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 😄

I still have my old bonds under my maiden name, but I have nowhere near FH in my married name so it's not a problem (unless I win very big!)

I'm thinking of upping to FH from April. I have 4.7% on average on cash savings but it's going down to 4.5% soon and then I'm clobbered by higher rate savings tax on top of that. (I'm only just in that band).

I might try FH in premium bonds for a year and see if it's better.

Just a few words for anyone who needs to withdraw PB after a bereavement. I got the form from NS&I and it says I have to include a certified Grant of Probate to enable them to go forward with process, didn't have to get one for anything else so had to apply for it today. I did this online and when I got to the end it told me this process will take upto 16 WEEKS and cost £300. I then had to send my husbands will to them by post and it is Law that they keep it, has to be the original so I had to photocopy it so I still have a copy.
They then send you the certificate to send it off with the form to NS&I to get the money. The reason I am posting it is for others to be aware of the time it takes because I thought it would be a case of getting the form, filling it in and the money goes in my bank in a couple of weeks but no it is going to take more than 4 months so a good job I didn't leave it nearer to the end of the 12 months they allow you to keep them after a death.
This applies to all PB holdings over £5,000.

They sent me back my grant of probate back- and they actually turned it around really quickly and I had it back within 5 days and the money from Dads bonds was in my account at 00.15 the day the results of his last draw were published on the app so hopefully once probate is done you won't have to wait around too long!!

Hi

I work for a solicitor and at the moment on average it's taking 2-3 weeks to get probate . They have cleared the back log .

For some reason I was convinced it was only 2 weeks today until the next full results, but it's actually still 18 days. Humph.

Oh I'm so sorry for your loss.

This sounds wrong. Please check again with them re the payment you are suggesting you need to make.

...also... you would never send an original will for something like this and not get it back. Something has been misunderstood.

I think they meant the probate payment to the government!

I only had to upload my dad's will to show I was executor and beneficiary I think it's all a bit hazy to be honest!!

Honestly the bereavement team on the phone were so nice and and sorted everything out!

@FishPie2 sending the grant of private I can understand (not the will though). But the fee sounds odd. Are you sure you haven't accidentally gone to a website that pretends to be the NS&I one, then charges you for the privilege of applying to cash in the bonds?

Congratulations. I love reading stories like this on MN. Are you treating yourself at all?

I rang NS&I to check I was doing things right and she said yes go the Probate site and it is all on there. It is £300 and you have to send the original will and they do keep it. Quote - " Yes, you need to send the original will when applying for probate in the UK. Photocopies and scans are not accepted.The original will becomes a public document and is stored by HM Courts and Tribunals Services (HMCTS)
HMCTS will not return the original will to you "
They then send you the paperwork to send with PB forms and extra forms are £1.50.

@FishPie2 ah, that's different. It's not a fee to cash in your PBs, it's a fee for the grant of probate, which you'll probably need for others aspects of winding up the estate.

Sorry to keep this going but the estate has been sorted with only the PB left to cash in.

16 days til the next draw! I have £11,000 exactly for this one so let's see if I get more than £25 🤞 or 😱£0

@FishPie2 When we sorted things after my grandfather died we only needed a copy of the grant of probate and one of the copies of the death certificate. They returned both of these and then sent me (as executor) a bank transfer for the amount of premium bonds held. What you are being asked to do does not sound quite right, as there was no fee for this and they didn't need to keep any documents or see the will. I just think you need to be careful that it is the genuine NS&I site you are communicating through and not an NS&I service sort of site.

When my Mum died it was just a certified copy of the death certificate that was required, but she only had about £2,000 in PB/Investment account with NS&I.

I was going to say it sounds weird that need to pay £300 to get the pb

Think posters are getting confused here.

The £300 is nothing to do with the premium bonds or NS&I, it is the fee to obtain the probate certificate. It is just because the NS&I are the only people to have asked for Probate (companies vary on how much they will distribute to the estate without probate)

At last, less than two weeks to go to the full results. That feels a bit better.

Sending the original will is insane. It would really put me off keeping our PBs.....

@Heartbreaktuna you don't have to send the will of to PBs it's for the probate that they need to release the funds! I uploaded a copy of my Dads will online to NS and I!

Unfortunately NS and I have quite a low threshold for needing probate to be done which is unfortunate for the poster but just the way it is!!

@JollyHostess101 ah I see that's the sheriff court requirement / fee. Thanks !

Yeah I definitely just uploaded all the pages of the will and that reminds me they're actually still on my phone skewered so I should probably find them and delete them!

In all honesty NS and I were one of the easiest to deal with when sorting out my Dads estate!