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?:)

I've got about £35k and win £50 most months.

You can check the winners of the large amounts on the red button on tv.
Dh always complains when someone who only owns 500 bonds wins thousands.

My three children have PBs that my FIL buys them on their birthday and at Christmas as he does with all 8 of his grandchildren. Most of the children have won £25 once a year if they are lucky and my youngest always wins about £150ish over the year, every year but he has the luck of the devil.

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).

Yes, I'm well aware of the probability. However, as I said before, the smaller runs of numbers (25 or 50 consecutive numbers) have never won, whereas the two lots of 12000+ consecutive numbers have so I'm prepared to take the hit for a month in order to get the 14000 consecutive numbers.

But the consecutive numbers are irrelevant, the chance of any individual bond being picked is still the same and it matters not a jot which 'series' it comes out of.

Imagine you have 25 red balls, 50 blue balls, 12000 purple balls and 14000 green balls in a swimming pool that also contains 50 million white balls.

You win a prize if one of your coloured balls is picked out of the swimming pool and changing your red and blue balls for purple and green ones doesn't change the odds, while you have the same number of balls in total. Of course, it's much more likely that a purple or green ball is picked out than a red or blue ball, simply because there are far more of them.

Constantly baffled as to why people don't get this and go to the effort of selling and rebuying bonds and actually reducing their chance of winning as those bonds are out of the draw for a month.

I have about £20k and have won £50 (2x£25) 3x this year.

www.lovemoney.com/news/13635/premium-bonds-winners-have-i-won

I've had the maximum in premium bonds since May last year. Ive won every month except one, maybe 2 months. I won £50 this month (2 x £25) which is what I usually get.

Constantly baffled as to why people don't get this and go to the effort of selling and rebuying bonds and actually reducing their chance of winning as those bonds are out of the draw for a month.

My ILs think this too and have pulled out and re-bought. There might be something I’m not getting to justify this assumption (or is it just an urban myth ... then “validated” by the fact that when people have put more money in they win more??) but wouldn’t it just be fraud on a huge scale to have different odds for different entries???

I’ve got £15k and am doing very well on the ‘luck meter’ linked from the MoneySaving site. A bit better than a pathetic cash ISA anyway. But never had better than a £25 win.

You can’t lose your capital investment (though it decreases in value due to inflation), you should, if you are averagely lucky get a low % interest return, and you might win one of the big prizes: 2 x £1m a month.

Basically you are gambling with the potential interest that you would get in any other savings. So when interest rates are low, it is less of a gamble.

Anyone considering buying Premium Bonds needs to read Martin Lewis's info on it. It should be a mathematical decision whether to buy them or not and not based on random stories on the internet.

I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole personally.

I've got £18k worth - and have won £125 over a year....so less than I'd have got in savings.

They are easy access, secure, and where I live I can't get an ISA and savings rates are dire.

Ive worked out our family returns this year so far, annualised in percentage rates..

1.9, 1.2, 1.3, 0.6, 1.5.

The one with 0.6% won a 500 last year so I dont have any sympathy!

I have around £8k in bonds and DC has £3k in theirs. Various members of my family have higher amounts, closer to the maximum.

I've had a couple of hundred quid in the last year, the other family members have £50-£100 a month. I have had more in prizes than I would have got in interest in an ISA.

I like them, and you only need one bond to win a million quid. I look at it like having all the lottery tickets without losing any money!

Kygore: where would you invest £15k, and for what return?

The average payout is 1.4% at the moment, so yes, it can definitely work as part of a portfolio. You can also get your money back straight away if you need it, unlike some of the best rates for savings, so it’s often useful if people have large sums for a short length of time, as they are completely safe eg if you need somewhere to put your house sale proceeds for a few months while you find somewhere to buy - and yes, tax free.

My husband and I both have maximum holdings and this has reminded me to check for this month - he’s won £50 and I’ve got £25. I can’t remember a month when we didn’t win anything and I think we are at about the average. I wouldn’t bother doing it with small sums though

I don't think I've won either, so it looks like it's me and Shatners taking it for the team with the zero return while others coin it in .

My eventual aim is to increase up to the maximum holding over the next few years, so the return should improve in time (hopefully).

I've had bonds since I was a child and have won a grand total of £25. I'm now in my 50s. Granted, I probably have less than £100 in bonds though.

Barbara I'm just astonished to see so many people who have managed to save up such savings to have that amount of bonds!

Ahl Actually that reminds me - while my £3k won diddly squat, I also have some bonds that my grandparents took out for me when I was born. I'm now 45. They took out £50 when I was born (a fair chunk). I've still got them. Grand total return still nil.

DH and I have £35,000 each invested. We've won £1,525 in just over a year.

I have close to £4K and just won £25 which gets reinvested. I have it set up to buy £50 each month, I like the fact they're separate to my 'normal' savings so I can't just keep dipping in. Although it's really easy to withdraw them, plus I like the idea I have a chance of winning a million.

*But the consecutive numbers are irrelevant, the chance of any individual bond being picked is still the same and it matters not a jot which 'series' it comes out of.

Imagine you have 25 red balls, 50 blue balls, 12000 purple balls and 14000 green balls in a swimming pool that also contains 50 million white balls....*

What you also need to consider is that the probability of you being 1 number away from a winning number is close to twice that of your number winning...

(and I have done stats as part of my degree)

As a family we have a lot between us. Those with full holdings pretty much always win something every month. This month I got 4x £25, DH got 1x £25 and the kids got zilch. Last month I got 1x 25 and DH got 2x 25. The biggest single prize I've ever had was £100, but it was accompanied by 3x 25s so that was quite nice. I live in hope of something slightly more exciting...

They wouldn't be my first choice of investment, but because I'm overseas in a country that doesn't really offer any decent savings products, its the easiest way for me to stash cash without having to faff with tax returns etc.

I also have a few NSI savings bonds which again aren't super exciting but are fairly straightforward. Once you've held them for the initial term, you have access to higher interest rates if you choose to reinvest.

I have less than £4k in and have won £25 a few times and £100 last month.