PREMIUM BONDS DECEMBER *edited from Nov by MNHQ*

[Blondeshavemorefun]

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

https://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
AM - Day before first working day - Millionaire knock /call
LIST - First day of working month showing all winners million to £1k winners - which I always put up for those who can't find it
APP - 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 😄

But you won so regularly with low amounts! Some of us only win twice a year if we are lucky 😂🙈

Exciting, these will be the old paper ones but should have been registered to your home address unless your parents did to their own? If so they would have had letters if they won.
They’ll need to be transferred to do the Adult one and they can download the app etc.
I had to send everything by post to sort my bits out but they are very helpful.

Thanks @FiloPasty

The letter with the bond numbers on went to FIL at his address but the bonds are in dc’s name.

Sounds as if they’ve not won anything and we’ll need to get in touch with N,S&I to get everything fully accessible for our dc.

I know. I shouldnt moan as do often get £25

but winning £10k would be amazing

I have allocated my December (so imaginary) winnings
£25-£500 : Christmas and treats
£500-£1000 : weekend away
£1000-£2000 : new range cooker
£2000-£5000 : kitchen units
£5000-£10000 : solar panels
£10000-£25000 : better car without dashboard lights all indicating a future problem
Can't imagine ever winning more than that but our current budget for home improvements is significant and a lot would help.

Oh and my usual 10% to charity from any win of course. Although I am not sure 20p from my last scratch card (a dinner party favour) made a difference!

@FiloPasty is it really easy to get the details of 'forgotten' bonds then?
My son had some bonds bought by his paternal grandmother, but held under his dad's name but his dad never took any interest at all. As soon as my son was old enough, I helped him get them into his own name, but sadly, he too, has never bothered to check them and has lost the details of his holder number. Does he just need to call them and ask them to send the details by letter again?
He's now interested as someone in our area with his holding recently won £10k...

Have you read my op ? It tells you how to find old forgotten bonds

We have paperwork with the bond numbers on. They’re in dc’s names but registered at the in-laws address. I think any winnings will have been sent there ( assume there haven’t been any!) so I just want to get them updated with dc’s address.

I’d give them a call they are very helpful, I think they deal with it a lot.
Ours were different as I had old paper bonds with numbers on for the children but had my maiden name on them and my old address from 4 years previous. Then my mum reset up as I’d not sorted it and did at my current address with my married name. I called and they talked me through it, I just sent a cover letter listing my issues, put in copies of my wedding certificate, paperwork with old and new address on. They then put them onto my online account and then amalgamated them together. The reissued one check for a £50 winning - not bad considering the old bonds were only for £150. So now all sorted.
It sounds like a lot but it wasn’t once I talked it through. Def give it a go and let us know how you get on.

@Missingducksyou have inspired me on two fronts. One, I am going to go through my winnings for the year and give 10% to charity. That seems like a really good habit to get into. Two, I am definitely going to make a wish list for winnings. Half the joy of these bonds is in the imagining what I’d do with the cash, and I mostly fixate on dramatic resignation from job moments after Agent Million pays a visit… of course there’s lots of things I could dream about with the lower level wins!

Be lovely if they had won something

Inspired me too. Tbh I did that yesterday gave £10 to a homeless charity which is 10% of my winnings for this year. Good plan.

oh yeah defo but winning more than 2/3 times a year would be a start for me!

Im just jealous of other people’s luck. Mine has always been rubbish.

The final 5 minutes on the Martin Lewis podcast this week explained the median v mean winnings on PBs. He suggested that most people start to achieve the median return once they have £5-6k invested & how those 2 pesky millionaires ruin it for everyone else. Worth a listen if you genuinely invest to receive a return rather than as a dreamer

Martin Lewis is always negative and a bit dismissive about Premium Bonds, but then he’s a millionaire, so I can understand why.

He wasn't at all dismissive. He simply explained that if you invest £100 you could win £1m, but will probably get nothing each year, whereas on FH you will probably get the average return of 3.6%. The OP on the Other Thread would do well to heed his advice rather than dampening everyone else's enthusiasm.

I see it as a bit of fun while holding my tax money each year and hoping one day for for the big one

yes if I had £50k and didn’t win much I may be unhappy

tho equally I would feel so rich and be very happy to have £50k

i honestly can’t imagine ever having £50k unless I win it

New to premium bonds. I’ve just invested 43k. (One deposit of 40k and one of 3k). I’ve chosen the payment rather than reinvest option. If I manually top up my balance will I miss out on future draws when eligible.
Also, on the winners list, what does the value mean on the right column? The original amount the person invested?
Thanks for an informative thread. I’m not eligible for draw until January but dreaming of one million. As if 😂

@Dobbysocks in your case, if that were you on the high winners list there the Holding column would be £43k but the Value would be either £40k or £3k depending whether the winning bond was from the first or second batch of bonds you bought.

Reinvested prizes are eligible to win in the next draw, if you get them paid out and manually reinvest then you miss a draw. Any prizes that would take you over full holding are paid out automatically even if you’re set to reinvest.

Not reinvesting means you miss a month

I will always reinvest till hit £50k / prob never 😂

I used to get into my bank account and then treat a takeaway etc but then ale times if won £25 I would add £25 ans obv each time I was missing a month so changed to auto reinvest

and mainly my winning bonds are the newer ones tho one last month was think in 2011 from when dh died

I’ve kept those and made sure if I ever take out I don’t take out those ones

Hi! I just started with PB in July, no wins yet.

If I have say 10k in my account and I have 5k each in two children's accounts if I won a large prize would it say the holder had 10k or would it say 20k? As I know their accounts are separate but I manage them? How does it work?

Wishing everyone good luck in the Christmas draw!

Just checked my annual winnings on £45k as 4.6% which is quite good - we use it to save for our tax bill.

10 as be under your name

even tho your kids are linked to yours like mini blondes is to me ~ they are separate

LAST ONE OF THE YEAR

DECEMBER

AM sun 30 - a phone call or knock 😂
LIST mon 1
APP tue 2