Premium Bonds - retrospective prize draw

Cardew

In March I bought my two grandchildren some premium bonds - what a palaver – so they would be entered into the 01 May draw. To cut a long story short the transactions failed. NS&I eventually admitted it was totally their fault, after the funds had been returned to me – apparently Covid was to blame! and paid me £50 in compensation without me asking.  I had to re-apply in May and the bonds were issued late May.

The letter of apology in early May telling me I had to re-apply contained this phrase; “I will arrange for the application to be backdated to 16 March to ensure that the bonds are eligible for the May prize draw. You will receive written confirmation when this has been completed”

A further letter dated 22 May stated: “ As agreed I can confirm that the Bonds have been backdated to 16 March and will be eligible for the May 2020 prize draw. A retrospective prize draw has been carried out”

I have tried unsuccessfully to find out how this ‘retrospective prize draw’ is carried out. In theory both grandchildren could have each won one of the two £1million prizes in the May draw; but the winners of those prizes were announced on 01 May i.e well before my re-application for their bonds.

Has anyone any idea how the retrospective prize draw works?

P.S. they won nothing!     

kinger101

Yes.  In theory, the could have both one one of the £1 million prizes.  But each premium bond has a whopping 43-billion to one chance of bagging one of the two top prizes every month.   I don't know how many bonds you bought each grandchild, but the £50 return is about what someone with £50,000 might get on average per month.  I suspect you're looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Cardew

kinger101 said:

Yes.  In theory, the could have both one one of the £1 million prizes.  But each premium bond has a whopping 43-billion to one chance of bagging one of the two top prizes every month.   I don't know how many bonds you bought each grandchild, but the £50 return is about what someone with £50,000 might get on average per month.  I suspect you're looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I am fully aware of the odds of winning, my whole family having held bonds for many years and Martin reqularly posting the odds when the interest rate changes.

I don't understand your comment about a 'gift horse' etc. I was simply enquiring if anyone knew the retrospective prize draw procedure. Your post added nothing to solve that query.

bowlhead99

My suggestion would be to ask NS&I how it works, given you've already entered into correspondence with them and you know that it is not something published on their website and is likely to be something that very few members of the public will have come across.

It does sound like a good deal for them to pay you the equivalent of the most common prize each on each of the accounts and then also have Ernie re-run a draw for you as well. Still, my post adds nothing to solve your query.

Cardew

Thanks, I have asked NS&I but it seems everyone is working from home and, not unexpectedly, they didn't know the answer; they said they would get back to me - weeks ago!!

The unsolicited £50 compensation was paid to me(not grandchildren) for a series of nugatory correspondence. At first I was to blame, then my son(children's father) for not sending proof of children's details etc. Due to Covid all the proof had been mislaid at NS&I.

I am just intrigued to know how a prize draw can be re-run when the prizes have altready been published. In the event of a large prize being won by one of their bonds(at even at 43 Billion to1) what happens?

bowlhead99

Cardew said:

Thanks, I have asked NS&I but it seems everyone is working from home and, not unexpectedly, they didn't know the answer; they said they would get back to me - weeks ago!!

The unsolicited £50 compensation was paid to me(not grandchildren) for a series of nugatory correspondence. At first I was to blame, then my son(children's father) for not sending proof of children's details etc. Due to Covid all the proof had been mislaid at NS&I.

I am just intrigued to know how a prize draw can be re-run when the prizes have altready been published. In the event of a large prize being won by one of their bonds(at even at 43 Billion to1) what happens?

My guess is that they have ERNIE re run the draw with your numbers in it, and if anyone else's number comes up they will not get paid out (because they have already been through the draw for that month) while if your number grabs the top prize (or any other prize), they will pay you that prize out of their financial resources - which if the prize value is more than the average prize that would be ordinarily 'earned' from an investment of your size for one month, may restrict the overall prize pool in some future month as they balance the number of prizes available with the number of entries to use up the 'interest' they are willing to pay.

The 200-odd highest prizes only consume 5% of a month's prize pool (and you won't win all of them, and are very unlikely to win any of them, especially the biggie) so relatively speaking they can afford to let you have a crack at the prizes even though they have already run through it once paid out everyone else.

Neil49

Quite simply, ERNIE generates a series of random numbers. Some of these may correlate to existing Premium Bond numbers but many do not, and these are discarded.

The bond numbers that you were allocated retrospectively may have been within those numbers discarded. They would check those numbers discarded in the May run to see if any of your numbers matched up.

As you have discovered, they didn't! 

kinger101

Cardew said:

Thanks, I have asked NS&I but it seems everyone is working from home and, not unexpectedly, they didn't know the answer; they said they would get back to me - weeks ago!!

The unsolicited £50 compensation was paid to me(not grandchildren) for a series of nugatory correspondence. At first I was to blame, then my son(children's father) for not sending proof of children's details etc. Due to Covid all the proof had been mislaid at NS&I.

I am just intrigued to know how a prize draw can be re-run when the prizes have altready been published. In the event of a large prize being won by one of their bonds(at even at 43 Billion to1) what happens?

I imagine generating random numbers would be a fairly trivial exercise for them having ERNIE. It would take milliseconds of processing time to check against a single person's holding.  They currently have over £60 million in prizes that are unclaimed.  1/18th of that is forfeited every month.  I'm guessing that would cover any payouts without impacting on June's draw.

  

EdGasketTheSecond

Neil49 said:

Quite simply, ERNIE generates a series of random numbers.

As well as delivering milk !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1xvyTdBZI

DiggerUK

I think the only advantage you have received is to have the bonds included in this months draw instead of having to wait a complete month and you've 'won' £50, reinvest.

I am keen to know how they rerun the draw without the risk of finding a third call for Agent Million, I think it will turn out to not have been what happened.

A piece of useless information; every bond number ever issued goes in to the draw, when the numbers are drawn only active bonds are awarded prizes. All the redeemed bonds are disqualified........If that isn't an example of how strange decisions from committees can sometimes be I don't t know what is,  but it works..._

sairy.gamp

"Ernie's ghostly gold-tops a rattlin in their crate!" Oh for the 70's all over again....
Thanks, it made me laugh. Benny was great (and not a stocking top in sight!)..