Premium Bonds With Stoozed Money?

YorkshireBoy

With (our own) savings and a large chunk of stoozed savings, Mrs YB and myself now have c£60K split more or less equally between us in ING accounts.

However, we couldn't resist applying for LTSB and M & S 9 month cards recently and, as a result, we will shortly be receiving a further £22K through my Egg card.

I didn't want to open another savings account (possibly needed to ensure we're "reasonably" safe if ING go bust!) as I thought this might show as a search on my credit file.

Although I'd initially looked at Cahoot for their 5.1%AER paid monthly account, I'm seriously thinking now about investing this £22K, or a large part of it, in premium bonds.

I've researched on this site and other sites, and I've checked out the http://www.nsandi.co.uk website.

As far as I can see...

Pro's
* I could become a millionnaire!
* At 3.20%, should have some chance of a few wins.
* I can cash them in fairly quickly if I need the money (further CC deals hard to find etc).

Cons
* If cashing in, it takes 8 working days for cheque to be sent. This could mean a 13 working day (nearly 3 weeks!) wait for cleared funds in my current account.
* Could get back less than the 5.1%AER I'd get with Cahoot.
* Have to have the bonds for a month before they're entered in (my) next draw.

I'm looking to see just how popular this approach is with the experienced stoozers on the forum. Thoughts anyone?

Cardinal-Red

It's something that has been mentioned around here before but I think a lot of people are put off by the prospect of the delays in getting your cash back.

I've never heard anybody state that they're worried about ING going bust before - do you know something we don't?

I think in your position with so much stoozed away, there's no harm in trying something different...

Cardinal-Red

Sorry - forgot to add that it's been discussed a little here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=45615&highlight=premium+bonds

empfun

"Your Bonds become eligible to take part in the prize draws once you have held them for a full calendar month following the month you bought them."

Something that most people fail to notice is that whenever you purchase premium bonds, for at least 30 days your money is doing diddly squat before it is included in prize draws.

So if you're going to buy premium bonds do it on the last day of the month.

YorkshireBoy

Cardinal-Red wrote:

I've never heard anybody state that they're worried about ING going bust before - do you know something we don't?

No, its just that I've read on here (and other places) that its best not to go too far over £30K with one account provider. Most (all?) providers subscribe to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme - details below...

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Payments under the Scheme are limited to 100% of the first £2,000 of a depositor's total deposits with the bank and 90% of the next £33,000, resulting in a maximum payment of £31,700.
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