Premium Bond prizes are cut

Kazza242

According to the Daily Mail Money:

NS&I will reduce the prize fund from 3% to 2.95% from June 1. This means that the chances of winning any of the big prizes has been reduced.

Source: The thisismoney website.

Unfortunately, they've removed one £50K prize and two £10K prizes. Also the number of £100 prizes is being cut from 63,910 to 41,550. However the £50 prizes have been increased.


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=409189&in_page_id=7&ct=5

Oh dear! I'm a bit disappointed, as there has been no BOE base rate reduction. Oh well, at least the number of £50 pound prizes will be increased.

Note to BG: I didn't copy the full article and the small section that was quoted was placed inside inverted commas and stated the source at the bottom! I have edited my post again, to re-include some important information that was edited out.

Swipe

Oh dear, yet another blow for savers. Let's hope things get better later on in the year.

meanmachine_2

So they're cutting the rate, just as the base rate is set to rise?

Greedy swine.

equitydealer

Kazza242 wrote:

According to the Daily Mail Money:

and an increase in its tax obligations to the Exchequer.

Considering that Premium Bonds are run by HM Treasury....

Snow_Dog

It almost seems ironic that at the same time as fixed rate mortgage offers are rising, savings rates are falling. Borrowing costs more, savers get less.

Is this a symptom of lax lending criteria tuning into bad debt beginning to bite along with a tightening of liquidity in the global money markets?

One can almost see the attration of gold, unfortunately most investments at the moment feel like a gamble with decidedly unpleasant odds.

[Deleted User]

Full story at -

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=409189&in_page_id=7


Now that Premium Bonds are enjoying a popularity like never before with more and more people buying them, surely NSI can come up with a moneysaving method of administrating them that does not cut the prize money?

Why not pay winnings directly into the winners bank accounts?

Why insist on sending out a Bond Certificate with each purchase instead of just adding the new purchase to the individuals account and allowing the account holder online access to their account to view what they have?

Kazza242

Deleted_User wrote:

Full story at -

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=409189&in_page_id=7

Now that Premium Bonds are enjoying a popularity like never before with more and more people buying them, surely NSI can come up with a moneysaving method of administrating them that does not cut the prize money?

Hi. There is already a thread on the premium bond prize fund cut: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=200101

Deleted_User wrote:

Why not pay winnings directly into the winners bank accounts?

I suppose NS&I may think that this would involve too much administration. Seeing as many premium bond holders do not inform NS&I when they move to a new address, there will also be some that forget to inform NS&I of any change of bank account. This would be a nightmare, especially if the bank were to re-allocate an old account number to a new account holder.

Deleted_User wrote:

Why insist on sending out a Bond Certificate with each purchase instead of just adding the new purchase to the individuals account and allowing the account holder online access to their account to view what they have?

I don't actually mind receiving a certificate for each purchase. I save up and buy my bonds in bigger blocks, which of course means less certificates. Much easier should one choose to cash them in at a later date.