Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

PREMIUM BONDS AUGUST

1000 replies

Blondeshavemorefun · 31/07/2025 14:11

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 😄

Prize Checker

Ready to see if you have won a prize? Enter your holder's number to check if you’ve won in this month’s Premium Bonds draw. Good luck!

https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
WobblyLondoner · 02/08/2025 00:02

recklessgran · 02/08/2025 00:01

£1050 for me and £75 for DH both on full holdings. That's my biggest win ever by quite a long way so I'm really happy!
Good Luck everyone.

Wow, fantastic!

SB1971 · 02/08/2025 00:03

£100 on £35k-meh

JessicaPeach · 02/08/2025 00:03

£100 for me on £23k. Will check dh and kids tomorrow

hellswelshy · 02/08/2025 00:03

£50 for me on just over £10k holdings, pleased with that as I've withdrawn over 2k recently.

CuriousRunner · 02/08/2025 00:04

Argh. I need to give up this “excitement”. The money would be better off in a high interest account. 2 x FH bringing a TOTAL of £125 😱

I hope others fare better!!

Feelinglucky2025 · 02/08/2025 00:04

Nothing again for me wit £13,500. I’ve only won twice this year.

SnowFrogJelly · 02/08/2025 00:06

100 for me.. ho hum

3catsandcounting · 02/08/2025 00:07

£175 on FH. Happy with that

clary · 02/08/2025 00:08

oooh £425 on my FH thank you very much Ernie!

Biggest win this year. Hope everyone else has done well.

baytreelane23 · 02/08/2025 00:10

Zero again on 20k - nothing for 5 months. I am so down this year.

Happiestathome · 02/08/2025 00:11

£50 for me and £50 for my husband. Very happy to end today with a positive. 🙂

Unfortunately, overall we aren’t doing well against the average, so I may need to consider a further drop in my holding. I removed a chunk last month.

Negroany · 02/08/2025 00:11

£150 on FH, suppose I'm OK with that!

Omeara · 02/08/2025 00:12

£75 on FH. Better than the £25 last month but still less than I would have earned in interest.

Quay · 02/08/2025 00:14

£75 on £8k - hopefully ended the dry spell. I always check hubbys first as he has more than me. As he didn’t win anything I wasn’t expecting to win when I checked mine - so a lovely surprise.

CoastalCalm · 02/08/2025 00:14

£25 on FH 😂 so next month I need £175 for the year to match a 5% bond after tax

WorthySloth · 02/08/2025 00:26

£50 on just under £13k. Happy with that it’s my first win since reinvesting 👍

JollyHostess101 · 02/08/2025 00:27

£75 for me on FH £200 for DH on £30k but his is being reinvested and it those bonds that are winning by the looks of it!

Im going to withdraw some as I’m earning more interest on my savings account for less money and see if reinvesting for a bit earns more returns!

PremiumBondJovi · 02/08/2025 00:29

£25 for DC1 on very small holdings, so that's nice and makes a grand total of £100 so far this financial year (5 months) for DC1. It is being reinvested so is very gradually building up. The website is glitching for me now so I will check the rest in the morning.

Congratulations to our winners so far, hard cheese, better luck next time to everyone feeling disappointed and good luck to everyone still to check. 🍀

Thesimplelife1810 · 02/08/2025 00:43

£200 for me on £15k so I'm very happy with that. I'm on a very good streak at the minute, over £500 since January and only two months this year where I've not won at all!
However, my husband who only has a bit less than me hasn't won at all in nearly a year!
I know they say it's random but it is strange how it works.

Mirabai · 02/08/2025 00:47

baytreelane23 · 01/08/2025 23:16

I’ve just asked chat gpt about my winnings so far this year as they have been shocking compared to the past two years.

It says this..

You’ve won:
£175
in 7 months

You have: £20,000 in Premium Bonds
Prize rate: 4.65% annualized (as of Aug 2025)

Expected return over 7 months:

£20,000 \times \frac{4.65%}{12} \times 7 ≈ £542.50

So if you were getting the average return, you’d have about £540–£550 by now.

Reality:
you’ve won £175, which is only about 0.875% return over 7 months.
on track for around £300 over the full year — 1.5% annual return.
that’s significantly below average, so statistically you’re in the less lucky half of bondholders.

you’re not doing great, but it’s not abnormal — the system has an element of luck.

Do I stay or do I go? 🤔

Got 50k invested, trying it out for 6 months so far. Unless I make the same in a year as a regular interest account I’m just losing out (even tho the interest is taxed.)

MardiBras · 02/08/2025 00:48

Zero on FH 😕
Congratulation to the winners.

FiveShelties · 02/08/2025 02:47

£500 for me and £175 for DH, we have £32k each. A good month😁

Missingducks · 02/08/2025 04:39

Rien. Nada. Zilch. Nuffink.

Hats off to those who won.

TipsyCoralPeer · 02/08/2025 04:42

Nothing for me….

KitsyWitsy · 02/08/2025 04:52

£200 for me on FH. Best month yet. I’ve had FH for 3 draws.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is not accepting new messages.