Premium Bonds introduce 2nd £1m Prize!

lipidicman

The UK's 23 million Premium Bond holders will have two chances to win a £1m monthly jackpot from August.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4099556.stm

unfortunately this ups the average return to only 3.25% (up from 3.2% previously)

Kazza242

I'd be interested to know whether this 2nd £1m prize will change people's views on premium bonds? Will it encourage you start buying them? Or will you be buying more? Or do some people still believe premium bonds are not worth it, regardless of the change?

Any thoughts anyone?

CrazyChemist_2

I have had bonds for a year now and should have won something according to statistics but haven't.

I'm tempted to put some more investment in then withdraw at the end of the year if no return... Better guarantee myself a £100 "prize" by leaving the cash in a high interest account! :cool:

Kazza242

CrazyChemist wrote:

I have had bonds for a year now and should have won something according to statistics but haven't.

I'm tempted to put some more investment in then withdraw at the end of the year if no return... Better guarantee myself a £100 "prize" by leaving the cash in a high interest account! :cool:

Same here. I first started buying premium bonds nearly a year ago, but I haven't won anything yet. My holding is now into £K's. I stopped buying them a couple of months ago, preferring to put my money in my savings account. I might start buying a set amount of bonds each month now there's double the change of winning £1m. I doubt I'll be putting in more than £100 per month though.

lazy_worker

I would hazard a guess that a person with 30000 single bonds spread out equally throughout the whole range of available numbers would have nowhere near as much "luck" as a person with 30000 consecutive numbers.
If you enjoy the fun of premium bonds, and have a meduim term view, it is worth encashing and then consolidating to give a a far larger target of numbers for ERNIE to hit.
lazy worker

jeeves_2

lazy_worker wrote:

I would hazard a guess that a person with 30000 single bonds spread out equally throughout the whole range of available numbers would have nowhere near as much "luck" as a person with 30000 consecutive numbers.
If you enjoy the fun of premium bonds, and have a meduim term view, it is worth encashing and then consolidating to give a a far larger target of numbers for ERNIE to hit.
lazy worker

well lets see....my mother has just invested 20K in a lump sum in bonds, so these will be consecutive numbers.
we've held bonds since the days when you could invest £1 in them and hardly ever won anything....fingers crossed:)

lazy_worker

She'll get four bonds of 5000 numbers each, consecutive. And will be statistically better placed
Yes, good luck for the medium term.
lazy worker

jeeves_2

lazy_worker wrote:

She'll get four bonds of 5000 numbers each, consecutive. And will be statistically better placed
Yes, good luck for the medium term.
lazy worker

Yep she did....is that the maximum they give one x 5K?


Rather than having an extra £1m prize i reckon a few extra smaller amounts which add upto £1m would have been better....wouldnt u agree?

Joe_Bloggs

These bonds should be a resort for 'idle money'. If you have exhausted all tax free savings options and are a higher rate tax payer and are not bothered with pension contributions or other forms of speculation, then this is good news. It is also good news for the population that do not invest in premium bonds as the powers that be can get funds on the cheap well below market rates. A win win situation.
J_B.

Dave2012_2

I agree with J_B. I've had £450 in PBs for 2 years and haven't won a penny. I'm obviously not surprised by this, I was doing it as a bit of fun on the off-chance of winning a bit of money quickly.

I'm cashing them in now though, because to make them worthwhile (i.e. beat the current best ISAs) you really do need to buy as much as possible. Given that I haven't filled my ISA up and don't have another £29K hanging around, I'm gonna stick it in my ISA instead. If I ever do come into any money (Ha!) I'd buy them again.

One other thing though - I'd feel better about them if they occasionally sent me something to show me my bonds were actually entered - how do you know that your bonds really do stand a chance of winning. What if they got left out? You'd never win and never know....

Dave

CrazyChemist_2

lazy_worker wrote:

I would hazard a guess that a person with 30000 single bonds spread out equally throughout the whole range of available numbers would have nowhere near as much "luck" as a person with 30000 consecutive numbers.
If you enjoy the fun of premium bonds, and have a meduim term view, it is worth encashing and then consolidating to give a a far larger target of numbers for ERNIE to hit.
lazy worker

Sorry but the thing with the blocks of numbers being better placed statistically is complete rubbish. ERNIE selects random numbers, even some which haven't been taken out yet, so the winner is the first number which exists. And anyway, as long as you have the numbers in the draw, it won't matter whether they are consecutive or separated! The fact is each one is there and has an equal chance of being matched by the number produced by ERNIE the random number generator.