PREMIUM BONDS AUGUST

[Blondeshavemorefun]

We have pinned a new post just beneath this one with updated links from the OP. MNHQ

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 holding 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 at 3.9%

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

If have £1.5k average luck is £25 once 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/

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 August 2025, the prize fund rate - the amount of the total fund paid out in prizes - is 3.6 %

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.

So many of us may win £25 from August but means the higher value prizes are way less 🙀😢

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 £1925 (3.9% interest on £50k)

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.

People 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 am dreaming of telling my boss where they can stick their job the minute that AM leaves my house next month!

I thought you were not happy about how quickly this month has gone @Blondeshavemorefun and so you'd decided to turn the clock back! 😂

nope. I’m just not with it 😂

That makes two of us! 😂

Basically this chap is suggesting an increase of the PB limit to £100k instead of the current £50k. It's only a letter to the Guardian, not an official proposal, but I can see the good sense of it for the government and I'm sure it would be popular with the large of wallet and purse for tax purposes:

Premium bonds might beat the bond market bullies | Budget deficit | The Guardian

So less chance for us poor people to win and sure many will put 100k in

The government won’t increase the £50k limit because they’d lose out on tax revenue from people moving money from non-ISA savings accounts to PB’s. Unless they make us pay interest on prizes. I still think the days of the (fairly generous) tax-free £20k ISA limit are short-lived.

That’s a good point

Increasing PB limit would give access to cheaper funding as the prize rate is lower than base, longer term gilt rates are quite a bit higher than base. But I reckon they should fully cost it as not a bad suggestion. They’d probably have to recruit another AM too 😬

What do you mean by “cheaper funding”?

If they increased it I’d pull my miserly amount out , would be even more pointless!

For the govt, they use the money like a loan, which it technically is. It's a cheap loan for them.

If they doubled the limit they would have to keep the rate of prizes proportional, otherwise they would be halving the prizes and noone would go for that, especially those who didn't have the full amount.

Sorry if this had already been asked. On the high value winners spreadsheet there are two bond values. One for the value of the block of the winning bond and one for your total amount of bonds. Is the total amount of bond value the total amount of bonds you have or the total amount eligible for this draw. So if I had £30k and added £5k today, would the total amount show on Octobers list as £30k as the extra £5k won’t be in the draw until November or would it show the whole £35k?

It’s the total amount of bonds you have in general so yes if you add the £5k today the £35k will be shown in the November list not the October list.

@westisbest1982 thank you

Nationwide are closing the savings account I have had since forever (must be at least 40 years as we opened it as our first joint account to pay for holidays etc). I had been keeping £1000 in there in the hopes it would earn a bonus if they became a bank or did any of those extras. So that's £1000 to premium bonds and not into the current account they wish to send it to.

I always like the week before results are out - it feels like we’re on the last leg / the final countdown.

That lovely sense of possibility in the air ☺️

https://youtube.com/shorts/y7nBE7CnWqY?si=EcA1nrSFeIEJXx2L

Magnificent hair in that video!!😂

Love it

Thanks for posting that Blondes, it saved me a job!

Only 7 days to go.

We're leaving together, but still, it's farewell
And maybe we'll come back to Earth, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame (Except ERNIE)
We're leaving ground (Leaving ground)
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown
The final countdown
The final countdown (Final countdown)
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-ohh

Joey was sexy

Article here in The Times about someone who’s ditching PB’s because of her low return:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/14369962-df5c-425a-881f-6b378029a566?shareToken=d571b230a8eaedb8bdc8b0b301865b44

A couple of people in the comments have speculated that Rachel Reeves is going to end prizes being tax-free.

I need Ernie to give me 20k no questions asked. 😁😁😁

Is it his leather trousers @Blondeshavemorefun?

I'll answer as many questions as Ernie wants to ask if he'll give me a much-needed high prize @Cowhen!

This time next week it will all be over bar the joyful whooping of a few and the gnashing of teeth of many! I hope I'm in the joyful whoopers as my teeth can't take any more gnashing after 18 months of it.