Premium Bond Winner ?

mackemdave

I invested full £30,000 back end of last year first draw was January...Ive had 7x£25 wins(3 of them in the most recent draw)...suppose after the most recent wins I ma little bit up if Id been getting .5% interest on the £30000

sp3edy

mackemdave wrote: »

I invested full £30,000 back end of last year first draw was January...Ive had 7x£25 wins(3 of them in the most recent draw)...suppose after the most recent wins I ma little bit up if Id been getting .5% interest on the £30000

I think we are probably going to go for it.

rb10

sp3edy wrote: »

All,

Ok, this is our situation:

Purchased £1500 in Nov 08. Received a block of £1,000 and £500.

In June 09, won £50 (kept and switched to reinvestment)

I then switched to purchasing £100 per month from July 09.

Won £25 (reinvested) in Jan 10 (so must have had £1500+£500).

No wins since, now have £2725 worth.

If you'd put the £1500 into a savings account paying 3% interest in November 2008, and then added £100 per month to this account, you'd have something in the region of £2900 - so your gamble with the Premium Bonds hasn't lost as much money as most people do.

sp3edy wrote: »

>Forgot to add, both wins have been in the £500 block!!! Which seems a strange co-incidence to me.
>Is it worth me cashing in some of the £1200 and then repurchasing as one block? Is there a way to do this to minimize the outage from draws?

No, it's not worth it at all. As you correctly point out, this is purely a coincidence, as Ernie, the computer that picks the winners, works entirely randomly.

sp3edy wrote: »

Therefore, to date, a reasonable return, but not great. Thoughts?

Ditch them all, pop them in a decent savings account, and you'll get a much better rate of return.

sp3edy wrote: »

Given were we are, my wife and I have the opportunity of investing another £25k-£30k in bonds or savings for 8months. I personally would like to see what returns/lucky we'd be with that bigger amount.

If you put this into Premium Bonds, you'd probably get around £260.

If you put it into a savings account paying 2.8% (e.g. AA Internet Extra or Halifax Web Saver Extra), then you'd get about £450 (assuming that both you and your wife are taxpayers). If you put £21k into Lloyds Vantage accounts, and the remainder into the AA or Halifax account, then you'd get around £700 during that time.

I'll leave you to work out whether you'd rather get £260 or £700.

mackemdave wrote: »

I invested full £30,000 back end of last year first draw was January...Ive had 7x£25 wins(3 of them in the most recent draw)...suppose after the most recent wins I ma little bit up if Id been getting .5% interest on the £30000

So you've had £30,000 in Premium Bonds for around 7 months, and have won £175. That's only 1%, whereas you could easily be getting well over double that amount in a savings account (even after tax).

At your current rate of "winnings", you are wasting around £370 per year (if you are a basic rate taxpayer).

smallfry27

A friend of mine had a lot of cash for a few months in between house moves. Not wishing to have more than £50k in one institution, she spread it about and similarly had £30k in Premium Bonds. She won 5 x £25 in about 8 months. It was probably a good temporary strategy in her case, or for anyone who really has the cash to spare, but I agree not a sensible plan as your main or only method of saving.

rb10

smallfry27 wrote: »

[...] had £30k in Premium Bonds. She won 5 x £25 in about 8 months.

... which is equivalent to about 0.62% AER.

If a bank offered such shocking rates as the Premium Bonds do, there would be complaints!

sp3edy

rb10 wrote: »

... which is equivalent to about 0.62% AER.

If a bank offered such shocking rates as the Premium Bonds do, there would be complaints!

I agree and appreciate responses. We know that our thinking of £25k into PB for 6-8months is 'to be in it to win it' rather than investment. Losing the entire elapsed time interest is something we can both agree to losing and not being overly disappointed with. However, if we were to pick up a nice win, that would rock our world!

Plain daft I guess!

topgearfan08

eagerly awaiting the results in the next couple of days, got a feeling £25 is on the cards!

MikeR71

When did £25 come into play? It used to me minimum £50!

Anyway, PBs are rubbish investment. You have better odds playing the lottery or down the bookies playing horses or dogs.

noh

MikeR71 wrote: »

When did £25 come into play? It used to me minimum £50!

Anyway, PBs are rubbish investment. You have better odds playing the lottery or down the bookies playing horses or dogs.

April 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/4298589/Premium-bonds-go-back-to-the-1970s-with-shrinking-pay-outs.html

MrsManda

MikeR71 wrote: »

You have better odds playing the lottery or down the bookies playing horses or dogs.

The difference between these and PBs is you get your money back