Huge cut in Premium Bond Interest Rates

Fella

Interest rate cut from 3.40% to 2.85% effective immediately.

http://www.nsandi.com/products/pb/rates.jsp
A 0.55% cut is almost equivalent to a 1% cut for any higher-rate taxpayers.

Premium bonds are now horribly uncompetetive.


Good to see the Government losing no time in exploiting the fact that many people are now scared to bank with anyone other than NSANDI.

sheslookinhot

Good to see that the government has rescued Icesave depositors and bailed out the whole banking industry

Fella

sheslookinhot wrote: »

Good to see that the government has rescued Icesave depositors and bailed out the whole banking industry

The Government not only allowed the banking industry to get into this situation, it positively encouraged it. Brown has done everything he possibly can to keep the house price bubble going.

And as for "bailing out the whole banking industry" - read the small print. One of the conditions is that banks MUST lend like it's 2007. Lol, even now Brown is trying to re-inflate the bubble.

This Government get's NO CREDIT WHATSOEVER for "rescuing" savers. All of these problems happened on Brown's watch. He smugly took the credit for 10 years of boom & the second we hit bust he has done nothing but whine about how it's all the US's fault.

He's an imcompetent buffoon, a disgrace of a PM & a horrible excuse for a man.

Gwhiz

Fella wrote: »

Interest rate cut from 3.40% to 2.85% effective immediately.

http://www.nsandi.com/products/pb/rates.jsp
A 0.55% cut is almost equivalent to a 1% cut for any higher-rate taxpayers.

Premium bonds are now horribly uncompetetive.


Good to see the Government losing no time in exploiting the fact that many people are now scared to bank with anyone other than NSANDI.

As long as I win the £1m I don't care

sheslookinhot

Fella wrote: »

The Government not only allowed the banking industry to get into this situation, it positively encouraged it. Brown has done everything he possibly can to keep the house price bubble going.

And as for "bailing out the whole banking industry" - read the small print. One of the conditions is that banks MUST lend like it's 2007. Lol, even now Brown is trying to re-inflate the bubble.

This Government get's NO CREDIT WHATSOEVER for "rescuing" savers. All of these problems happened on Brown's watch. He smugly took the credit for 10 years of boom & the second we hit bust he has done nothing but whine about how it's all the US's fault.

He's an imcompetent buffoon, a disgrace of a PM & a horrible excuse for a man.

No credit from you maybe, but the stock market seems to be responding favourably. Maybe your comments can be explained by your last few words. A personel attack.

Fella

sheslookinhot wrote: »

No credit from you maybe, but the stock market seems to be responding favourably. Maybe your comments can be explained by your last few words. A personel attack.

No, my comments can be explained by the fact that they're all true.

grebbo

Bad news for us PB'ers. However no savings accounts keep up with real inflation if you're a higher rate tax payer - other than ISA's. Therefore I'd rather have a bit of fun with PB's.

Sandblast

I'm thinking about having a flutter on the PB's myself. But i've got a few questions before i dive in.
Like many others i've lost faith in the banks, just don't trust them with my hard earned money anymore, & i don't fancy the idea of a shoebox under the bed.
1...on the NS & I site, in the interest rates section, it states that interest rates are now 2.85% (down fron 3.4%) and that each bond now has a 1 in 24000 chance of winning a prize ( it was 1 in 22000), does this mean that if i invest £24000 i am virtually certain to win a prize each month ?
2... the draw takes place on the 1st of the month & you can check online if you have won, but by what date within the month can you expect to get the check ?
3... i know Ernie is random but can Ernie be "manipulated " ?
4...(on a lighter note) does anybody know what Ernie looks like or is he a mysterious figure like the Banker on Deal or no Deal ?
Thank beforehand for any & all answers.

isofa

Sandblast wrote: »

I'm thinking about having a flutter on the PB's myself. But i've got a few questions before i dive in.
Like many others i've lost faith in the banks, just don't trust them with my hard earned money anymore, & i don't fancy the idea of a shoebox under the bed.
1...on the NS & I site, in the interest rates section, it states that interest rates are now 2.85% (down fron 3.4%) and that each bond now has a 1 in 24000 chance of winning a prize ( it was 1 in 22000), does this mean that if i invest £24000 i am virtually certain to win a prize each month ?
2... the draw takes place on the 1st of the month & you can check online if you have won, but by what date within the month can you expect to get the check ?
3... i know Ernie is random but can Ernie be "manipulated " ?
4...(on a lighter note) does anybody know what Ernie looks like or is he a mysterious figure like the Banker on Deal or no Deal ?
Thank beforehand for any & all answers.

1. No it's pure luck, someone might win every month, someone else not at all. For someone to win, someone else effectively has to lose. Many people with the max holding (30K) win a small prize each month, many don't win every month.

2. You don't usually get your "winning" cheques until the middle of the month, I won £50 in this months draw, but still haven't got the cheque yet!

3. No it's random as an electronic machine can be! You often see people saying that they brought more recent bonds and win more than with their old bonds, this is purely because there are more recent bonds than ones people held years ago.

4. R2D2?

There are two good large threads about PBs winnings and discussions just added the links for you!

derbyjon

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/

owner

Sandblast wrote: »

3... i know Ernie is random but can Ernie be "manipulated " ?
4...(on a lighter note) does anybody know what Ernie looks like or is he a mysterious figure like the Banker on Deal or no Deal ?

3. ERNIE 4 uses thermal noise in transistors as its source of entropy for generating random bond numbers; the original ERNIE used a gas neon diode. In each case the randomness of electrons and natural unpredictable variance of the physical processes involved mean that systematic trends and similar cumulative effects that affect any pseudorandom number generator are reduced greatly, if not eliminated. ERNIE's output is independently tested each month by an independent actuary appointed by the government and the draw is only valid if the output passes tests that indicate it is statistically random

4. In August 2004 ERNIE 4 was brought into service in anticipation of an increase in the number of prizes to be allocated each month from September 2004.[2] ERNIE 4 was developed by LogicaCMG, is 500 times as fast as the original ERNIE and generates a million premium bond numbers an hour; these are then checked against a list of valid bonds to determine the winning bonds before any prizes are awarded. By comparison, the original ERNIE could generate only 2000 numbers an hour and was the size of a van

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ERNIE#ERNIE