Premium Bond Winner ?

Crabman

trademark wrote: »

Jon .... lol ...... i know but it seems it needs pointing out that someone wasted probably a week of his or hers life creating that calculator......

M3 ..... i think your going to have to not win for quite some time before you show a loss on pb's ... ;-) ... and well done i say ......

I wouldn't use the word 'wasted' The tool was designed to give a true indication of the real returns on premium bonds, compared with a savings account (e.g. an ISA). What would you change about the calculator, out of interest?

Gorgeous_George

Crabman wrote: »

I wouldn't use the word 'wasted' The tool was designed to give a true indication of the real returns on premium bonds, compared with a savings account (e.g. an ISA). What would you change about the calculator, out of interest?

Maybe the checker should tell the user that they are very clever for having chosen Premium Bonds as an investment (not just any old bond but PREMIUM bonds) and that, although most people will lose money, it will not be them because they are very clever and pretty.



GG

trademark

crabman ... i cant change the calculator , you can not make an accurate calculator for something which is random , even if the great one (martin) has introduced it here...

Its name is wrong however , so i would change that ..... from now on its a PB estimator.

MSE_Martin

You're right trademark the calculator can't tell you what you will win. If it could I would get everyone to put their numbers in then tell only the ones who beat the average to keep their money in.

What it can do though is give you the odds of you winning different amounts. And for that it is incredibly accurate.

Personally if I was about to put £3,000 into a product and I thought I was going to get a 4.1% return, to find out actually I only have a one in three chance of doing that over a year. I think its interesting info.

Saying a calculator can't predict a random result is quite true.

Much like I can't say whether a coin will end up heads or tales, but i can say with accuracy the chance of it doing so is 50-50. The key is the premium bond calculator doesn't tell you what will happen, it tells you the probability of what will happen.

Im really sorry you don't like it - luckily most of the 500,000 plus people who've used it seem to do a number of different queries on it - indicating they do.

all the best

Martin

Gorgeous_George

As I understand it,
>>> a non-taxpayer (or someone who could invest tax free) is gambling approximately 50p per month for every 100 premium bonds held

>>> a basic rate tax-payer is gambling about approximately 40p per month for every 100 premium bonds held and

>>> a higher rate tax payer (we don't have super tax) is gambling approximately 30p per month for every 100 premium bonds held

How anybody who is not in the higher tax band can view PBs as an investment baffles me. It is gambling, just the same as walking into the bookies and betting your hard-earned money on a donkey.

Long may it continue as without them the Government would have to raise the revenue through taxes.

Would it be possible for a private company to set up a directly competitive product? How about MSE Bonds? The business case would be a no-brainer!



GG

derrekmay

Verry interesting post in here guys!

worto03

I finally got bored - with £100 in for 6 months I won £50 then with £1000 in for 6 months I won nothing.

Then the money burnt a hole in my pocket and brought an LCD TV, a tent, a Fridge Freezer & an Xbox 360

I'm happy now but have no bonds any more!

good luck all,
worto.

M3_Sussex

This months high value winners are now available here.

GreyPilgrim

I'm only doing PB's as a flutter. Got the initial £100 last month, and have signed up for the minimum of £50 a month.

Have to go now, the wife is telling me there's someone at the door called Andrew asking for me, and he's got six securicor men with him? Wonder what that's all about.

GP

halloweenqueen_2

No big prizes for me, fingers crossed for the smaller ones!