Are premium bonds worthwhile now

tco03

I used to own premium bonds a long time ago and used to get a bit back from them now and again.
They were eventually cashed in when i bought my home.
Im now in a position to invest again however im unsure whether premium bonds are the right way since theres so many in the pot compared to my first lot.
Would it be wiser tro invest the money elsewhere?

CLAPTON

you are asking is gambling worthwhile?

with premiun bonds you give up the interest you could otherwise earn and gamble with it

if you have say £10,000 you could earn say 300 per annum
-you could buy bonds and gamble with the 300
-you could buy lottery tickets with the 300
-bet on horses or whatever with the 300

in any event it's certainly not investing

qpop

Actually CLAPTON not strictly true. The "expected return" (statistically) is 1.5% of your "stake" (in your example £10,000) and it's paid tax free.

Therefore, it's more akin to taking your £300 earned NET interest, banking just under half of it, and placing the rest on the horses/lottery/other wildly outside bet.

dunstonh

Are premium bonds worthwhile now

They are no more or less worth it than they have been for a long time. i.e. waste of money for most people.

CLAPTON

qpop wrote: »

Actually CLAPTON not strictly true. The "expected return" (statistically) is 1.5% of your "stake" (in your example £10,000) and it's paid tax free.

Therefore, it's more akin to taking your £300 earned NET interest, banking just under half of it, and placing the rest on the horses/lottery/other wildly outside bet.

My post made no reference to 'expected return' (winning) either from premium bonds, lottery or horses because I consider it pure and simply gambling.
Martin's approach, is in my view nonsense.

It pleases me to hold some premium bonds and it pleases me to have zero return as any gambling wins are given to my children

googler

CLAPTON wrote: »

you could buy lottery tickets with the 300
bet on horses or whatever with the 300

There's a difference though, in that £1 spent in the lottery or on race day is won or lost that day, and doesn't buy you a stake in subsequent lotteries or further race days.

£1 spent on a Premium Bond is entered into every draw for as long as you hold it.

oldvicar

The returns aren't great but your money ought to be safer in PBonds than, say, in a Greek bank.

I don't have any.

VT82

googler wrote: »

There's a difference though, in that £1 spent in the lottery or on race day is won or lost that day, and doesn't buy you a stake in subsequent lotteries or further race days.

£1 spent on a Premium Bond is entered into every draw for as long as you hold it.

Yeah, but if Premium Bonds pay out 1.5% on average over the year, then they pay out about 0.125% per draw, or 0.125p per pound. The lottery pays out about 55% of its takings in prizes, or about 55p per pound. And you can't win £75m on the Premium Bonds either.

You're not comparing like with like.

Anyone who thinks that Premium Bonds are like 'the lottery but you get to keep your stake' don't understand what Premium Bonds actually represent. But there are enough threads around here already explaining them, as well as the MSE guide, so anyone who still doesn't understand them really does just have their fingers in their ears.

CLAPTON

googler wrote: »

There's a difference though, in that £1 spent in the lottery or on race day is won or lost that day, and doesn't buy you a stake in subsequent lotteries or further race days.

£1 spent on a Premium Bond is entered into every draw for as long as you hold it.

reread my post
we are talking about the INTEREST on the money and not the capital