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 😄

But on the plus side you'd have the monthly rollercoaster giddiness of this thread to look forward to!

Congrats all! I had my first win and wasn’t expecting it as I have very small holdings. £775 in holdings, and I won £50! Delighted with that!

September I started with a measly £25 and have been adding part of what I would usually pop into my savings account just as a bit of fun. It’s reinvested, so let’s see what next month brings!

Nothing for 3 months. Getting annoying now

Wonderful to see the big wins, thank you for sharing the joy with screen shots!

I put 2k in in December and won £100 in my first draw! Very happy as already made more than it would in a fixed account.

What do people do who have PB’s for their kids? What if one kid won £0 and the other one won £50k? Would you share it between kids or is it a case of it belongs to who wins it regardless? Just thinking of opening up accounts for my kids who are teens

My 2 daughters have yet to win on their holds yet but I think I would probably leave the winner keep it unless it was a large prize as may end up evening out over the years. I’ve no idea what we would do however if one won say £50k. I think probably split it

I believe that they own it, so parents aren’t allowed to give half to siblings.

They can sue you as an adult if you’ve given away their winnings.

We have fh x2 between us. Total of £375 not too bad…

march is good and comes quickly as only 28 days in it

won’t be long till we are singing @PremiumBondJovi

MARCH

AM sun 1st
LIST mon 2nd
APP tue 3rd

@tricerotopsrulemy teens have an agreement to split any prizes over £100. We’ve only held them since 2020 so they were both able to agree to it and that agreement is reconfirmed annually. If they were younger I’m not sure we would have gone with bonds.

Another £0. Next time....

Thanks for the new thread @Blondeshavemorefun .. checking in. DD won £750 on FH, and DH £25 on FH. Mine was £150 on FH. DD is a student so unsurprisingly very happy... I’d have my money on her winning big tbh….

As OP said, it makes no difference.

I have 20 blocks ranging from £50 to £35k. My biggest ones are the £35K and £10k (bought last July and August to take me to FH), the others are much smaller and I never win from them anymore, only from the two big blocks because statistically I'm more likely to win with those two than my small blocks. So it's nothing to do with ERNIE favouring blocks, I just have much more 'tickets' in the 'raffle' now and therefore more chances to win.

£325 on £34k - past year PB have performed better than my cash ISA.

£200 on FH and MIL got £75 on FH

Lucky dd !

What is ‘FH’ please?

Ohh, Full Holding! Duh!

£100 win for me - better than last month’s £25

Good to do it this way! My nieces and nephews (teens) all have bonds and when I asked their parent what happens if one of them wins a big prize they hadn’t thought it through - it’s already a source of arguments as some holders seem to have more luck then others! I bought a v small amount for my DC who are younger but we talked about it and they wanted to play on the basis of all prizes being shared. I know legally it wouldn’t stand up and maybe when they get older it’s trickier, but personally think not to have a plan is a bad idea - imagine winning £10k and losing your sibling bond over it one way or another?! Could be awful!!

I won £25 on around £20,000, DD won £25 on £6000. Nothing for DH and DS on a lot less.
Better for me last couple of months after hardly anything last year.

Well done to the big winners! I can only dream...

I put money I had for my DC when they were younger into my premium bonds account. One of their bonds won £1000 years ago. I split the money between them to make it fair.
I set up their own premium bonds accounts after, sadly no more big prizes!
Any wins they had, which were small they kept for themselves.

Enjoy your good luck everyone, I had £150 on 20k holdings, and £125 last month on 18K. can't work out my % because holdings change every month as I move thing around, but I think I've had a good 12 months with wins in 9 out of 12.

@PremiumBondJovi this one's for you: 1 😘