Payment processing / online record

Hello, I received a letter over here in Germany last year informing me about gaps in my record. The letter included what years I could pay voluntary NICs for, the cost for each year as well as the latest date when the payment should have been made. The letter confirmed, that I qualify for the Class 2 rate. At the time of writing, I had six years (2017 – 2023) for which I could pay for. On the 12th April this year, I paid for those gaps and four months later, I have yet to see an update online. I believe that four months is more than adequate to process the payment and update my record. Am I simply being too impatient or could you offer more information? In addition, if I look online and click on the details for that year, e.g., 2017 – 2018, then I’m told that I can pay a voluntary contribution of GBP 524.50 by the 5th April 2025. This is the class 3 rate, not the class 2 rate. On the telephone I was told that the gaps are always shown by the class 3 rates by default (even if one qualifies for class 2) which is a little confusing. Can you confirm this? Lastly, thank you ever so much for this service. Sometimes it takes almost an hour to get through to someone on the telephone. Best regards

Typo: It should have read GBP 824.20 not GBP 524.50.

Hi,
Sorry that your payment of Voluntary National Insurance contributions is not yet recorded on your Personal Tax Account.  
It can take up to 8 weeks for your payment to be recorded on your Personal Tax Account so may I ask that you call our National Insurance Helpline on 0300 200 3500 (from the UK)
or +44 191 2037010 (from overseas) and they will be able to check that your payment is recorded and will arrange for it to be allocated.  
If you could have your payment details handy when you call then this would be helpful.
I can confirm that even if you may pay the voluntary class 2 contributions, your Personal Tax Account will always quote any shortfall at the voluntary class 3 rate.  
If you wish to make any further payments of voluntary contributions then please use the rates detailed in the letter.
Thank you.

Hello, first of all, thank you for your confirmation regarding the latter. I had read it elsewhere but it’s always nice to receive a confirmation. I finally got through on the telephone and got to speak to a nice lady who was able to provide some clarity. Apparently, payments were made for the years 2021 onwards instead of 2017 onwards. There seems to have been an internal error stating that 2021 was the first year for which payment could have been made for. So, the current status is that I’ve overpaid (by quite a lot). The lady looked the letter containing the shortfall table up, confirming that I can indeed pay for 2017 onwards. She’s left a note for the international case worker to allocate the payments for the correct time period. Seeing as part of the payment was also made for 2024 – 2024, this will have to first be deleted. I just hope that I don’t have to wait 37 weeks for allocation, having already waited 4 months for an incorrect allocation! Have a great weekend.

Pear to Pear .