Premium Bond Winner ?

jaybeetoo

Nil on £60k this month

polymaff

Primrose said:

I don't "do" social media - a deliberate decision on my part seeing how its becoming increasingly intrusive of people's' privacy, often without them realising.  Is there anywhere on he actual NS&I website where one can provide feedback?.  I confess I haven,t searched yet. 

I wouldn't bother. NS&I are so in denial that anything needs to change, that the only way I've ever got them to respond - let alone change procedure - is to get their boss, HM Treasury, to force them to.

Huggy_Bear

I've done well with my premium bonds

I've only got £700 after I sold a chunk and have won £50 in the last 12 months so that's 7.4% interest

oli356

jaybeetoo said:

Nil on £60k this month

Guess 60is a typo..? 

eskbanker

Oldbiggles said:

Primrose said:

I'd prefer to see the second £1 million prize abolished and the money used to create a lot more £100 winners.   At least then more of the bond holding population would feel they were getting something for their money.   However I doubt NS&I would do that - it would involve them in a lot more administration every month and they'd probably require more staff to do it !   

Do what  I did, Go onto their facebook page and lodge a complaint. It realy is a daft approach to getting more investors on board by reducing the number of prizes like this. I agree that one of the £1 Mil prizes should be axed when interest rates go down and increase the number of small prizes.

A complaint, really? "In my personal opinion, if it was up to me, I'd structure the prize fund differently...."

Oldbiggles

eskbanker said:

Oldbiggles said:

Primrose said:

I'd prefer to see the second £1 million prize abolished and the money used to create a lot more £100 winners.   At least then more of the bond holding population would feel they were getting something for their money.   However I doubt NS&I would do that - it would involve them in a lot more administration every month and they'd probably require more staff to do it !   

Do what  I did, Go onto their facebook page and lodge a complaint. It realy is a daft approach to getting more investors on board by reducing the number of prizes like this. I agree that one of the £1 Mil prizes should be axed when interest rates go down and increase the number of small prizes.

A complaint, really? "In my personal opinion, if it was up to me, I'd structure the prize fund differently...."

If enough of us complained they just might take notice and do something about this. As to the cost, the system is already set up and computerised, if I win the £25 prize (Or any other prize....Which hasn't happened yet) I'm notified by email. All computerised.

lowbrim

All prizes in one envelope this month that's a step forward in reducing costs.

This month I won 5 x £25 prizes and 4 of them were out of the same £5000 batch. Whilst obviously pleased with the win I find it concerning that whilst every bond supposedly has equal chance of winning in any draw that when you do win more than one prize that the bonds are regularly out of the same batch. What is the statistical chance of getting 4 winning bonds out of a single batch in one month if they are all entered singly?

polymaff

And you could save even that one envelope - and the bumpf inside it - by receiving your prizes electronically...

oli356

polymaff said:

And you could save even that one envelope - and the bumpf inside it - by receiving your prizes electronically...

And have received the money earlier (got mine on 6th March)

And save time having to then cash in the cheque.

I thought I actually opted to have mine reinvested in bonds, though happy it went to my bank instead as I've made interest (albeit not much lol), and then towards the end of this month will buy bonds so in the drawer for May.

David_Watts2

lowbrim said:

All prizes in one envelope this month that's a step forward in reducing costs.

This month I won 5 x £25 prizes and 4 of them were out of the same £5000 batch. Whilst obviously pleased with the win I find it concerning that whilst every bond supposedly has equal chance of winning in any draw that when you do win more than one prize that the bonds are regularly out of the same batch. What is the statistical chance of getting 4 winning bonds out of a single batch in one month if they are all entered singly?

I echo the point re electronic payments; I can't see why anyone still be getting their prizes sent to them as warrants in this day and age, especially if concerned at all about the environmental impacts.
As for your other question, we could probably have a better stab at the statistical chances if we knew how many bonds you have but I doubt you have anything to be concerned about. Last time someone (possibly you?) mentioned a similar issue I checked my own prizes (over the long term, not just a single month) and there was nothing that looked unusual about the distribution. About half of my prizes did come from one batch but, when that batch was £25k, that seemed about right. Some of the smaller batches had a slightly lower distribution than the average and some had slightly higher. It would have been more surprising if there was a perfect statistical fit.
Assuming you have the maximum holding, I make it around a 10,000/1 chance that all 5 prizes might come from the same £5k batch. Given the number of Bondholders, that probably happens to several people every month. 4 out of 5 from the same batch is closer to a 250/1 shot.
All this comes with the caveat that I have a moderate grasp of probability and have crunched these numbers very quickly, but I don't think they're miles off!