Bad run on Premium Bonds

MikeJXE

I had max for 3 years and averaged 1.2% winnings  so once interest rates on savings started to climb 

I pulled the lot out 

ranciduk

I won nothing on £25k for about 5 months

forget that

All gone in EA accounts paying a definite, regular monthly return 

not just £25 occasionally, if I’m ‘lucky’ 

Such a kick in the teeth when you open the app on draw day to be told you have won NOTHING!!! AGAIN!!

eskbanker

MikeJXE said:

I had max for 3 years and averaged 1.2% winnings  so once interest rates on savings started to climb 

I pulled the lot out 

The prize rate on premium bonds also started to climb, increasing from 1% to 3.3% in steps between June 2022 and March 2023 (although typical average returns are a bit lower), so 1.2% may have been at (or even above) the expected return if those three years predated these 2022/23 increases.  It's legitimate to measure PB returns against those available from comparable easy access savings accounts at any given point in time, but obviously less so to compare current savings rates with older PB returns!

Middle_of_the_Road

Been tempted a few times to start PBs with a max holding, but not liking these posts from those with months without a win. That's done it for me, also the chaos with the NS&I platform seals it. Hope you have better luck soon.

cricidmuslibale

Swipe said:

I've now had 2 blank months since January on max holding and not a happy bunny. If I was still under my £1000 savings allowance they'd be out of there like a shot. Just 0.68% return so far since the prizes went up in October. Seems like my luck got way worse since then. I'd rather win £25 each month than nothing at all.

I had a really bad period in the summer of 2020 where I won nothing at all for 3 out of 4 months and only £25 in the other month on a full holding. This was when the interest rate was 1.4% and the prize winning odds were 24500:1 so I should with average luck have won a total of eight £25 prizes. After the 4th bad month in a row I was seriously cheesed off and very nearly withdrew all my premium bond money, but I just about stopped myself from doing so and ever since then I’ve had approximately average returns, although I’ve yet to win any single prize greater than £100. I’m very much hoping that at some point I will have a really productive 4 months in a row to compensate for the barren 2020 summer that I had to endure!

Albermarle

eastcorkram said:

I had a balance of between £12k and £14k for just over 18 months and won nothing. 

You must be extremely unlucky. My maths is not quite up to calculating the exact probability of this, but I would think must be around 0.1% ?

Brie

Stupid question being inserted here:  Do you have to check your account to see if you have won? 

OH & I have a tiddly £1k each and have done so since November.  I'd love to discover I'd won a fat prize.

eastcorkram

Albermarle said:

eastcorkram said:

I had a balance of between £12k and £14k for just over 18 months and won nothing. 

You must be extremely unlucky. My maths is not quite up to calculating the exact probability of this, but I would think must be around 0.1% ?

Maybe with that, but I'd consider myself very lucky in most other ways  . 
It did put me off bothering with them again though. That, and the number of people on here with much bigger holdings, that only ever seem to win units of £25. 

Criptine

Albermarle said:

eastcorkram said:

I had a balance of between £12k and £14k for just over 18 months and won nothing. 

You must be extremely unlucky. My maths is not quite up to calculating the exact probability of this, but I would think must be around 0.1% ?

They have always emailed me when I've won. They send a very coy "you have won" email, without telling you the amount, so I have a minute or two of frantic excitement before I discover the prize it £50 not £1M.

MikeJXE

eskbanker said:

MikeJXE said:

I had max for 3 years and averaged 1.2% winnings  so once interest rates on savings started to climb 

I pulled the lot out 

The prize rate on premium bonds also started to climb, increasing from 1% to 3.3% in steps between June 2022 and March 2023 (although typical average returns are a bit lower), so 1.2% may have been at (or even above) the expected return if those three years predated these 2022/23 increases.  It's legitimate to measure PB returns against those available from comparable easy access savings accounts at any given point in time, but obviously less so to compare current savings rates with older PB returns!

I pulled out of premium bonds October 2022