Premium Bond prize winners for March unveiled - check to see if you’ve won and if they are worth the

Former_MSE_Sophie

The winners of March’s Premium Bond draw have been unveiled, with NS&I handing out nearly £100 million in cash prizes - so make sure you check to see if you’ve won.

Read the full story:

Premium Bond prize winners for March unveiled - check to see if you’ve won and if they are worth the investment

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gundo

Nada. First time since I started owning PBs (sometime mid last year) every month since then except this month I've won £25 minimum with the max being £75. I have the max allowance of PBs i.e. £50K

eskbanker

If the article is intended to shed light on "if they are worth the investment", it would be worth doing so in a more balanced way IMHO....

Thinking of investing? Beware the pitfalls that could come with Premium Bonds

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To be eligible to win the prize draw you will need to hold your bonds in the account for a full month, so if you buy bonds in March, then you'll be eligible to enter in May.

While this is true, MSE's enthusiasm for exploiting 'loopholes' (ugh!) should entail it being pointed out that buying bonds at the end of each month is the best time, to mitigate that 'pitfall'.

But it's important to note that investing in Premium Bonds might not be the best option. One reason is because they no longer have a tax advantage. Since 2016, the personal savings allowance (PSA) has meant all savings interest is automatically paid tax-free. In practice this means more than 95% of people no longer pay any tax on their savings interest – and for those people Premium Bonds therefore no longer have a tax advantage. 

Again true for those who don't pay tax on savings, but now very old news, so its relevance in an article six years on is questionable!

The prize rate sits at 1% and you may not even win that

The other reason you may not want to invest in Premium Bonds is because the prize rate stands at 1% and with average luck, the likelihood is that you won't even win that. For every £100 paid in to bonds, on average £1 a year is paid out – yet in practice this is impossible, as the smallest prize is £25.

In fact our Premium Bond Probability Calculator shows that if 30 people each had £100 invested, for one to win £25-plus, the remaining 29 would have to win nothing. Of course, do weigh up the pros and cons yourself, you may win big after all. For more info on Premium Bonds investing, see our Premium Bonds guide.

The main reason that PB holders are unlikely to achieve a return of 1% is that the prize fund is skewed by a very small number of large prizes, so the expected median return is more like 0.9% for most holdings.  The fact that returns from very small holdings are lumpier because of the minimum prize of £25 is true, but misses the main point, so choosing a £100 holding to analyse seems arbitrary and arguably misleading....

Albermarle

In fact our Premium Bond Probability Calculator shows that if 30 people each had £100 invested, for one to win £25-plus, the remaining 29 would have to win nothing

As above , using people  with just £100 in premium bonds as the example is misleading or at least not put into context correctly .

wolvoman

I waited on my March winnings to decide whether to keep my bonds or not.
With an offset mortgage rate of 1.12%, my £50k holding needed to 'win' about £47 each month to be up. My return in just under 2 years is an average of about £30 a month.
So took the plunge today to with draw the whole lot.