Premium bonds

[JustMe9]

Are premium bonds worth it? How much have you got and how much have you won? Im thinkibg about buying some:) how does it all work? Is there only 1 chance a month for 1 person to win or can you win multiples?:)

Each bond is entered into the monthly draw, £25 is 25 bonds, so the bigger your investment the greater the chances you will win. I have a direct debit set up to invest automatically each month. If you want to cash in you get all your money back so it's risk free. The downside is you never earn any interest.

You can win multiples. Each £1 is an entry. I’ve won multiples before.

No they’re not really “worth it” in the sense that the amount paid out is equivalent to 1% interest or so (they disclose the amount on their website) so you probably will get similar over a few years from a savings account. But it’s a bit more fun. Also because it’s not technically interest it’s non taxable so the higher your tax rate the more reason to use premium bonds.

I wonder if people actually win the big amounts on premium bonds?

Well yes, I don’t think they lie about what they paid out and the million etc! They list exactly what they pay out on the website. But obviously your chance of winning one of the big prizes is very low. The max I won in one month was £100. More than monthly interest on that amount of savings so decent but hardly anything to shout about.

It’s basically another way of having a 1% paying savings account but instead of getting 1% paid constantly in monthly instalments you’ll likely average 1% return or so over a few years - which will be an average after many months of getting nothing and the odd month of getting £25/£50/£100 are totalled up.

I have been thinking about buying bonds for a while but I don't know where or how to start .
Has anyone got any tips ?

The more you have, the more likely your payout will match the average 'interest rate', but most people, especially those with smaller amounts (say under £10k) could quite easily win nothing.

I currently have about £4k and have done so for the last year or two and have not won a penny. If I had left the money in my current account, I would have got about £100 in interest in that time. But there is a tiny tiny chance of winning a big amount, or at least an amount that will beat what you would get in a standard savings account.

Moneysavingexpert has done a full analysis on premium bonds, which is worth a read rather than just anecdotes by a few randoms on a thread like this.

It's strictly regulated so they have to pay out all the prizes. It's not like Lotto where technically no one has to win the big ones. All the bonds are entered in the draws every month (apart from when you first purchase them, they don't go in immediately) and they draw every available prize.

I took out £3,000 of premium bonds because the interest rates were so low I might as well have a bit of a no-risk gamble. My dad decided he'd follow suit and bought the same amount of premium bonds.

Three years - I won nothing, he won 3 x £25 and 1 x £50.

I bought some and won the same amount back the following month.

BarbaraofSevillle
thanks , I will have a look at money saving tomorrow

I win £25 most months. Some months maybe £50-75. I won £1000 once. I

I have about £35k worth and win, on average, £75 per month which automatically is reinvested in more bonds. The winnings ALWAYS come from 2 large investments and once I get close to the 50k limit, I'm going to take all the small bonds out & reinvest as one large lump sum so that those bonds have consecutive numbers.

I bought a £500 one one month and win the next month with it (the first one it got entered into !). In fact I phoned them up because I thought they'd swindled me by holding onto my money for the month and the winning bond was the one I'd bought ....

The winnings ALWAYS come from 2 large investments and once I get close to the 50k limit, I'm going to take all the small bonds out & reinvest as one large lump sum so that those bonds have consecutive numbers.

Each individual bond has the same chance of winning a prize (24,500:1). Withdrawing and then re-purchasing your bonds will achieve nothing except to reduce your chances of winning a prize the next month (as those bonds won’t be eligible for the next draw).

The prizes for this month have just been released. My husband has won £75 but neither myself not my children have won anything. His mum has won £50. Over the last 6 months my husband has won £450 and since May I have won £100. One draw my parents won £10k! It is just a bit of fun with interest free prizes :).

Re prizes I have £4K invested at the moment, have just checked the app and won £25 this month. Last month I won nothing, £25 in May. Last year I won £25 twice.
Mine is set up so all prizes are automatically reinvested. I'd read a thread on here where someone suggested saving all 50p/ £2 coins in a jar then when £100 was reached to invest it in bonds, that's how my initial investment started. Since then the minimum investment limit has dropped to £25 so it's easier to save, I'm going to set up a direct debit because I know I won't miss that. It's a fun way to save if you don't mind not earning interest.
Anecdotally everyone I know with bonds wins more than what the odds suggest they should.

Premium bonds are luck, so it depends if you want to be in that game. They do pay out a % of the savings pot - its on the NSI website.

I know someone who won 10k. Other than that 2 x 500 are the biggest. Almost all prizes are 25 though.

I win £25 most months but a few months ago i won £5000.

This is Martin Lewis's premium bonds calculator mentioned upthread.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/

As he explains, it is much more likely that people with the full £50k investments win prizes. I only have about £6k and habmve won almost nothing. However, as others say, it gives you that bit of a flutter each month.

Over the last year I’ve had about 1% return on mine. That’s in line with bank account interest, but each month there is the potential to ‘win’ more.
Always prizes of £25 so far (x3 one month)

I had a feeling the chances of winning were 1 in 24000. So a 50k holder would hope for 2 a month (probably 25s!) and 6k hopefully win once in 3 months.

Anything more a bonus!

I had the maximum in there for about 3 years and won about £200 over that time. They're ok but nothing special, imo.

I have close to the maximum amount and get £25 to £100 a month. I worked it out once and it was better than my ISA. I was advised to buy Premium Bonds by a building society manager when I had a few thousand to invest about 20 years ago.

Exactly miss. That's what people seem to forget. If you had the maximum of £50k in PBs for 3 years and only 'won' £200, that's a poor return.

If you'd put it in a standard savings account paying 1%, you'd have earned £1500 in interest. And 1% is quite a poor return, you can easily get 1.5-2% these days, or slightly more with a fixed term account or rotataing round regular savings accounts.

PBs have their uses as part of a balanced portfolio and are useful for higher rate taxpayers or people with a lot of savings as they don't count towards your annual savings interest allowance, but for the majority of holdings, the amount won is less than they would get in a normal savings account.

I have £30,000 worth . This time last year I had won £375 up to July.. So far this year I have won £100 😟