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 😄

£25 for MintBiscuit65, which isn't life changing, but I'm not going to say no to it! I checked the blue app at 11pm last night, and it didn't show up as pending, so it was a nice surprise to wake up to. It's reinvested for next month, so I've now got a few more chances to win!

Absolutely thrilled for @EdwinaLIzzard and all the other bigger winners! What an amazing surprise to wake up to!

Commiserations to those who didn't win this month.

I was hoping my daughter's account might win something, but sadly not. Her sibling won a decent amount last year so it's be nice to even it up!

With the returns being lowered again I'm debating moving some in to ISAs because I have sone allowance left. But I also need to spend some money on the house.

Nothing for me this month, but them's the breaks! I got a nice win last time, and there's always next month to look forward to.

Aw, that’s unkind especially when your dream was quite modest.

I got zilch on £30k, bit fed up about that.

(FH = Full Holdings, being the 50,000 maximum in Premium Bonds).

Delighted with my 250.00 on 47,300 holdings, after two months of 25.00 and the December zilch. Reinvesting to try and get back to FH after having to dip in to pay off credit card last year.

Buzzing for the big winners! Congratulations.

Yay @EdwinaLIzzard great news! Sad about your 🐶 though.

£300 for me on FH. So ticking along nicely, waiting for the biggie 🙏

Delighted for you @EdwinaLIzzard though so sorry to hear about your dog. A holiday sounds a fantastic idea.

It does feel like we've had some lovely big prizes recently!

Hmph. I wish my dream of large winnings was real..... just received an e-mail from our accountant this morning saying they had miscalculated my January tax and I owe another £1300 about. It's busily accruing interest every day and the have said they will pay it as it was their mistake, but still leaves me with the balance.

I so could have done with some better news today!

Just checked, because I always do, and my £25 win this month came from a £25 win from December's draw, that was reinvested. Always exciting when that happens.

And brilliant news @EdwinaLIzzard So sorry about your dog though.

I just checked mine too. It came from a December 2025 investment. 😊

£150 for me. One of the prizes was from a bond which I'd previously won as a prize and I'm ridiculously pleased about that!

£150 for me on FH - so better than the absolute nothing I got last month (still bitter), but think I'll still pull out £20k next month when the new ISA tax year becomes available.

I got £150 on £30,000 which is nice, that's £300 I've won since December. Already a lot more than I won all of last year.
Nothing for DD on around £7000 and DS on £500.

I'm looking into investing so may take some out. I can still put into an ISA before April, don't have one. Can anyone recommend an ISA please?

I got £100 on under 4k so happy with that 🤩

£50 for me, still dreaming of a few more zeros but its better than nothing.

@LetsHopeSo - the MoneySavingExpert website has a section on cash ISAs and current best buys.

@EdwinaLIzzard Congratulations - hope you managed to bob off after that brilliant surprise! Sorry to hear about your little pal though, it's heartbreaking when they go.

£150 for me and £25 for DH this time!

£50 on 27k for me, none for dd on 3k but that's to be expected!

There are lots of ISA discussions on the MoneySavingExpert forums. I think you need to make that decision but there are a number of things to consider.

the amount of money you have to save

do you need to feel you can access your savings when you might need to - for house stuff, holidays, paying off bills, helping kids, frivolity?

would you prefer to fix the rate of interest for a year or several? This guards against interest rate cuts though fixes are usually slightly below top variable rates.

Are you looking to commit a large chunk of savings at once and make use of a whole ISA allowance - or do you want to be able to add to your savings ad when you need to

Do you want a well known bank or building society, do you want one which has branches you can visit, are you happy to try companies offering headline grabbing rates which don't have those?

Monthly or annual interest?

Check the details carefully - are top rates available to fit your circumstances or is there a catch like withdrawal penalties, time taken to get money out if .you need to? If you don't already have ISA money that you might want to move you don't need to worry about whether a top offer accepts transfers in rather than new savings/investments

I have most of my savings, ISA and others, with Coventry and Nationwide - rates aren't the highest, but they are better than others. Coventry offers monthly interest on most accounts - for me this is motivating, and as it's paid on the last day of the month and shows on the first day of the next, it's something to look at when I don't win anything on my PBs! Nationwide has made a few small cash payouts in addition to headline interest and is easily and quickly accessible through a second current account (if I need to - I haven't actually withdrawn money from Nationwide ISAs other than through transfers to other ISAs)

I have relatively small Premium Bond holdings after opening an account in February 2024 - at the end of that year I only had £401 and had won nothing - but I won just enough in March and in December last year to think - that's actually more than I would have got by tucking it into ISAs

Ooh, £25! I looked a few minutes before midnight last night so thought ok, nothing again this month, but thought just now that I would have another look and then try to forget about it until the end of the month. Ok, it's not super exciting but it justifies my little flutter on PBs. And interestingly, it's from my January 2026 investment - my newest PBs to be eligible for the draw.

Congratulations Edwinalizard that’s a fantastic win

Congratulations to all winners but especially@EdwinaLIzzard! What a lovely win!

Congrats @EdwinaLIzzard and to the smaller winners too

£100 for me. I’ve already taken all out (well, left £100) and we’re paying off the mortgage as the fixed rate has come to an end this month.

I might keep topping up every now and again, but after 25 years of on and off PBs, it was a poor return overall.

I'd never invest as you can lose the initial investment or get very little back. I certainly can't afford to risk it.