PREMIUM BONDS APRIL 2026 (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[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://pbprizes.com/calculator/

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 😄

Nothing for me on the HV list. See you all at midnight!

Nothing for me on HVL. Surprised how many low value holdings there are this month who haven’t held the bonds for very long.

Reinvested winnings?

I stopped checking the list as I get a bonus day of hope. I’m also hoping agent million got lost or is on holiday

I like the ones from 1957 to 1960s who have all won £1,000 on £2 to £5 bonds

Looks like there's nothing big for me, but I'll check the app later just to be sure! Slightly annoyed as I have £15k in a savings account I wanted to transfer to PB the other day, but completely forgot! I'll do it at the end of this month, might as well get the meagre interest from it!

I’ve given up checking the HVL. I’m investing a very small amount each month so have loads of different bond numbers. I’ll check the app when I wake up.

If I win big I’ll take tomorrow off work to get over the shock!

Good luck to everyone for tonight. Nothing on the high value winners lost for me. Does the picture in the cream app only change if you've won a prize?

What time did they first start showing last time? It was quite early, wasn't it?

I think £500 payments starts showing from about now, then smaller ones drop in later

I always like the big wins on the small and old holdings :)

im also not holding out much hope.

Marking place for tomorrow!

The change of pic has no bearing on whether you will or won’t win tomorrow.

Good luck all!

I was on one of the earlier threads under a name I can't recall.

This is the first month I have £2k in after removing money from a useless savings account and putting it into PBs. It's my saving for holidays money and I now have a standing order sending that amount each month to PBs. Hopefully I will have better success!

I suggested to DH that we start putting the savings we make for our tax into PBs then withdraw what we need to pay when we do need to pay tax. I think someone on here does that and it seems a good idea to me- it's money doing nothing in a savings account right now. He's thinking about it but it makes sense to me.

Must be. The ones that I seem to win on are often the reinvested ones

Yes that’s me. I save all year and put tax money in then take out in jan and pay my tax bill

I also use premium bonds as somewhere to keep money I know I’ll owe HMRC when I do my tax return. It’s not really worth investing as the timeframe is too short for that. So premium bonds it is!

I don’t think (quick scan) that I have won a big prize.

Looking at the list always has me thinking that my county, despite being huge, doesn't feature as much as others. Huge, but rural, so maybe not as many people as other areas.

I wonder which county wins more?
How does this compare to sales of bonds?
Are the areas that win more, more densely populated?

I love data, would love to play with this data set. (Though of course it maybe available!)

I think that makes SO much sense. I usually have to introduce an idea to DH, then wait for a few days. So I will bring it up again in a couple of days.

My DH is exactly like this too 🤣

Buoyed by this thread, my family is tackling the £12 PB held by my grandmother since her wedding in 1960. My grandmother investigated in 2009 and was told they’d never won anything, and ignored it thereafter.

Sadly, she passed away a few years ago. We’ve just learned that PBs are only eligible for prizes for 12 months after the holder passes away. My grandfather has given up on “the worst investment ever” but my mother is determined to track down the holding, even if it’s still only £12 after 65 years!

Please keep fingers crossed for my grandfather 🫣.

Good luck everyone - hopefully prizes start showing soon

Good luck everyone, I think they started to show on the blue app around 8.30 pm last month.

If I don't win anything I'm going to be livid! I've had such a bad run and will be withdrawing after April's draw. Good luck everyone!

And if really lucky the amount I’m putting is more than tax bill and if good with expenses I pay less then I save