
Lines are open from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively, you can use the webchat facility - National Insurance: general enquiries - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Please use the option ‘Ask HMRC online’. 
Thank you. 

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