How much should you have in premium bonds to make it worthwhile?

[Mnetter72]

I’ve seen people say you need atleast £20k to make premium bonds winnings worthwhile. I have a couple of hundred to invest, is it even worth it?

@Icequeen01 get him to invest it

I bought £1000 premium bond for my DD approx 6 years ago. She has won 2 x £25 and 1 x £100. I think that is fairly lucky.

I have full holdings and get about 75-150 a month at the moment. I’m maxed out on isa’s though and the rest of my money is in stocks and savings. I like having the premium bonds because the winnings are tax free and it’s fun.

DS has £600 and wins about once a year. Never more than £100.

I have £23500, and have won about £1000 in total over the last couple of years. I have a win about half the time - sometimes two a month. Some months I don't win at all.

I’ve won £6500 on PB in 5 years.
I love checking to see if I’ve won at the beginning of each month!

@GivingBloodIsAGoodThing how is that lucky ?
You need to work it out against interest rates.
The index yeikd is roughly 10% a year in stock market

I've got the full whack and have barely scraped a 1% return in the last 12 months. Would have been far better in a big standard savings account.

It depends what you want it for. From experience I don't win regularly unless I've got at least £10-15k in there, at the moment I've got £5k and haven't won anything for months. But someone has to win and although its rare, occasionally people with small holdings win the big prizes. It is statistically unlikely if you've only got a few hundred quid but so is winning the lottery and at least with premium bonds you can get your money out anytime.

I mainly use mine as a way of storing money for my emergency fund and house renovations. I did have about £30k in there but then we got a new kitchen and wiped most of that out. But I like knowing the money is safe and somewhere separate and the fun of checking the app each month to see if I've won anything.

I'm not looking for a good financial investment with premium bonds, I'm looking for a safe place to put my money and the small thrill of potentially winning. My Stocks and Shares ISAs and pensions and other savings accounts are for trying to grow my money whereas premium bonds are a bit of fun.

Agree. It’s where you put your savings once you’ve maxed out your isa allowance and would be paying tax on savings in a normal account.

but, if you won’t miss the money then get premium bonds, you could be lucky.

Did you work out how much you won last year ?

if over 3% then be the same as in savings account minus the tax

My dad bought my dd £300 premium bonds when she was first born. She won £50 the first month and £100 or so the second month! In the 20yrs following she never won another penny 🤣

I’ve had £200 in it just as a bit of fun since 2017. I’ve won £25 twice. I still check the app every month hoping for the big one!

I kind of agree with this, even though I know the draw is random. We built up about 15k of bonds by investing £250 a month. One block of 250 (from 2022) has had 3 wins £25, £50 and £100.

We have the additional fact that we are also generally mildly lucky people. Never a big win, but our bonds are giving 6.5% return for the last rolling 12 month period.

My husband has below 10k and never wins. I have 15k and win quite regularly.

I have 50k in and average about £230 a month.

I started at £25 and gradually went up to £12k over a period of 18 months, winning three times (total of £150) from three different blocks. That perhaps works out as an average return. I’m now on full holdings so we’ll see how that goes.

I have the maximum holding as does MIL - we win something most months. I won £300 this month. My sister who also holds the max once won £8 k

You can fall lucky - DD2 had £300 in and won £1000 last year in one month.
DH has full holdings and it's fairly unusual for him not to win something.

I've built up slowly to 39k, adding a hundred or so each month. Last year I won a handful of times. This year I've won something most months since Dec.

I had £100 for a year in about 2012 and won £25 twice in the first year, I now have 1.5k and have won about £100 over last 5 years.

DH has won 2k in 2 years on 20k.

I put £100 in every month , no idea how much I’ve got in there now but it’s not loads and I win something every month or two , this year I’ve won at least £200 , which isn’t bad

these are the NS&i ACTUAL 1st July 2025 prizes

PRIZE -- July 2025 actual draw ---- Estimated August 2025 draw

£1 million --2 ------2 ---- really lucky photons !
£100,000 ---80 ------75 ------ jammy photons !
£50,000 --158 ----- 151 --- Downing Street size !
£25,000 - 318 ----- 302 ---- E E C size !
£10,000 --- 797 ---- 753 ---- juicy photons to win !
£5,000 - 1,590---- 1,507 ----- Christmas Dinner !
£1,000 - 6,708 ---- 15,865 --- Lunch for a typical MP
£500 -- 50,124 ----- 47,595 ------ vanilla photons !
£100 -1,860,128 --- 1,687,269 ---- nice photons !
£50 - 1,860,128 ---- 1,687,269 --- small photons !
£25 - 2,205,679 ---- 2,568,929 -- tasty , teeny & tiny !

GOOD LUCK in 3 weeks

I found PBs excellent as a place to stash some cash when I was waiting to buy a house. Easy to get to the money with no penalty for cashing them in and can get to it quickly (I needed to act fast). I had £50k in, won quite a few £25 to start with but the frequency of winning decreased markedly just before I took the money out (I know there's no rhyme or reason to it, but it did feel like it to me!)

So apart from the million pound prizes and the tiny £25 ones, the number of prizes have decreased again. Great 💩

I’ve got £1350 and have had them for 14 months. Won 3 times totalling £150