How's your luck with Premium Bonds?

[Ihavenojob]

Back in October, I gave our son £40k to buy premium bonds as I gave our daughter the same for her house. He got sweet FA this month. I got £200 and SWMBO got £25

 

[Koolpc]

Back in October, I gave our son £40k to buy premium bonds as I gave our daughter the same for her house. He got sweet FA this month. I got £200 and SWMBO got £25

Grandad!!!!

 

[Diyisfun]

6 wins this month, had 6 about 4mths ago also.
I calculate my interest rate by adding my winnings for the past 12 mths divided by total invested. It usually sits around 3.5% December win makes it 4.5%.
I just like the excitement each month.

 

[Ihavenojob]

6 wins this month, had 6 about 4mths ago also.
I calculate my interest rate by adding my winnings for the past 12 mths divided by total invested. It usually sits around 3.5% December win makes it 4.5%.
I just like the excitement each month.

My prizes amount to 2.5% this past year. A few years ago it was about 5 or 6%, but I sold them to give the money to our daughter, then as I built my holding up again, I've had hardly anything, some months nothing.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

I believe they have reduced the number of smaller prizes. If others are the same as me, their winnings will be mainly made up of small wins.

 

[Doug99]

Interest rate has been reduced for Jan 2025 resulting in less winners

 

[JohnD]

Nope it's an annualised return based on a single month's win

Random numbers don't work like that.

 

[Tetrarch]

Random numbers don't work like that.

There's no need to be so patronising. In my opinion £230,000 is not a particularly small sample and a 1.17% result vs a 4.15% expectation seems very much like an outlier

Regards

Tet

 

[JohnD]

In my opinion £230,000 is not a particularly small sample

And the returns, over a period of 12months or more, would give a fair idea of the return.

Over a single month, not.

a 4.15% expectation

It is not reasonable to expect random numbers to match the long term average.

 

[gas112]

Martin lewis on the telle tues morning basically saying if you havent got tens of thousands in bonds then you are better to put the money in the bank for guaranteed interest

 

[Mottie]

Well it does stand to reason that the more bonds you hold, the better the chance you have of winning a prize. Still, some people not holding the maximum amount do win big prizes.

https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker/winners

Don’t look at the total holding, look at the winning bond value.

Oh, I won a couple of £100 prizes a few months ago and the winning bond numbers were only 15 numbers apart so it’s just luck of the draw.

 

[Doug99]

Logic suggests that as the number of monthly prizes reduce, investors will cash out their bonds, thus reducing the number of bonds in the pot.
This then reduces the impact on my investment if I keep my bonds intact.

 

[JohnD]

Logic suggests that as the number of monthly prizes reduce, investors will cash out their bonds, thus reducing the number of bonds in the pot.
This then reduces the impact on my investment if I keep my bonds intact.

The return on Premium Bonds varies with retail interest rates for savers. PBs are supposed to be competitive but not market-beating. They are better value for higher-rate taxpayers because prizes are tax-free.

They do have the advantage that unlike many savings accounts, "bait-and-switch" is not used to drop the return after they've got your money.

Like any money-based account, you are guaranteed to lose value long-term.

 

[Burnerman]

A mere £125 for us this morning.
Happy New Year everyone
John

 

[Ihavenojob]

I got £50, SWMBO got £25, our daughter got £50 and our son got £125. I calculated my winnings over the year at just shy of 3%, but it could be a bit higher as I didn't have the full amount for a bit of the year. Could possibly have got more in a savings account, but in there I wouldn't have the chance of winning £1m.