Premium Bonds Article Discussion Area

sleepless_saver

cjth33 wrote: »

So we're contemplating putting what we can (the limit is now £50,000 each, I understand) into Premium Bonds. The calculator here suggests with average luck our joint £100,000 could earn £300 over 3 months, with a chance of more - or less - and a reasonable chance of beating a savings account.

Remember it has to be in for a full calendar month before it's even entered in the draw so you would only have 2 draws rather than 3 over 3 months.

You'd get 1.1% in NS&I Direct Saver, not the best but at least you wouldn't have to worry about the £85000 protection limit.

Archi_Bald

At current interest rates, you might as well have a punt. You won't enter the draw until you have held the bonds for a full calendar month, so the max number of draws you can hope for is two.

You need o work out what counts more to you - the certainty of a 1.x% before tax interest payment versus the uncertainty of getting anything between nothing (minus inflation...), one or two 25 'wins', a £1M win.........nothing is guaranteed, only you can tell what is most appropriate for you.

Eco_Miser

montymogg wrote: »

When i was a child my parents bought some Premium Bonds for me which at that time you could buy £1 at a time. I am going back to the 1960's. So I have £7 worth of premium bonds. Do they still get entered into the draw? When looking at the draw details no one seems to have held the bonds for 50 years as i have.

Since most of the bonds from back then are in small holdings, they won't win very often, compared with the £50k modern holdings. Each individual bond still has the same chance though. I've still got 21 from the 1950s and 60s myself. One won £25 back then, but none have won since, but that's still over 100% return.

haveshavemore

think of it like this, if you put 50,000 in a 1 year bond at 3%, you'll get about £1500 interest. as a standard rate taxpayer you lose 20% of this so you'll be about £1200 better off.

or you could do this ..
10,000 in a 1 year bond at 3% = £300 - 20% tax = £240
and 40,000 in premium bonds currently at 1.35% tax free. statistically you'll get about £400-520 a year.

so the safe option gives you £1200
the gamble gives you £240 + £450 = £690
hardly any difference is it, £510, and no bank or building society is ever going to post a cheque through the door saying "congratulations mr john do, you've got a bonus of £10,000/£100,000 this year". i'd go with the premium bonds, i know the chances of winning that big prize are low, but with the bank you don't have a chance. it's a bit of fun, and is that extra £510 over a year - £10 a week, worth losing the possibility of the jackpot for. if you arnt in it, you cant win it.
premium bonds have the ability to change your life in one day, banks don't.

haveshavemore

or if your willing to take a gamble you could invest it with hargreaves lansdown in a vantage fund & share account, easy to do all online. choose any of over 2000 funds, you really cant go wrong with this even if you pick the master portfolio option.
but you'll never win the big prize so i'd way up how much your willing to invest and how much you want to put on premium bonds

itch_for_a_glitch

haveshavemore wrote: »

or if your willing to take a gamble you could invest it with hargreaves lansdown in any of over 2000 funds, you really cant go wrong with this even if you pick the master portfolio option.
but you'll never win the big prize so i'd way up how much your willing to invest and how much you want to put on premium bonds

Crikey.:eek:

haveshavemore

Please explain. ..

itch_for_a_glitch

haveshavemore wrote: »

or if your willing to take a gamble you could invest it with hargreaves lansdown in any of over 2000 funds, you really cant go wrong with this even if you pick the master portfolio option.
but you'll never win the big prize so I'd way up how much your willing to invest and how much you want to put on premium bonds

itch_for_a_glitch wrote: »

Crikey.:eek:

haveshavemore wrote: »

Please explain. ..

I was mildly bemused by your assertion that one "really cant go wrong" investing in funds. When you started by suggesting it was a gamble.

cheekymonkeynotts

I have the maximum amount in premium bonds since 2002 & only won £125 maximum in a month. When will they publish details for the main winners?
It just seems very odd to me, that being a government run scheme nothing is available. How do we know if its not fixed? Why can't they do the draw on national tv at a set time so everybody can view it?

Money_Saver_Jen

cheekymonkeynotts wrote: »

I have the maximum amount in premium bonds since 2002 & only won £125 maximum in a month. When will they publish details for the main winners?
It just seems very odd to me, that being a government run scheme nothing is available. How do we know if its not fixed? Why can't they do the draw on national tv at a set time so everybody can view it?

Hi Cheekymonkey,

The main reason National Savings do not publish full details of the big winners they say is because they have all chosen to remain anonymous hence no publicity.


However on their main website relating to Premium bonds they do publish all large prize winning bond numbers, the area they are from and the holding amount of each winner.


In the "media" section of the website (at the bottom of the webpage) they also give a statement each month of how many winners there are in total. For example this month there were over 2 million winners with a breakdown of how many people "won" in each prize tier.


Hope my reply makes sense!