What is your largest ever premium bond win?

[Lulumush]

Just that. I hold the full whack plus extra for my kids and never win more than a few 100 pounds.

Interested to hear from others and whether I should shift my cash!

My largest prize is big fat zero 😢

My husband just discovered he won £50 in 1997. He didn’t even know he had any premium bonds, we found them after his parents passed away. His sister however has won absolutely nothing in 54 years!

@Lindy2SNAP!!!!

£250 with the max. I’ve had full holdings for four months.

How long have you had the max @Lulumush ?

I’ve just looked, I had £75 this month and £50 in September and October and I’m holding less than £10k.

My son has won £125 since August and he’s holding over 10k (purely because we stuck his DLA in there as often as possible!)

I have had the maximum amount of premium bonds for maybe 8 years. The most i have won is £1000 last year. Up until the last few interest rate drops i was winning £200 to £400 a month, but the last three draws i have only won £50, £100 and a zero win. Last year's overall amount of wins totalled £4500. Which is not bad at all, but this year will be much less i expect, but theres always the chance to win big so I'll keep them in for now. Good luck guys!!

I won about £1200 once. That was on about 20-20k

I've won £50 but I have very little left of PB. There are better places to put the money, especially if you haven't used your annual ISA allowance. My friend with FH is always delighted to 'win' a few times a month, but she forgets she'd receive more interest from a cash isa and it's guaranteed...

@LongJoanneSilber when you also look at the stock market historically averaging 10% per annum, the potential loss can be huge. Obviously the stock market is not for everyone and everyone holds bonds for different reasons. Personally, we are moving to one set of holdings and being more sensible (for our situation) with the rest. I love the bonds and love the chance of a big win, but I’m not a high earner or over my personal savings allowance, so it isn’t the place for me to be holding huge amounts of money really.

So what do you do if you’ve already maxed out your ISA? I’m risk averse and don’t want to invest large sums, neither do I want to take the hit on tax and put the £50k in a savings account just to get regular guaranteed interest, which isn’t that much anyway.

@mirrormirror1247
my FIL bought some in January (he can't remember how much) and since then has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and a brain tumour and he has lost all the info about them. He is just really confused now and can't remember things. I completed a form with as much info as I could recently and sent it off on his behalf. Waiting To hear, but it is a form about lost premium bonds, so you should definitely do the same and se if they can locate them for you.

Thank you for that. Mum had the certificates, so that was fine, just no idea if he'd ever won anything! Still waiting to hear, but he only had a small amount in there so I think it's unlikely, but you never know! Sorry to hear about your FIL, that must be tough to deal with.

It's more fun this way though, you have the chance of winning big, and if not, you'll probably win small a few times to make a similar amount to what the interest would have been. You'd have to be very unlucky to be significantly worse off by not winning anything although of course it will happen, for every big winner will be some holders who consistently get fuck all.

I’ve won around £1,200 twice, both with full holdings.

For me it works out well - most years I make around 4-4.5% return and as I’m a higher rate tax payer the tax free status is helpful.

I once won £25k

Normally about £100, but with 10k, £1225 and £550 as stand out wins.

I fill up my ISA at the beginning at of the financial year and save/reinvest through the year. I can't shut up the little voice in my head that thinks I'm going to win 10k again!

I’m getting in the draw for the first time ever this month, dead excited (FH).

Normally get around 75 - 100 per month on my £45k holding. Nothing for January or February. Biggest win has been 750 with 500 on one bond number.

Two £100 and a £75 in the same month. I’ve won very little before or since and that was on £25k. I think PB are the biggest damp squib ever.

Biggest win 350 with maximum holding.

I’ve won £1000 twice. Never had more than about £15k in.