PREMIUM BONDS JUNE 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.

Martin Lewis’s opinion on pb - quite an interesting read

https://www.saga.co.uk/money-news/premium-bonds

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 holding win a million (March 25) also a £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 April 2025, the prize fund rate - the amount of the total fund paid out in prizes - is 3.8 %

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/nsi-premium-bonds-rate-changes-31317737

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 😄

Could really do with some good news , i.e a good PB win this month 🙏 . The countdown has begun in earnest ! I find it impossible to strike a balance between ‘irrational premium bond fury’ and ‘irrational premium bond excitement’. There is no middle ground, just dead time between draws 😂

Oh, that is disappointing news! I’m considering depositing the money into an easy access savings account in the coming months now…

Not had a decent win on full holding for 3 months so moved 20k into an ISA for this year's allowance at 5.5%. still have 32k in holdings so we will see what difference that makes!

So close now. Only the weekend to for rho I never get excited over AM

so for me it’s Tue

July

AM 30 mon June to confuse things as July
LIST 1 Tue
APP 2 wed

Bon voyage. At least PBs aren't like Omaze who insist that their big winners claim the house, cash or car within 96 hours or lose it. That has apparently happened to someone. In contrast I'm currently waiting to hear whether I've won anything on a tiny PB bought for me in childhood and forgotten about for decades. Probably not but you never know!

Maybe the rate drop will result in more people casing in their PBs, leaving more opportunities for the rest of us to win. In any case I think I’ll review again next spring and perhaps open up another ISA and dump £20K I have now in PBs in there, although with the way things are going saving rates may be less than 2% by then.

When the rate drops to 3.6% in August the odds of winning something will stay the same at 22,000 to 1. Although there will still be 2 prizes of £1m, there will be significantly less of all the other prizes - and many more £25 prizes. We're all glad to win £25 instead of nothing of course but that's not going to make a difference to anyone with PBs, let alone be earth-shattering or life-changing for any of us.

Estimated prizes in August compared to June:
£1m - same
£100k - 4 less
£50k - 8 less
£25k - 15 less
£10k - 38 less
£5k - 78 less
£1k - 780 less
£500 - 2340 less
£100 and £50 - 16,5872 less each
£25 - 371,737 more.

Gloomy!

I don’t know why NS&I don’t divide some of the prizes up e.g instead of there being 75 £100K prizes from August there could be 150 £50K prizes? But maybe that would affect the prize rate.

I've just opened accounts for my two children with very small amounts and will add each month - irrationally excited for this!

We've only got 2 draws left on FH as we'll be cashing in our PBs in September to pay off the mortgage. We've not decided yet if we'll keep something in PB or put the leftovers into ISAs/high interest accounts yet.

Same here - £25 each and they are so excited 😝
I actually came here to ask, do others buying bonds for young children (mine are 9 and 6) have a plan/agreement about what happens with any winnings? Maybe controversial but I have told my two that any winnings will be shared. I have a family member with 3 children (teens) with a few thousand each and they seem quite lucky, but of course it’s not “fair” between the children and causes a lot of bickering! I did ask their parent what would happen if someone got a big win and they hadn’t thought of it, which I think is a big mistake, hence making a plan with my two, just in case they are lucky!! Am interested to know what others think…

I'm not in this position but the £100 bondholder who won £1m earlier this year made me think.

If there were 2 siblings and their parents had given the money it would be pure luck as to which of the two had been allocated the winning bond. Then it would be fair to share.

It would be very different in other circumstances. First example, if a godparent gave one £100 and the other had nothing at all or they were in a blended family with gifts or inheritance from other family members unrelated to their siblings.

I think the only answer is to do what works for your family, but prepare for fall out in adulthood if DC have deprived of winnings which are legally theirs. I think the DC need to be old enough to understand the consequences of what they're agreeing to.

I usually save £25 monthly into my 2 girls accounts (2 & 6). I put their main savings in their junior ISA’s which I why I don’t add too much to premium bonds for them. I have discussed with my husband about winnings and have decided in the short term to leave them with whichever of them wins as it may even out in the long term as I don’t plan on taking the money out. In the event of either of them winning big however it would be split between them.

@herethereandeverywhatnow my children have both agreed to split any winnings. My eldest now manages her own account, but they have decided to continue the agreement. They even recorded it verbally between them on my phone 😂.

Legally I think who wins it owns it

morally you would want to split anything over £1000

or you just leave in and before 16 add amounts together and divide into 2

And you could be done for theft if they find our years later they won say £10k but split 3 ways so £3.3k each

I forgot the next draw is fast approaching!
I added another £100 yesterday so they'll be ready for August. I'll keep adding where I can.

Indeed. That’s why parents should always think very carefully before putting money into any account in their children’s name.

I wonder if it’s possible to put PBs into a trust with the winnings benefiting the trust and not the individual?

Some numptie on here made a thread last year because she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t legally use £30k of her five year olds daughter’s PBs towards a house deposit.

Wishing everyone the best of luck for July. Hard to believe the first half of 2025 is almost over.

Is it too late to deposit some money ready for the August draw? I've been meaning to do it but forgot until I just opened this thread!

No, you have until Monday.

Joining this thread as I’ve been putting little bits into PB again this year, I’ve only got £375 total but you’ve got to be in it to win it I guess.

Good luck everyone for next week!

Thank you. Bought them!

I originally had 2 accounts for my DC - I cashed them both in & put them in my name in Jan because I had this nagging fear one would win the jackpot & it would end up being a source of resentment from the other forever.

Yes, they 'agreed' to share aged 8&10 but when you're 17 and you've given your brother half a million, I'm not sure if it would feel quite as agreeable or whether it'd be repeatedly brought up

So now it's theirs but in my name to distribute. Hopefully 🤞🏼

Checking in…. Ooh I do so love this time of the month! Here’s hoping 🤞
Good luck everyone x🤗