PREMIUM BONDS DEC/JAN 2026

[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 £1800 in prizes at 3.6%

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, we had the highest 4.65% But it has been steadily falling since, and of August 2025 it’s 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

But

£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 £1800 (3.6% 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

Winnings divided by amount have x 100

So say over the year 450 on fh ,1700 on fh and £25 on £1000

450 / 50000 x 100 =.9% so bad

1700/50000 x 100=3.4% so good

25/1000x100=2.5% so an average return

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& date of birth

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 😄

I put £250 into my dedicated holiday account for our annual summer holiday/ So currently have £1500 in that account. It earns no interest so today i shoved it all into my PB account on the principle that I might win something and I can take it out again when I need to pay for airfares.

So, I now have £1700 in my PBs! Fingers crossed for a good outcome!!

The odds of each individual £1 bond winning a prize is 22,000 to 1 every prize draw. So with £25,000 invested you'd expect about 13 or 14 prizes a year. It usually evens out, so you'll most likely get 2, 3 or 4 prizes in a single month soon enough.

Anyone who wins multiple prizes every single month must have the maximum amount (or near enough) invested and must be very lucky. Either that or they're only showing off about their wins on the months when they've won a lot. I've got £50,000 invested and there were seven months last year when I won either one prize or nothing at all. And again only one prize of £25 this month. Your return sounds decent in comparison to mine.

If there’s a market downturn on their 18th birthday, they don’t have to cash it out, which would crystallise the losses. They can roll it over into a stocks and shares ISA without withdrawing, and wait until the market recovers before withdrawing.

I was just badly burned myself, as I did roll it over at 18 and then again at 25-ish but needed the money during Covid to buy my first home and well, that wasn’t a great time either! It never recovered what it had been in 2007, but I think I was especially unlucky. It has however made me especially cautious.

I’m decided to cash some of mine in. I won just £25 this month, nothing last month and £25 in Nov on FH.
My Moneybox account is giving £50 a month on £18k so it’s a no brainer really. I know there is the “possibility” of a big win but not really likely

I’ve just run the numbers and I should be looking at about 8-9 prizes a year on current holdings. I’m going to keep a note and see if that’s the case this year

£425 for me on FH which is a nice start to the year.
£75 for Dh on FH.

My teen won £25 from a £25 bond bought nearly three years ago. He has just shy of £500 in there. He's not remotely bothered but the rest of us are delighted 🤣

Congrats and commiserations to everyone as appropriate!

2 x FH here. One got £25 and the other £250. It all winds up in the same pot but I'm irrationally annoyed that my holding only got the £25.

That’s lovely. Sounds simamr to my grandsons with his £300

do yes it can happen

FEB

AM sun 1
LIST mon 2
APP tue 3

At least the wait from the Feb prizes to March is the shortest all year, fingers crossed!

Our first month of holding PBs, both with FH. I won £225 and DH £200. Very pleased!

Won £50 on FH so not great but at least it’s something.

It certainly brings in to sharp focus that 98.91% of prizes won are of £100 and less and only 1.09% of prizes won are of £500 or more.

As we always say though, you never know. Somebody has to be in the 1.09%. I'm more than willing for it to be me!

One of my prizes this month was £500! I won £825, the most I’ve ever won! (1 x £25, 3 x £100x 1 x £500). I didn’t realise the odds for winning over £500 were so tiny!

I’ve been in the 1.09% twice now! Once on holdings of £600 and won £1k. And again last year after topping up to just under £3500 and won two separate prizes of £100 and £25. I have a nerdy Excel formula which calculates my “interest rate” based on years of holdings and prizes won. Currently at 7.1%.

1.09% is lower than I thought, but on the positive side the more bonds you have the higher the probability of getting in that percentage.

@FunnyOrca
If you do ask your grandmother to save for your baby elsewhere than in PBs, I'd suggest asking her to open any account for your child she wishes to. If you open an account for your child keep it separate. Because interest on an account a parent pays into will be treated as the parent's, but this doesn't apply for great grandparents or other relatives.

However, if she's saving for your baby into both a bank account and some PBs, it might be worth accepting gratefully and seeing how it goes, especially if it's a relatively small amount.

@Teeteringonthebrink45
Unless you're likely to be able to pay in close to £20K into this year's ISA, including what you've already put in, before the end of this tax year, it's not going to make much difference. But if you're going to have a larger lump sum from selling a property, either this tax year or next tax year, it's worth taking into account - as it might be better to use your ISA allowance for money you can leave there. Also check that your ISA is flexible, allowing you to replace money you've withdrawn in each tax year - some are, some aren't. The allowance from 2027 will be lower at £12K, but if it's a flexible ISA and you're not actually in a position to save more than £12K in one year then, or up to £20K now, it doesn't change the tax efficiency.

4% isn't a rubbish rate for an ISA, especially if withdrawals aren't limited, but you should check what rate you're getting because it might be lower - there've been a lot of rate falls. I have ISAs in 3 different places and the best rate I'm getting is just over 4%, just about to fall to just under, but I want to keep the money relatively accessible.

I do use an instant access savings account to squirrel money in and out of and this has worked very well for me over the last couple of years - I think now I need to move some money out of that into one of my ISAs or other account - limited access but not locked away, but it works for me to say that one account is for money I can just raid when I need to and I'll leave other accounts alone - I've never been near being able to use an ISA allowance in one year, even when it was much less than £20K!

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

It basically says that mathematically, your chances of winning any prize at all is so low below holdings of 5K that you might as well treat PB as a lottery ticket.

It makes sense as a investment in a diversified portfolio by higher rate tax payers with holdings of 10K or more who have maxed out their ISA allowance. It makes less financial sense for a lower rate tax payer with holdings of less than 5K who expects regular wins but who has not maxed out their ISA allowance.

Still ... a girl can dream ...

I’ve finally taken out most of my PBs - the money took 3 working days to arrive in my bank account (as the NS&I website said it probably would).