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 😄

Thats still fabulous!! I'd be so excited if someone on here won the million though. Obviously I would be first choice but I'd be giddy if someone posted that Agent Million had been 😂

February was an exceptional month with a £10k and a £50k prize amongst posters. I don't think either had full holdings either

😆🐓

Know we have £50k @recklessgran but didn’t know we had had £100k

Yep - in January someone reported a £100k win from last year and shared the screenshot of the prize notification in the white app.

@Blondeshavemorefun sadly not me winning 50k although we are definitely not complaining about our continued good luck at all. DH won 10k in May 2024 and I won 1k in August last year and we do both win something most months although DH is much luckier than me. We're too old now to worry about returns - PB's have been kind to us and we enjoy the anticipation of the draw. Good luck this week everyone by the way.

oh Yes. Course. How did I forget that

Ah sorry. Knew you had won something big

Don't be daft @Blondeshavemorefun love your thread - such a smashing and kind corner of mumsnet so let me take the opportunity to thank you and everybody else here for that.

Awww shucks. 🥰🥰

I feel sorry for Agent Million knocking on my door today, poor bloke. As I’m away on holiday 🤣

Ooh, I'm not sure if it will be possible to get the money into an ISA before the end of this tax year, if that's what you're asking? I believe you need the money in PBs for the whole calendar month, ie you can't withdraw until tomorrow.

But tomorrow is the last working day of the tax year, so even if you go online at 12.01 am, they'd have to process it the same day and transfer the money for you to send on to your ISA. Otherwise if they work office hours they're shut until Tuesday, which is into the next tax year.

For those who've wavering over whether it's worth keeping bonds or not, they're most useful for higher rate tax payers who also use their personal savings and ISA allowances but should also be viewed as a longer term store of cash, eg a couple of years or more and for larger amounts of money, eg £20k+ where over time, you should average close to the payout rate.

If those factors don't apply they start to look less worth it and the return is down to luck, you're effectively gambling your guaranteed 4% or so interest you'd receive in a savings account that you'd win more with PBs. So its best not to look at what you win in 2 or 3 months as that could well be zero but averaged over a year you should have a few wins.

A bit like tossing a coin and getting 3 tails in a row. You know that if you keep at it, you will get heads quite soon and over time it will be 50/50 (I have a professional interest in statistics so one reason as well as sensible financial reasons and a bit of fun to have them is to see how prizes vary month to month compared with the odds).

But of course, you'd then also need to think about whether you should be investing the money instead, the answer isn't always yes (my PBs are effectively our emergency fund, self employed tax savings and the money I borrow from credit cards for free so I can make money doing so).

But anyway, I'm WFH today so available when AM calls.

Dito @LaurieFairyCake i doubt he would be flying out to see me 🤣
Good luck everyone hopefully we all win something 🍀 🙏 for a big win 😀

Just a heads up that today is the last day to buy PB’s that are eligible for the May draw.

Happy AW day everyone 🙂

Thanks for the reminder, I have just topped up mine and hubbys. Hope it gets added in time for May draw.

Is this right? There are only 30 days in April so I thought I was too late due to it being cleared by the bank?

It doesn’t matter how many days there in a month when it comes to PB’s, they just have to be held for one calendar month to be eligible for the following month’s draw.

Thanks! @Bjorkdidit I always fill in my allowance at the start of the new tax year so it accumulates as much interest as possible (dependent on whether I've got the cash upfront of course). So I already filled in my allowance 25/26 last April and am looking to fill in my 26/27 allowance now - no rush to get it in for the exact start of the new tax year but relatively soon to maximise my interest.

And really interesting to hear more about the odds! I think it's also an emotional thing - I keep my emergency cash in a cash ISA and then the leftover in PB for the fun of a potential big win. But I need to start planning a retirement/pension plan so realised long-term my money is better invested in S&S. I'm aiming to put any leftover savings accumulated over the year into PB so still keeping my options open!

@Bjorkdidit I've just tried to withdraw my bonds but was met with the message - 'As it is so close to the next draw, we can only make payment after the draw. To continue, please click Yes.'. Does this mean I'll have to wait a whole month to receive my money?!!

I have my new bonds for May so all good.
Its always worrying when cash disapears into a banking black hole for a few hours.

I just got excited because my doorbell rang, but it was just our Gousto delivery! Boo!

No, it means that you will get it in early April. I.e. after the draw on 1 April.

Well in case AM does not make it to me today, I have bought a Euromillions ticket as a back up plan...

An agent million question (important to be prepared!j. Someone said they don’t say who they are until after you’ve shown them ID to make sure they don’t give away the fact you’ve won to anyone else. But obviously I’m not going to show a random person at my door my ID until they’ve told me what they want and shown me theirs. Not even this afternoon 😆 .So how does that work?