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 😄

Not at all nasty or sour but it's so upsetting, it really is to see these massive wins going, on the whole, to people who have massive amounts invested. Lots of us are struggling. You clearly haven't experienced that.

Thing is tho it’s a draw aka raffle

so the more tickets aka bonds you have the more chances you have to win

so those with £50k are likely to win more then those that only have a few thousand

but saying that. It only takes one

and a year ago someone won the million with £100 amount of bonds so it can happen

I think some of us choose PB’s as a way to use money tax efficiently too, as well as a bit of excitement each month. A range of savings is always good.

There is no compulsion to have PB’s

If I didn’t have other money in a Cash ISA I would probably remove my PB money to one. Interest from the Cash ISA is regular, pennies short of £100 every month on £33,000 ( yet I don’t celebrate my winnings of £100 per month in the same way!)

I have just won £150 on my PB’s - but only £25 last month and nothing the month before.

£75 for me on 37K. DH got nowt on 32K. DS got £200 on 33K. Well done to the winners.

Congratulations @EdwinaLIzzard what lovely news! 💐
Well done to all who won and better luck next time to those who had a blank.
I won £75 on 16.6k
Nothing for DD with 1.6k

@dailyconniptions look into it properly
People think investing is putting all your money into a new start up or one company or buying and selling daily on the market..

Think about all the huge companies like apple , rolls Royce , Diego , micro soft ,Google /alphabet etc ..but hundreds of them. You can buy hundreds of strong successful companies who also want to be a success. The only way hundreds in one go would permanently fail is a nuclear bomb.

Before I did proper research I thought like you but now my only regret is not getting in sooner.its the only way to make money grow..
From what you have said I'd say pb are not the place for our money anyway because there is no guaranted of anything at all and inflation is your biggest enemy.

• your money

@EdwinaLIzzard that's an incredible win what an amazing surprise !
With last month's big winners thats really something !

But that is the dice you roll with PBs. If it upsets you to know someone won more than you as they had bigger holdings then is PBs the right thing for you? The max is £50,000 so in effect they have capped it to a certain level so you can’t have people putting in any more than that at an individual level. If they only let people put in say £500 each then it wouldn’t be attractive to a lot of people and the amount of prizes may then diminish. Each bond has the same chance. Those that put in max are also helping to add in more to the overall amount deposited which then determines the size of the prize pot at it is a percentage. And yes lots of us with FHs have had ZERO but whilst I might think oooo lucky sod for the big winners on less holdings and wish it was me that is what you sign up for no matter what holdings you have.

You say lots of us are struggling. Then it might be better to find a safer investment that gives you a guaranteed return rather than rolling the dice.

4 prizes for me £25,£50,£50 and £500 on FH. One prize for dh £25 on &28,000. No prizes for our little dgs on £2,000.
Couldn’t believe that 500, thought it was another 50 at first lol.

Always dread looking!
£250 for me (on £37850)

I use Vanguard. It’s very easy, reputable and low cost.

You can pick a little diverse selection of index funds and just let it do its thing.

We've been celebrating small wins, tiny wins and no wins for many, many threads. They're all about hope & dreams. 🙂

BLIMEY! Huge congratulations to you (and i’m so sorry for the loss of your wee dog)

@EdwinaLIzzard what an amazing surprise that must have been! Congratulations on that wonderful win and sorry to hear about your loss 😢

Love to hear the wins.

£50k holdings in PB (only there until I can put £20k away LISA/ISA in April) and fuck all to show for it.

I do have other investments and savings, but seriously.. £50k and nada. Pisses me off.

Regarding investing, I looked into it and put some money into Vanguard too. The return has been crazy (stock market at all time high I think) my ISA currently has a return of 45%! I then moved my son’s junior cash ISA over to the Vanguard Junior ISA and he’s now on a return of 30%!

I’m aware markets rise and fall and are volatile but if you can handle that and don’t need to access that money for 5+ years I think stocks and shares are a great place to put your money.

Im also aware I’m in a fortunate position to do that but only cos it’s money from my parents house sale when they died, so not that fortunate really

Wowser @EdwinaLIzzard Enjoy your win.

And commiserations for your 🐶 loss.

My first ever draw and I won £100 (on £20k). Whoop. Huge congrats @EdwinaLIzzard that is incredible!!

Biggest win in some time, coming at just the right time as I was seriously considering moving my money. Pleased to say 5 prizes totalling £275 (FH).

Yah

Second month of nothing on FH...been happier!

@EdwinaLIzzard very sorry for the loss of your beloved pooch. I am glad you had such a wonderful windfall to give you comfort.

£225 on £41k - very happy with that.

£250 for me this month on approx £18k. I'm really pleased with that. Good luck for the April draw to everyone who didn't have a win this month x