Premium Bonds Article Discussion Area

Gorgeous_George

Well done, you have been lucky and defied the odds. Of course, that means that there will be others who have been less lucky.

In a 6.3% paying savings account you would have earned just £840 over 8 months so your gambling has returned an additional £60 (plus any tax liability that the 6.3% account would have attracted).

Martin's calculator shows that the chance of £20,000 worth of bonds winning £1,000 or more in a given year is just 15.5%.

Your winnings need to be £880 to keep up with RPI.



GG

OwtForNowt

hello, sorry if this is the wrong place, but does anybody know if you decide to cash in some of your bonds and get a warrant, are you able to cash them in that the post office or is it exactly like a cheque and only able to put it in the bank?

AstonDB6

:eek: I just did some numbers...

My extended family's total holding in premium bonds is huge, spread over a number of people.

2.3% compound was the worst rate of return, 3.6% compound was the best. These were from £20,000+ holdings. prizes arrive every month, but not enough of them...

Time to move some money around. We'll all keep some - so we can still dream

Jonbvn

OwtForNowt wrote: »

hello, sorry if this is the wrong place, but does anybody know if you decide to cash in some of your bonds and get a warrant, are you able to cash them in that the post office or is it exactly like a cheque and only able to put it in the bank?

According to the encashment form, the warrant is like a cheque. I.e. you cannot cash it at the PO. This is done for security purposes, to avoid fraud.

The best way to receive your money is via bank transfer.

notadamsmith_3

Nakedcash wrote: »

After waiting 6 months with no win at all on my 30K's worth of PBs I decided drastic action was needed.
I purchased :
1 hanging money frog to hang inside my front door with coin in his gob pointed in towards my house as advised on the box. £8.99.
1 Feng Shui money mobile to hang in the money area of my house. £9.99.
1 Feng Shui growth bowl that I put my PB holders number in £8.99.
1 lucky money wallet for my husband with a photo of me and the dog looking adoringly at him as advised by the note that came with it, £21.
I then placed a cosmic order on the tail end of listening to my Paul McKenna "I can make you slim" CD (because the CD makes me so relaxed and my mind uncluttered).
Results - this month I won £50 :T

Secretly, don't tell the universe this, but I am a bit underwhelmed... at least after my expenditure, I have made £1.03p to put into my pennies bottle..The good news is that I have lost 16 pounds so far using my P.McKenna CD.

September draw (tomorrow) try sprinkling them with salt: sea salt preferred. Some swear by it. Cheap, too. Good luck.

wiseman405

I liked that article. The figures with the interest rates are really interesting. The calculater as well. Even if you put 30K in over 10 years it doesn't even register with the top prize. If i was a lucky chap i would do it. But i am far from lucky. Thanks for the article

winnit_2

hello i won 7000 pounds on the lotto hotpicks 2 weeks ago and i am thinking of investing in premium bonds any advice would be greatly recieved cheers

Crabman

winnit wrote: »

hello i won 7000 pounds on the lotto hotpicks 2 weeks ago and i am thinking of investing in premium bonds any advice would be greatly recieved cheers

Have a look at the new Premium Bonds Calculator and see for yourself what the return is - then decide whether the money would be better off in a 6.3% savings account

dollydoodah

Just a quickie about these, if you don't mind

My mother-in-law has 'invested' £10k for each of my two young children in these. She bought them but we hold the bonds.

If we were to cash them in to move them to a savings account, would she be notified that we had redeemed them, does anyone know? She is the type to be very offended as she thinks they are guaranteed to do well!

Flynn_2

I don't have any premium bonds but having looked at them they are a much better deal than I realised.

First, let's compare like with like. These are a NS&I (National Savings) investment so totally safe. The safer your money, then usually the less the return.

If instead of PBs you put up to £5000 into a NS&I Investment Account you'd get get 4% but it would be taxable. The 4% that goes into the premium bonds pot is not taxed and neither are the winnings. That makes it equivalent to 5% for a standard rate tax payer and 6.66% for higher rate payers doesn't it?

Yes, the interest you earned is then gambled on winning a bigger prize but doesn't even the village idiot realise that some will win and some will lose? That's why it's called a gamble.

Next month, next year, there will be different winners and losers but you can't gamble a quid's worth of interest and be guaranteed to win a million. If you can't afford to gamble a bit of interest or don't understand what a gamble means then they might not be for you.

Originally Posted by Aegis
I think he meant to say that the average winnings were £1, not £1m

Hmm, well that is actually correct as far as it goes, isn't it? I assume what was meant was that the average return would be £1. The average winnings in that example would indeed be £1 million.