Premium Bond Winner ?

Ir0nR0ad

Long time lurker, first time poster.. so hello everyone!

First year I've fully tracked the premium bonds, with an average monthly deposit of £265 over the year. 

Started the calendar year well with a 2 prize / £75 win

Johnjdc

450 for the family on 3 full holdings.

Does anyone happen to know if winnings are likely to be paid on Friday or if the chunk of bank holidays etc is likely to delay it into next week? Need to move a little bit out of savings if the latter to avoid the current account going negative when the credit card payment comes out...

Kim_13

Johnjdc said:

450 for the family on 3 full holdings.

Does anyone happen to know if winnings are likely to be paid on Friday or if the chunk of bank holidays etc is likely to delay it into next week? Need to move a little bit out of savings if the latter to avoid the current account going negative when the credit card payment comes out...

I suspect it will be Friday, I’ve never known them to pay later than the 10th. If they don’t pay on Friday 9th, the next working day would be Monday 12th and that feels late.

pbryd

Full holding

Jan: £250

Blandiblub

FH. Nothing this month. Plus nothing in November and a small-ish win in December. So two blanks in three months feels a bit crap. But hopefully the luck irons out over the long term.

hpas251

Johnjdc said:

450 for the family on 3 full holdings.

Does anyone happen to know if winnings are likely to be paid on Friday or if the chunk of bank holidays etc is likely to delay it into next week? Need to move a little bit out of savings if the latter to avoid the current account going negative when the credit card payment comes out...

NS&I say winnings will be paid by the seventh working day of the month. They are based in England so 2 January is a working day (it's a Bank Holiday in Scotland). Monday 12 January is the seventh working day by an English reckoning, so that's the absolute latest.

killiecat

Hello,

I'm a newbie to this chat thread & have recently just put £50,000 into premium bonds after inheriting some money from my aunt.  I am a higher rate tax payer and have maxed out my ISA allowance for the year.  I also salary sacrifice into my workplace pension scheme but can't really increase this amount anymore due to my tax code being reduced by HMRC to take back tax on untaxed savings interest.

I am still a wee bit nervous as to whether holding £50,000 in premium bonds is the best option or not going forward.  For anyone here who is a higher rate tax payer, in your experience, have you had a good enough return on holding this amount in premium bonds?  

Thanks for any insights/experiences you guys can provide.  Good luck with the next draw!
Helen

eskbanker

killiecat said:

I'm a newbie to this chat thread & have recently just put £50,000 into premium bonds after inheriting some money from my aunt.  I am a higher rate tax payer and have maxed out my ISA allowance for the year.  I also salary sacrifice into my workplace pension scheme but can't really increase this amount anymore due to my tax code being reduced by HMRC to take back tax on untaxed savings interest.

I am still a wee bit nervous as to whether holding £50,000 in premium bonds is the best option or not going forward.  For anyone here who is a higher rate tax payer, in your experience, have you had a good enough return on holding this amount in premium bonds?

If you've already bought £50K worth of bonds, you'll just have to wait and see if it's worth it for you, but if you read the thread back for a while, you'll find plenty of reports of monthly/annual winnings - obviously these are all anecdotal and aren't necessarily representative, but the picture is clear that there is (as expected) a wide variance in returns, so some will consider themselves to have had a good enough return while others won't.

https://premiumbondsprizes.com/detailed#50000 is a site that's often mentioned, giving a breakdown of the range of returns that can be expected, with £1,550 (3.1%) being the median average annual outcome.

fuzzzzy

killiecat said:

Hello,

I'm a newbie to this chat thread & have recently just put £50,000 into premium bonds after inheriting some money from my aunt.  I am a higher rate tax payer and have maxed out my ISA allowance for the year.  I also salary sacrifice into my workplace pension scheme but can't really increase this amount anymore due to my tax code being reduced by HMRC to take back tax on untaxed savings interest.

I am still a wee bit nervous as to whether holding £50,000 in premium bonds is the best option or not going forward.  For anyone here who is a higher rate tax payer, in your experience, have you had a good enough return on holding this amount in premium bonds?  

Thanks for any insights/experiences you guys can provide.  Good luck with the next draw!
Helen

Off topic but I'm not really sure what you mean by this. I would have thought you could salary sacrifice right down to minimum wage if you wanted and then live off your savings. Depends on how old you are though and how much you want tied up in your pension. Might be worth opening a separate thread in the "cutting tax" forum.

MatthiasSchilf

January 2026 draw

Wife: £50K holding, £0 winnings
Me: £50K holding, £50 winnings

£50 from £100K in bonds is not exactly stunning, is it?

(For reference, we have had £50K each in bonds since June 2025 and our combined winnings so far are equivalent to 2.7% interest)