Only 3.6% Prize Fund for Premium Bonds ?

[LuckyBluePhoton]

for my £30k Bond Holding - I did
10 'clusters' of £1k = £10k and
2 'clusters' of £5k = £10k and
2 'clusters' of £500 = £1,000
and multiple random small amounts - of £26 to£226

All this is the last 9 months I'm still waiting for a £500 Prize before the Christmas break - 6 months to go

Some lucky ERNIE Photons seem to land on Very Lucky B R A N D - N E W Bond Purchases to win a HUGE or a VERY BIG PRIZE the very first draw

My 10 months of Prizes = £1,025 with Average Balances of £22k

So nearly 5% return? Sounds good. Buying in clusters doesn’t increase your chances of a prize.

I'm taking mine out, I have 10k and have won £75 this year compared to £950 the year before. I'd rather have the interest.

I think there was something in the news saying the odds of winning have decreased lately. I have had £300 for 10 years and just won £25 once.

Your return is above the average for a holding of £22k

Premium Bonds generally pay out on average just below the best market rate for instant access accounts. You don't pay tax on the returns so may make sense if you have maxed out your tax free savings allowance

It makes no difference at all having 'clusters'. For each draw it makes no difference how long you have held the holdings. So yes, sometimes some very lucky people win big on their first draw. But that is rare

Clusters are pointless. Same chance whenever you buy. Return is better than most instant access bank accounts - with the CHANCE of winning big. That's what I have my holdings for - that chance.

Yep that’s equivalent to 5% for me taxed so happy with that , I need £200 to get me to that for the year - two draws left

I have various bunches of bonds and whenever I've won the prizes have come from the biggest clusters. Have you worked out yet where your prizes came from?

For those who say CLUSTERS are pointless -

The ERNIE machine has nearly 6 million random CLUSTERS
every month - the winning £££ clusters

My Clusters range from 589 to 600 to 623
from Aug 24 to July 25

If someone chooses a £50k CLUSTER , maybe a good idea :
Perhaps not so lucky 6 months in a row

Month 12
I'm still waiting for that Magic Random LUCKY Photon £500 prize to
land on one of my Bonds after 11 months

After 11 months : only 19 prizes £25 to £50 to £100 : total £1,050

10 prizes were purchases of very very small Bond CLUSTERS &
9 were from the medium CLUSTERS ............. just random Lucky Photons !!

589 to 600 to 623 refer to the Bond prefix numbers from 2024 to 2025

The very nice 4.65% prize rate for National Savings and Investments (NS&I) Premium Bonds is with us no more ........... it's now only 3.6% per annum

That is quite a hefty DROP for Premium Bond Savers : especially the
lower income Bond holders

For the £25 , £50 and £100 Prizes , my calculations were for August 2025
that the total Prize distribution was reduced by something like £95 million

The clusters are irrelevant, surely?

Statistically your biggest clusters are more likely to win, as they have the most numbers in that can win.

Same as you’ve got more chance of winning with £50k invested than £1.

But it makes no difference as to whether you put in one cluster of £50k or 50,000 separate £1 holdings.

The Luckiest TINY CLUSTER of all those Very LUCKY Teeny Tiny Clusters

In July 2004, £1 million was won by someone in Newham , London who
held £17, the lowest holding to ever win the jackpot.

The Lucky Bondholder had purchased their Bonds in February 1959
and this is also the longest time before winning the jackpot.

ERNIE delivered a life-changing LUCKY Photon in March 2025 - a LUCKY
saver wins big with a £100 Premium Bonds holding, purchased two years
ago – the second smallest holding ever to hit the jackpot.
.
The BIG Bond winner from Cleveland, North Yorkshire had a
LUCKY CLUSTER of just £100 in Premium Bonds and obtained those
winning Bonds in May 2023.

I’m not so sure. I have 29 clusters (ranging from £25 - £35k) and my six prizes have all come from the biggest clusters. Ernie - apparently - can’t discern where my 50,000 have been bunched up yet it seems more than a coincidence I’ve not won on my 20 bunches of £1K or less.

Or am I misunderstanding something here?

But your £25 cluster only has 25 chances to win. Your £35k cluster has 35,000 chances to win. It’s not because it’s a bigger cluster necessarily, it’s because you’re comparing the number of wins in a big cluster to the number of wins in a small cluster.

A £35k cluster will statistically need to win 1,000 times before a £35 cluster wins.

But you wouldn’t will less if it was 35,000 £1 ‘clusters’, you’d just see more wins on smaller clusters.

The rate of winning should be the same no matter the cluster size.

The same as one £50k pot owned by friend should win as often as his 5 friends each with £10k combined.

Ernie has LOTS OF Lucky CLUSTERS made up of Random Photons -
when the CLUSTERS become Random .......
someone Ever-So-Lucky with a £17 or £1,000 or £35k Bond wins BIG

When 95% of Bond Savers have £50k - then the Bond winners
are most likely to take up 95% of the BIG prize winner list on the website

Most I have won so far is £500

Still hoping for a bigger win

I don't know why you are struggling with the very simple concept. The more bonds you have the more chances you have to win a prize each month. How old your bonds are, when you bought them, how you bought them , the quantity you bought them in isn't relevant.

If anyone is really sat there with money on premium bonds realistically hoping for a 'big win' well prepare to be continually disappointed.

Unless you have already maximised your pensions, ISA allowance and savings interest allowance I don't think premium bonds are a good option for most people.

1 July 2004 - (a really small , really really ever so teeny tiny Cluster :)

A new record in the history of Premium Bonds has been set as a Bond
bought more than 45 years ago in February 1959 has won the £1 million
jackpot for a mystery winner in the London Borough of Newham.

Not only is it the smallest value Bond ever to win the £1 million jackpot,
it is also the oldest Bond to net the top prize, debunking the myth that
old Premium Bonds never win prizes.

I don't understand this at all, maybe I'm missing the significance of your capital letters and repetition, are you suggesting that each bond doesn't have the same chance of winning and that the draw isnt random?

“Not only is it the smallest value Bond ever to win the £1 million jackpot”

Seeing as every bond is worth £1 it is exactly the same size as every other bond that has won the jackpot

DS (16) has £600 PB holdings and has £100 twice in the last 10 months! Thst’s a pretty good rate of return.

I've not won much for months now - £25 here and there, with the max £50k. I still recognise that even 3 of those is likely more than I would have got in most savings accounts. I am going to have to crack into it soon though so I wish a win would hurry up!

to - 6thformoptions · 23/08/2025 16:27

You are unlucky - recently - especially with £50k , you might have to
wait 5 ,10 or even 15 years for a BIG prize of + £5k

Tell us about the BONDs prize history you have had - if u want to