Premium Bonds

[PolarTree]

I only have a small amount (£150) but tempted to cancel my Lotto direct debit and buy these monthly instead as you keep your money and may win still.

Anyone had any good returns on Premium Bonds?

I think it’s a good idea. Slowly build your savings in bonds and you’re in with a chance to win big this year I won £600 in march, and £150 last month.

Yes, it's really good.

I've maxed out my premium bonds, and on average tend to win around £300 a month - last month was £475

I imagine it will probably take a while before op's lotto direct debit builds up to £50,000 of premium bonds.

The odd £25 win every few years would be a more likely outcome for the amount op is investing.

That goes without saying, user284246975787632445, but I was giving a sense of scale.

I've used mine as a savings account rather than for the monthly wins. If I bought shares I'd make a far greater return - it just depends whether OP wants immediate return like either the lottery or is happy to make long term.

Does anyone have a link where you can buy them I've never done this but always wanted to I just don't know how

https://www.nsandi.com/products/premium-bonds

Thanks, I have set-up a standing order for Premium Bonds (only the minimum £25 per month) and cancelled my Lottery DD.

I know it's only small so I may not win, but I'm in with a chance and I don't lose my money in case I need to withdraw in future, guess it's long term savings.

I have £7k in Oremium Bonds, having been building it up at £250 a month for a couple of years. I’ve never won a single thing 😔

Clearly they’re saving the £1m jackpot for me next month!

Thank you 🤩

I have about £5k in there and don't win a great deal, but my kids have about £10k between them and win £25 fairly regularly. My 5 year old won £125 this month!

Ive put £100 in every month for the past 3 years and got nothing so far so don't get your hopes up for a while!!!

These are such a terrible place to put your money- especially with interest rates available at the moment. I mean if the alternative is blowing it on lottery tickets, this would be an improvement, but you would be much better off putting money in a high interest savings account or investing.

honestly feel like the whole programme is a scam using psychological manipulation to convince people to put money in a subpar investment vehicle.

Well if you have £1k of savings you'll get about £50 per year in interest, so the OP could reasonably decide it's worth gambling this for the chance of a bigger return.

Look at the results every month, there's almost always someone with a tiny holding who wins big and a smaller prize isn't unheard of. Most of the children in my extended family have a few hundred pounds each bought by grandparents and a couple of them have won £25 recently.

People with tens of thousands almost always win close to the pay out rate, which is currently 4.65%, not bad really considering it's tax free, so attractive to higher rate tax payers and people who've used up their ISA and personal savings allowances at least. Save your ire @Labraradabrador for the millions who have loads of savings in accounts that pay 0.X%, because they're wasting far more money than those who buy PBs.

@BarbaraofSeville the published payout rate of 4.65% is disingenuous marketing as it includes the million pound winner - the average player is getting an average rate of return well below that. Considering many savings accounts are available north of 5%, you are basically sacrificing returns for the negligible possibility of getting lucky and winning big. The small wins are far below what you can get elsewhere and psychologically suck you in to keep playing.

There is no ire, just bewilderment and a bit of pity for those that get sucked in. Holding ££ in low in low interest savings or blowing sums on lottery tickets is also pretty dumb. I guess if you are maxing out ISA and pension (so investing £70k a year), then fine to get your jollies if PBs are your thing, but I don’t think that’s the case for most of the people buying them.

@Labraradabrador if it brings a bit of hope then maybe it's worth having a few Premium Bonds, I know I'm unlikely to win a big prize but it's nice to think it's a possibility, life can be a bit bleak at times.

Hang in there you are surely due a win!

I know there are more lucrative ways to save money but I like the fact that you are in with a chance (however small) of a substantial win.

DD13 had £100 in bonds and won £50 so that's not a bad profit margin imo.

I on the other hand have about £5k and won £25 twice in the first half of last year but nothing since then. I feel like I'm due a win. Statistically speaking I should win around £500,000 next month.

Yes, but we found that £30k and over was when we actually started to win regular decent amounts, under that and maybe it’s a once a year small win.

DH and I have £50k each in premium bonds and win about £300 a month between us, so about 3.6% interest tax free. We're higher rate tax payers so that's around what we'd get if it was in a high interest account, but saves us the bother of doing tax returns. One downside is that our 'interest' doesn't accumulate as it would in a savings account - we have to take it as income because £50k is the max holding of premium bonds. But that's fine because, for us, it is just a short term measure for an inherited pot of money - we'll use it to pay off our mortgage at the end of our low fixed rate deal next summer. In the meantime, we enjoy checking the draw each month, and so long as it's earning more than the mortgage interest we're happy with it.

But it's within about half a percent as there's millions of holders with hundreds of millions of bonds and about only a couple of million pound prizes. Many are quite happy that they're gambling guaranteed interest with the hope of winning a bigger prize, and its not just the million pound prize people are going for, there's the thousands of other larger prizes.

I had around £30k of PBs for a few years for a 'self offset' mortgage arrangement because my mortgage rate was virtually nothing and I comfortably beat instant access rates 3 years out of 4 and even in the 'poor year' still got more prizes than my mortgage cost me.

Plus there's the advantage that prizes are not taxable so useful for those who've used up other allowances.

If it’s your idea of fun and excitement, that’s fine. Don’t paint it as a savvy investment- it really isn’t. No reputable financial advisor is encouraging their clients to put more into PBs.

Well for us there is the fun of it being a safe investment that is easy to get hold of should we need the money quickly. Plus the returns on so far have exceeded all our isa investments every year we’ve held over £30k. (Dh is a person with a spreadsheet obsession) Having had other savings absolutely tank and struggled to get our money back when requested in time frames quoted from other investments, it’s not such a bad investment idea. Supposedly high returns do need to be balanced alongside other needs such as accessibility and safety of the initial investment. Everyone has different risk thresholds.
So pretty good for us.