Premium Bonds Calculator Discussion Area

tony1959

Is there anyway to work out if a household has 2, 3 or more holders with maximum £30K holdings what the probabilty would be - no doubt it would be more but I am am unsure how that would escalate? Any ideas??

The_Bleurk

just divide the odds by the number of people - eg odds of winning a million are 1 in 600000 per month for one person with £30k - odds of one of two people winning are exactly 1 in 300000 per month....

tony1959

Thank you for the explanation

jont999

I just use premium bonds as my holiday savings fund. The interest I'd earn in 12 months with a standard account would be negligible but I could win something to get me a nice upgrade or just go into the beer kitty :beer:

capn_pugwash

The calculator only shows odds for the maximum stake of 30k, but what if a family have the maximum each eg husband and wife or two parents and x number of children - surely the investment could be treated as a pool for the purposes of calculating the 'family's' chance of winning?

Could the calculator be amended to allow investment amounts greater than 30k? Martin?

Crazyjoe

Had £5000 in for 5 years and won diddley squat.

NPowerUser

I will be topping up my Premium Bond holding to £6000 tomorrow via another £400 purchase.

My £6000 stands less than a 5% chance over the next 18 months of winning nothing, a 95% chance of winning £50 or more and 80.5% of winning £100 or more. Also a 32.7% chance of winning £200 or more.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/

As I will be cashing them in January 2011 towards buying another house I am not bothered if I win anything.

If I had left the money in my Nationwide Cash ISA over the next 18 months I would be guaranteed less than £100 in interest and seeing as I earn over this amount on a Saturday, I won't be losing too much sleep.

If I win nothing on my 6K over 18 months all I have lost is less than one days earnings in terms of lost interest. Definitely worth a punt IMHO.

Milarky

NPowerUser wrote: »

I will be topping up my Premium Bond holding to £6000 tomorrow via another £400 purchase.

My £6000 stands less than a 5% chance over the next 18 months of winning nothing, a 95% chance of winning £50 or more and 80.5% of winning £100 or more. Also a 32.7% chance of winning £200 or more.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/.

Just remember that, from April, the smallest prize halves in value - to just £25.

during the past year, the prize fund has dropped from £114 million in February 2008 to £58 million this month. In February 2008, some 531 people won a prize of more than £1,000, whereas this month the level has dropped to just 26. And the total number of prize winners has dropped by 600,000 in the past year from 1.7 million to just over 1 million.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/4641259/Premium-Bond-prizes-of-30-million-unclaimed-reveals-NSandI.html

NPowerUser

Milarky wrote: »

Just remember that, from April, the smallest prize halves in value - to just £25.

Which is what I prefer.

I accept they may cut their rates to say 1.0% - 1.3% in April but I would prefer to win a smaller amount more often. I think the number of smaller prizes offered will rise but the total amount paid out will be reduced. Bond holders will win more often but the amounts will be smaller.

If I am that worried about winning a prize, I guess I will have to work my day off once in the next 18 months to beat the Nationwide lost interest.

gpforbat

I cannot see any purpose in the bar graph. All that is needed is to run the cursor along the bottom axis