PREMIUM BONDS MARCH ONWARDS

[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 😄

In amongst my holdings I have a solitary £5 bond that was bought for me in the early 80s when I was born.

Yes reinvestment

if winning go to be invested you go straight into the draw

it’s only new brought bonds that have to wait a month

Crept up on me this month! Sadly don't think I'm on the list, thanks for posting it as always OP.

Really do need to figure out if I'd be under City or County for the list when I filter.

Yep, you really need to get to FH, or close to it, to have a good chance to be on the HVW list. I would love to know how long people who’ve won big have had their chunky-sized holdings for.

But says £10 bought. Surely would say £100

Tho then we see the small few hundred and couple of thousand win

tho rare to see £50/100k winnings to very low

According to Google, 1.2 million people have full holdings and they account for 50% of all PBs held.

Is it known the percentage of people with FH who win big prizes, as opposed to bog prizes being won by people with FH?

In other words, in any one year do we know whether, for example, 5% of people with FH have won at least £5k in one draw (as opposed to across several draws)?

So, this is what chatgpt says:

NS&I's publicly available prize distribution data allows you to estimate the total number of prizes awarded at each value tier, including £5,000. However, specific statistics regarding the percentage of bondholders who win a particular prize amount in a single draw are not disclosed.

I have just been on the website and requested that any winnings are reinvested. No idea if it will take effect in time for tomorrow but doesn't matter either way.

We usually had winnings paid into the bank as it was our holiday fund but we have no plans for a holiday at the moment so might as well reinvest for a while.

Ooh and edited to say I now have a reason to download the other app; exciting!

I think you are making assumptions about my situation and my knowledge of the tax system.

I wonder if it was a winning that was reinvested?

Nothing big for us either. Don't they know we need to renovate our house?! 🤨

I was daydreaming earlier about an extension whilst checking the HVL hoping for of a nice £100k win but nope it wasn’t to be. There was a £5k winner that I briefly thought could have been mine but then realised they bought 1 month before I bought my chunk at that value. I have still only won £25 over 4 draws so far with £13k holdings so I’m hoping to definitely win something tonight no matter how small especially after seeing all the large winners with a couple of hundred pound holdings on the list today.

Any mathematicians who can work out probability around?

I have checked the spreadsheet and four of the five ‘facts’ match with my holding - (Total Value of Holding (a smallish random amount), Area, Value of Bond and Date of Purchase)

However the winning bond number doesn’t match with mine.

The chance of someone else in my area with the matching data must be extremely small eg to pick four numbers between 1 and 50 is 1 in 5.5 million or so and there are far more variables in the Premium Bond system!

I can hardly wait until tomorrow to find out if I’ve won £1000….or not!! My holding is in the low hundreds so the rate of return would be amazing😀

Is it possible to have a larger holding in the first place but sell the majority leaving a token £10?

not a £10 win

hence my puzzlement 😂

500 showing on the blue app for me..good luck everyone

I have a quirky £10 from many, many years ago. If (say) I had added £500 in 2021 and now decided to withdraw £500, it would return my £10 bond first followed by £490 from my 2021 bond, leaving a bond worth £10 acquired in 2021.

Think that explains it.

When you say the bond number doesn't match with yours... are you realising that each individual £1 bond has its own number, although one's listing is normally in batches? E.g. if you bought £100 of PBs and the first number in the batch ends in 7318, then you also own all the bonds with numbers that are the same but end in 7319, 7320, all the way up to 7417 (edited to correct that I added 1000 instead of 100!). I hope it's that and you've won!

Don't they know we need to renovate our house?!

Well quite, @longtompot ! I just know I’d be darling at spending £1,000,000.

Here again for the monthly rollercoaster ,have 4.6k in holdings. Spurs playing tonight so at risk of a double disappointment

Congratulations from me (through 😬) - nothing for me, I see another disappointment at midnight.

Good luck every one. I haven’t checked the HWL as keeping the dream alive until tomorrow.

@RubbishDay - Schrodinger's Bond Winner! Me too - I like the extra day of anticipation.

Hopefully your day will be a good one tomorrow.

Wohoo well done on your win. I don’t think I want to keep checking this evening up until midnight like I normally do as it normally ends in disappointment so i may just wait until nearer midnight. That is unless I can’t help myself from looking 🥴