PREMIUM BONDS JAN 25 .........

[Blondeshavemorefun]

New thread and I've been asked to give some basic info. Feel free to add stuff

PB have been about since 1957

Been 30yrs (April 2024) since a million was then the highest prize

nsandi-corporate.com/news-research/news/30-years-premium-bonds-ps1-million-jackpots#

Each bond is £1. You have to buy in minimum of £25 so means 25 chances to win every purchase - years ago you could buy £1 at a time.

Odds of winning £1 million on Premium Bonds at face value are 1 in 2,489,469,818 if you have £25 in PBs.

However most people have more than £25 so the odds depend on how much you do hold.

If you have £100 the odds in any given month are 1 in 49,563,028

£1,000 in PB the odds are 1 in 4,954,991

£50,000 in PB the odds are 1 in 96,839

To win anything odds are 1 in 22000

So providing you have more than £100 you have better odds than winning the lottery 😄

And obviously far better than the lottery - you don’t lose your stake !!!!!!

Bonds have to be in for a clear month before going into the draw

If you want to cash bonds in then usually takes 3 days to go into your account

Winnings can be reinvested if holdings are under £50k

This means they will go into the next months draw without losing a month

Or sent to named bank account if winnings take over FH /want winnings in bank account

More info here

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/savings/types-of-savings/premium-bonds

The best time to buy premium bonds is on the last day of the month, as this means they are only held by NSI for one month and one day, without being entered into the prize draw.

PB to me is the fun and thrill each month of what if I win big and a millionaire - to then hoping win thousands to a day or two later being grateful if win £25😂

I have nowhere near the maximum and probably never will unless I win £50k + on pb

But only takes one £1 to win that million !!!

I love seeing the low holdings win high amounts

We've seen over the years £100 win £100k and £50 win £25k and even £1 won £10k

Maximum is £50k per person so some do have all for family- mum dad and 2 kids so £200k etx

Those on the thread are varying from few hundred /few thousand - to 20/30k to full holdings of £50k

Everyone is welcome to join in whether small or full holdings

One would expect if had full holdings of £50k to win something every month and think over the year to earn the same as if in a high interest account to win around £1925 in prizes

If have £5k average luck is £175 winnings a year

Obviously some people have better 'luck' than others and some worse - Ie full holdings and not winning anything a month or two or even longer

PB odds calculator below

moneymarvel.co.uk/calculators/premium-bonds/

Or this one is quite good as shows the interest rate of the winnings - obv anything over 4% is good as if in an account you wouid be taxed so be more like 3%)

In August 2023, NS&I hiked the prize fund to a 24-year high of 4.65 per cent from 4 per cent, a level not seen since 1999 🙀🙀🙀🙀

But it has been steadily falling since, and of January 2025, the prize fund rate - the amount of the total fund paid out in prizes - is 4 per cent (www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-14127405/Premium-Bonds-prize-fund-rate-cut-NS-deals-blow-savers.html)

www.candidmoney.com/calculators/national-savings-premium-bond-calculator

From google (august 2023) - The consistent winners are the 1.16 million people who have the maximum £50,000.

They hold almost half of all premium bonds and, at current odds of 1/22000 can expect a monthly stream of tax-free prizes: two a month and three almost every other month, 28 or 29 a year totaling £1,925

From google (Jan 2024) Tho equally With Premium Bonds, for every person who wins £1 million, a lot of people have to win nothing. So the median average will always be lower than the mean average.

This means that, with average luck, most people will win less than the prize rate each year, regardless of how many bonds they hold

To work out your own personal % rate

Take your total prizes, divide it by the number of months and x by 12.

Then divide that figure into your total holding and x 100.

So say £500 prizes in 6 months / 6 x 12 = £1000.

Holdings £30,000 = 1000/30000 x 100 = 3.33% interest rate.

But many on here do have £50k and then consider moving it to an account that pays 4% if their bonds aren't doing very well as would then def get extra money

But remember savings /interest get taxed

PB and their winnings don't

So anything over 3% in winnings is considered good.

So they do dither whether to pull out from pb and put in high interest account if not winning anything so that they will def earn x amount of interest

But then lose the what if won a million or £100k

If you have PB but not sure if you have ever won esp if moved about a lot

you can write to NS&I. Include these details in the letter:

	Current name

	Current address

	Premium Bond holder number 

	All previous addresses where you might have registered bonds

	Your signature 

You can send your letter to:

NS&I,
Sunderland
SR43 2SB.

There are 2 apps afaik

Cream - prize checker and if won previous month will show a pic - which we all get excited over 😂😂😂

Blue - the app its self works but the showing early often doesn't work for me but those who reinvest their winnings say it shows if won the day before app shows 🙀🙀🙀

Seems the higher the winnings the earlier it shows and can be from 6pm the night before the app shows

And to confuse things I have a White app that is a bookmark - which shows info/list 😄😄😄

Now this has been debated on MANY times but seems to be correct

When do we find out if going to get a visit from AM 😂

The two winners of 
the £1million prizes will be contacted by Agent Million (AM) 😂😂 the day before the first working day of the corresponding month.

There may however be 
exceptions to this, such as when the first working day of the month is a 
bank holiday, for example.

So

Day before first working day - Millionaire knock /call

First day of working month - list showing all winners million to £1k winners - which I always put up for those who can't find it

Day after first working day , including weekends - cream app showing all winnings

You can also check to see if have won via this link with your holders number

www.nsandi.com/prize-checker

Hopefully I've covered everything

Good luck one and all 😄

Ok but you are talking from privilege, that's a lot of daily interest - £10 a day

Have you got any PB @Ciri ? Or are you just here to be smug about your choices??

Nothing for me or my husband 😭 at least February is a short month so it won't be long until the next draw

Also, for me it's the chance of winning a life changing amount of money that keeps me in premium bonds. I make £20 a month interest in my regular savings account, but that's not going to change my life is it. So I'll keep investing in PBs for the small chance I could win big.

I’m not a higher rate tax payer and I’ll never earn enough to fill my ISA each year, but that small chance of a life changing win means more to me than the extra money from interest. It’s a balance of course, as I can’t afford to forfeit all interest for my dreams, but I have a good chunk in the bonds.

I have never played the lottery, so I have worked out that I could have bought a PB block of £25 roughly every six weeks (2 draws x £2 x 6 weeks). I have done some research and I could have spent a total of £4,125 on the lottery since it began in 1994.

So maybe I could start actually doing that (using my £5k holding as my total lottery spend because it is only a little bit over that).

That way I play some form of lottery without risking my stake and with greater odds of winning.

As I said in my post I do have premium bonds. I was only commenting in response to the many people who were saying they would be better off with their money elsewhere. And for most people who are not higher rate tax payers with maxed out isas they are absolutely right.

Well lots on here have full holdings. If you had £50k in a 5% account without tax you would get over £200 a month.

Im not trying to be snarky in any way. I am just pointing out that unless you cant use an isa there are better ways of generating cash. I fully understand that people use it instead of playing the lottery

@Ciri yeah don't worry I just think lots of people do it for the thrill and because it's a fairly safe (although stagnant unless you win every so often) way to keep your capital and possibly win.
I'm going to use the savings accounts and leave it with prizes to reinvest and see what happens

@Ciri if someone is a high rate tax payer who has already maxed out their ISA allowance then having something in PBs can be an effective way of holding funds.

We are fortunate to be in this situation (DH high rate taxpayer, ISA’s maxed out) we have funds from an inheritance locked away on a 1 year Bond earning good interest and a stocks & shares GIA but wanted to keep a chunk of cash easily accessible in case we need it, so we chose PBs. Our current ROI is about 4.5%, but taking into account DH’s tax status we’d need to have that money in an account paying about 7.5% to earn the same amount of interest after tax. Sadly I’m not aware of any instant access accounts paying that rate!

Back of fag packet figures obviously, but the point is that PBs make sense for a lot of people.

I use PBs for emergency money with easy access. I done often add to them but reinvest the winnings. I’m now concentrating on ISAs and pensions.
I don’t play the lottery and see them as a way of possibly coming into more money and enjoy the build up to the draws.

£200 of £60k total holding
Next month!!!@@!!!

Err, yes. That is exactly what I said.

No, you were puzzled as to why people who aren’t higher tax rate tax payers - the majority of people - bother having Premium Bonds.

Dh £75 on FH
Me zilch on just over £10k :(

We only have PB as it was an inheritance and feel it is safe sitting there with the small chance to win big and easy enough to withdraw should we need it.

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn, and am absolutely not being thread police, but I do wish this thread could be just about peoples PB wins and not wins and a bit less about investing. I am sure there are plenty of another threads about investing the money for those who want to do so. It just feels like every month there are posts about this and it takes away the excitement and joy, or disappointment because you have to wade through what x would have made if they invested in y

Im not arguing on this type of thread. I can do that in AIBU.

The PP said exactly what I had said, that if you are a higher rate tax payer with maxed out ISAs then it's useful. My original comment was in response to a specific poster who was mulling over whether she would be better off moving her money.

I do PB instead of the lottery. So far I have invested £1500 over 4 months and have won £100. So around 7% return so far. Which I think is pretty good! Also, £100 is much more than I ever have won on the lottery.

I do it for the what if ……

yes unlikely to win the million or even £100/50/25k

but I often win £25/50 and that’s on a few thousand

Would I max out an isa if I had £50k

not sure tbh

as that’s 50 000 chances a month every month to win big

Soooooooooo March results

AM Sunday 2nd
LIST Monday 3rd
APP Tuesday 4th

50 on 35k not impressed

Interesting thread …. Thanks for the info. We only have a small amount in PB; majority of our funds in various accounts and stocks & shares isa etc.

Son did win £50 a few months back, which isn’t bad on his very small holding of £300, so a good ROI and justifies keeping them. I’ll prob buy him a few more with birthday money, but couldn’t justify putting large amounts in, when I can get both capital growth and dividends from stocks like Coca-Cola, for eg (v expensive to buy, but pay large dividends). PB for me are great as a gamble.

Try nothing on the same and nothing the month before either. I always see every win as more bonds and therefore more chance of a big win next month. If you look at the Sheffield million winner this month, it looks like this is exactly what happened for them. The winning bond was from a £25 set of bonds which was probably a past win

As long as my annual win is equivalent to or higher than interest rates on my isas I’m happy. Usually I would have interest annually but having the equivalent in random lumps is more fun - the hope of a big win is also a clear motivator. I like very much that wins are tax free too.

The HVW list says that the new Sheffield millionaire won on a £10k bond and that is also their total holding from 2022. There is a £100k winner on a £25 bond though, (with nearly full holdings), so that could well have been a prize.

The Bank of England have just cuts interest rates again so NS&I are likely to announce another prize draw rate reduction this month 😔