Premium bonds help

telfordwhite

Thinking of buying some.
In the literature it tells you that you are entered in the draw "one calendar month" after purchase.
Does this mean if I had bought them on the 8th of jan (allowing for the 7 day lead time for card to clear) that they would go in the 9th feb draw or would I have to wait for the draw in march. ie calendar month beginning on 1st feb.

bigfreddiel

As far as I know you can buy on the last day of the month and they will be in the follwing month's draw.

Yars ago the qualifying period was 3 calendat months and I used to buy on the last day of the month and say jan 31 (as long as its not a Sunday and mayurday) and the bonds would be in play in April - now it would be February.

cheers and good luck

fj

YorkshireBoy

Bonds bought in January won't be entered until the March draw.

http://www.nsandi.com/products/pb/howitworks.jsp#when_bonds_go_into_the_draw

Jonbvn

It is always best to buy the bonds on the last (working) day of the month. The bonds you buy will only be entered into the draw after one whole calendar month. Therefore, any bonds you buy from now to 31 Jan 2008 will only be eligible for the March 2008 draw onwards.

The best MSE way is to buy bonds on the last working day of the month at a PO, paying via cheque.

neilp

I would second that, but emphasise that premium bonds are not a great savings product, for the reasons set out in the article on this site. Returns will almost certainly be higher (probably significantly so) from a high interest savings account (ie ICICI), to say nothing of cash ISAs and regular savings accounts.