PREMIUM BONDS DEC INTO 2024

[Blondeshavemorefun]

New thread for when old is finished at nearing 1000

pleased to say I finally won £100 after nothing in oct and nov

here’s to a happy healthy and ideally WEALTHY 2024 for us all 😁

According to Moneyweek, most of the prizes are being reduced, including the £50 and £100 ones.

I'd keep the smaller prizes over the large ones but I have never won a big prize. I might feel differently if I had.

I'm happy to win £25

Obv wouldn't say no to £25k or even £100k

These are the changes from March (according to MoneyMail):

There will still be two £1 million jackpots. The biggest hit comes in the prizes worth £100 and £50, down 232,182 apiece to 2,130,923 each. In this month’s draw there were 2,363,105 winners of each.

The £500 winners will drop by 3,735 to 53,325 and there will be only 17,775 winners of £1,000, or 1,245 fewer than this month. Dropping too by 124 to 1,697 are the number of holders who will win £5,000 while the £10,000 win will go to 848 holders, down by 64.

On very big prizes, only 339 people will win £25,000, down 26, the number of £50,000 falls by 12 to 170 and £100,000 by six to 85. However, the number of £25 prizes will rise by 397,554 to 1,435,338.

All a bit shit, really. I’ll give it until the end of the year to decide about staying or taking out my PB’s to put elsewhere. I guess NS&I have reached their fundraising targets, which sucks for us.

It is a bit shit yes, I think they have increased the £25 prizes again (the only ones to increase), but they are the rubbish ones!

We will definitely be buying a house this year, and we still might as well leave our money in PBs these last few months, as there is still always the chance of the million and the prizes are not taxable.

So they raised it last year and now reducing it

Are the changes due to a rate reduction on the total prize fund or because there are fewer binds now as people have withdrawn them to invest in higher fixed rate accounts?

It’ll be in line with lower interest rates surely? That’s why the 6% fixes are vanishing as well

Interest rates are predicted to come down over the next few months so it makes sense that the PB rate will come down too.

We’ll take a view when the tax year ends but will probably withdraw enough from PB to max out our ISAs for 24/25 and leave the rest there for now.

Yes, the prize fund tracks interest rates in general.

So @CaveMum if they go back up to over 6 does that mean pb go up

It's also because NS&I have raised so much money from that high interest savings account they launched last year (now closed). So with more money from that and form PBonds, they have enough in the purse so don't have to entice so many investors.

Interest rates have dropped. My DD had a mortgage agreed early December and yesterday had to amend for a negotiated price change, and its dropped by close to half a percent.

Agreed. We have had emails to say that the interest on our Virgin M accounts ( current account andlinked savings) is being reduced in March. So not surprising the NSI are reducing rate

@Blondeshavemorefun there’s no guarantee but based on last experience no they won’t put them up. NS&I have never had the best rates, hence why there was a lot of surprise when they offered the 6.2% Bond.

Still 12 days to go 😩
January feels like it goes on forever! I’m ready to quit work and be a millionaire now 🤞

I’ve just topped up a bit, although this extra won’t be eligible until the March draw.

We’re helping our eldest buy a house and a possibility has just come up. A decent win would help no end - or I may just have to take out a big chunk and build it up again (but for a great reason!).

I’ve also recently bought more bonds, ready for the March draw, but after reading the news about most of the prize’s decreasing, I don’t feel as excited about PB’s as I used to be. It’ll be interesting to see in March how many of us get £25 wins (the only prize that’s increased in wins).

On the increase in £25 winners, speaking as someone who has for years had a very small holding, the issue is you end up with no return.

Those with large pots see close to the advertised average return. Those with small pots see nothing.

I interpreted this change as giving a greater likelihood of return to smaller holders.

I've been able to increase my holding this month by £3125 and will do the same next month.

But it really needs a decent stake to get any return.

The increase in £25s is democratic.

I think PBs are a bit pointless unless you have or are aiming to have full holdings. Fun, but very little chance of a decent return. I've just got a 7% interest savings account and moved some money there instead.

I'm aiming to have full 😂😂

But will never have full unless a rich relative dies or I win a large amount on pb 🙂

I've spent lunchtime today calling NS&I twice to get my old account set up. It was very long-winded!

I need to lock some money away to pay taxes and I'm hoping this works! Any winnings will be gratefully received too, obviously. My first draw will be March.

nsandi-corporate.com/news-research/news/premium-bonds-prize-fund-rate-reduced-march-2024-draw

Thought I would share as I just seen this on their site

Or a higher rate tax payer with no PSA and isas used up