Premium Bonds £1M - now only 1 winner

alastair_h

Just had a e-mail from NS&I and they are reducing the 2x £1 million prizes to 1 and re-distributing the second to smaller prizes, not that i've ever been lucky with them (e-mail below)

NS&I – Changes to Premium Bonds prize fund and rate

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana]Thank you for registering to receive updates from National Savings and Investments[/FONT]

We recently announced changes to the Premium Bonds prize structure and to the number of £1 million jackpots.
With effect from 1 April 2009 we will be replacing one of the two monthly £1 million jackpots with a wider mix of other prizes and will also be introducing a £25 prize alongside the existing prize values.
Further information on the Premium Bonds changes can be found on the changes to prize fund page on our website.
We also announced new interest rates on 18 March 2009 for Premium Bonds and some of our other variable rate accounts and investments.
The Premium Bonds prize fund rate does not come into effect until 1 April 2009, however our interest rates page did not display the pending rate at the time of the announcement. This has since been amended and you will find both the current and the pending rate on our interest rates page.
Please accept our apologies for any confusion that this may have caused.

Magnolia

It had to happen soon - I emailed them about this back in January making the very suggestion.

Quote:
I have just sent them an email suggesting getting rid of the 2nd Million prize and sharing that around the 5k and 10k winners. I will keep you informed of what they say.
Had my reply:-

Quote:
Thank you for your enquiry Mrs ******,

We keep the prize structure continually under review. Our aim is always to
pay out as many prizes as possible to customers. Removing one of the £1m jackpots, at this point in time, would not make any significant difference to the odds. If base rates fall further it may be something we will need to do in the future. We know our customers value the chance of winning a high
value prize, as well as winning regularly and we try to maintain a balance.

Kind regards

Tony Johnstone
NS&I Blackpool

Bet someone there is taking all the glory for my idea:rolleyes:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17185485#post17185485 #1632

losgiganteskid

I don't mind about losing one of the 1 million £ top prizes but to shrink the £50 prize allocation down from what was hundreds of thousands of monthly £50 prizes to a poultry 18 thousand and introducing an even lower prize of £25 of which there will be over 1 million seems to be solely based on holders receiving a feel good factor when a cheque for £25 pops on the doormat. I thought the £50 minimum was getting worthless but £25 is dire.

Also why are cheques sent in the post ? - if the monthly draw takes 1,075,065 prizes which are mainly posted to winners, what is the monthly postage bill ? - seems to me it would be better to have bank details logged whereby any winning are paid straight into your bank account. Hence saving on postage and that saving can be given as additional prize money

Suppose reducing the minimum prize it will "appear" to holders there is a greater chance of winning a prize, no matter how small. If NS&I continue down this road can we expect a £2.25p postal order to be awarded in the distant future.

Dave101t

it could be you

rb10

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Also why are cheques sent in the post ? - if the monthly draw takes 1,075,065 prizes which are mainly posted to winners, what is the monthly postage bill ? - seems to me it would be better to have bank details logged whereby any winning are paid straight into your bank account. Hence saving on postage and that saving can be given as additional prize money

Why are cheques sent in the post? Because the 'winning' Premium Bonds is purely a psychological thing. People believe that they are doing something good with their money, as getting a physical letter through the post once in a while makes it seem more real. Just another credit into their bank account would make it more like regular interest, which might make people start to compare Premium Bonds to normal savings accounts, and realise that they are actually wasting a huge amount of money.

baby_boomer

Sir Alan Sugar, Bob Geldof and Germaine Greer should be ashamed of themselves supporting the government's publicity campaign to cover these massive cuts in payouts.

sabretoothtigger

Theres goes my chance of winning 2 million