Premium Bonds Article Discussion Area

The_Bleurk

Well said ISO!!!

Brilliant summary.

Still have to take you to task Martin - making reasonable assumptions I estimate (see calculations posted elsewhere in these threads) the forgone interest on a £30k stake from an average return approximates to about £1 a day.

So for a pound a day I get a 1 in 600000 chance every month to hit a million. A fair bet in my book.

BTW the same money invested in the lottery gives about (depending on how you actually do it) a 1 in 450000 chance of hitting the jackpot every month but you risk having to share that.

ISO has a very good point - folks have probably wasted considerably more funds left to languish in old accounts that the government now wants to raid - that is far more wasteful.

miaxmia

meanmachine wrote: »

So you're one "winner" out of a thread of losers - including myself.

Let's see if you're as lucky over the next 12 months.

Personally I think they're a waste of time.

Strange really, my in-laws seem to be winners too - must be family luck!

miaxmia

tightwadman wrote: »

Your sums just dont add up. Assuming you had invested the full £30,000 and left it in for a year AND won £500 one month and then had multiple wins every other month ( which frankly I can barely believe) you would have HAD to have won £150 every other month except 2 to give you exactly £2000 which yes would beat a High Street rate of 6.25% producing £1875 before tax.

If you won TWICE every other month with 2 £50 cheques that would give you just £1000 and if you had some £100s maybe £1250.

Do the sums - PB's DONT pay!

I don't like to be called a "liar" and please do tell me where you can get a net High Street rate of 6.25%. I have won a total of £1650 over the past year with wins EVERY month, EXCEPT ONE. The month I won £500, I also won 2 £50. Over the past year, I have had four months where I have only won 1 £50, but on the other months I have had multiples of £50 or £100. One month I received 4 £50, and yes I do have the maximum. My High Street savings accounts pays out 5.05% gross interest (although I have now found a better one paying 6% GROSS, which equates to 4.8% Net, unless you are in the 40% tax bracket, then it equates to less). £30000 at 4.8% net would give me £1440, not the £1650 I have won on premium bonds - DO MY FIGURES ADD UP?

M3_Sussex

tightwadman wrote: »

Maybe you could let us all have a breakdown of your monthly winnings over 12 straight months as this frankly is amazing. You must have won some very major prizes to reach that amount when most people get only £50 or £100 and you must presumably be winning every month which again is exceptional on a single holding of £30,000....


Over to you.............

......and this was a thinly veiled way of saying he didn't believe me!! Where is he now???

miaxmia

tightwadman wrote: »

Maybe you could let us all have a breakdown of your monthly winnings over 12 straight months as this frankly is amazing. You must have won some very major prizes to reach that amount when most people get only £50 or £100 and you must presumably be winning every month which again is exceptional on a single holding of £30,000....


Over to you.............

And thank you M3_Sussex for proving the point, as tightwadman was very unbelieving of my declaration!

jem16

I purchased the maximum(at the time) of £20k in October 2002 when I received a lump sum that i wasn't sure how to save/invest. In February of this year I decided to cash in all but £1k and put the money to better use.

From the £20k I ended up with £20,949 with all prizes reinvested after the limit became £30k. That works out at 9.75% over 4.5 years, or 2.16% pa.

It didn't work out for me as I would have earned more in interest in a savings account.

Biggles14

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

If you think that the returns on premium bonds are poor, why not write to ERNIE and ask to change the way prizes are allocated. Many years age I did just that. At the time the number of people investing in the bonds had declined, I wrote and suggested that they increase the number of small prizes. My argument being that if people received small prizes accasionally, it was more likely to keep them interested enough to stay with their investment, otherwise they believe their numbers arn't being include in the monthly draw. I had a 'thank you' letter back saying that they would consider the idea. If all you Money Savers wrote similar letters it might get taken more seriously. The likelyhood of winning £1 Million is pretty remote but smaller prizes can give a return that keeps us hoping for the big one. So far this year I have a 4% return on my bonds, in £50 and £100 prizes. So come on GET WRITING. :j

miaxmia

Biggles14 wrote: »

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

If you think that the returns on premium bonds are poor, why not write to ERNIE and ask to change the way prizes are allocated. Many years age I did just that. At the time the number of people investing in the bonds had declined, I wrote and suggested that they increase the number of small prizes. My argument being that if people received small prizes accasionally, it was more likely to keep them interested enough to stay with their investment, otherwise they believe their numbers arn't being include in the monthly draw. I had a 'thank you' letter back saying that they would consider the idea. If all you Money Savers wrote similar letters it might get taken more seriously. The likelyhood of winning £1 Million is pretty remote but smaller prizes can give a return that keeps us hoping for the big one. So far this year I have a 4% return on my bonds, in £50 and £100 prizes. So come on GET WRITING. :j

It would be lovely if they split one of the £1 million prizes and made four £250,000 prizes instead, I believe.

murphydavid

NeilW wrote: »

I'd love to know what is the most probable way of becoming a millionaire given an investment of £1000 :-)
NeilW

So would I
I browsed all the replies in the hope that the thread would go that way.
As far as I am concerned I am using PB interest to gamble for £1,000,000 as the small prizes are of no interest and I don't find Gambling exciting (sad I know but thats me) I just want to have a chance to win the money with least effort.
So the alternatives I saw were Casino, and Lottery.
Casino- I have no idea of the odds or available prizes or how it works, Sounds like a lot of effort for someone who does not find it exciting.
So I think I will sell my bonds, Invest in savings and use the interest to buy lotto tickets.
Anyone got a better suggestion?

westernpromise

Jonnykipper wrote: »

I found this article very interesting.

My wife and I have had £30k each in premium bonds for the last 22 months. Neither of us look at them as the best thing we could invest in, but someone has got to win the bigger prizes and you have got to be in it to win it!

From our perspective....

I think they are great (£3,250 won including 3 x £500).

My wife is less enthusiastic (£1,400 won, biggest prize = £100).

Why do you think they are great? If you'd put the money in a decent deposit account you'd have had over £5,500 in interest between you by now. You've actually had about a thousand quid less than that! What's great about losing £1,000?