It's Premium Bonds draw day.

So your current return x6 is what?

Ive had a couple of hundred in there since the 90s, total winnings equal about £70.

But, it’s only a couple of hundred, it’s hardly worth the trouble of getting it back.

£4k of bonds via a small monthly contribution, £175 won/reinvested automatically, so a 0.5% return?

Still, its a forgettable tax free monthly contribution which will have a little lump sum available for retirement with a chance of any kind of win helping to add to the pot.

My view is just leave it, wait 20 years and see whats their to pay off the mortgage/buy a car/go on hols at retirement age, a little "surprise" lump sum if you like.

Big fat zero - on £500 for three years

but it it was in the bank I would have 0.01% so not feeling too hard done by

I got £100 this month (four £25 prizes), but nothing last month. I do have a lot invested though.

I worked it out last year and the return was just about over what I would have received from a decent savings rate (not easy to get these days).  I live in hope of a decent prize but only picked up the £25ers so far.

MiL and wife have £60k. Won about £5k last year. Usually get £25 or £50 per month.

Mrs Zip''s mum gets at least £75 a month.

We've got about £15k in there offsetting a £15k 0% credit card (we'll use it to pay off if we ever need to)

Won £150 in last 6 months, so about a (roughly) 2% return, and similar in the 6 months before that IIRC.

It's fine but I'm more playing it for the "big one".

I've had a few medium (less than a grand but still considerable sums) prizes  over the years usually 1 a year or so and maybe 6 -8 lots of 25 quid .

Calculations suggest it's onpar with savings accounts. Although i could get a better return in shares i keep it as liquid funds

Over the last 12 months I have received an actual return of 1.45%, this is against a claimed interest rate of 1.4%. Since this is tax free, and better than I can find in an ISA, the investment works for me. Also I still live in hope that I'll win £1m sometime. 😉

Interesting-ish reading.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/

Over the last year I have had a 8% return. I don't believe this is the norm.

£50 for me this month. First time I've won 2 prizes in one draw. Not won enough to buy a new bike yet.

My Mother bought me £75 worth when I was 21.. which is a long time ago now.. and I’ve won once... £75

What are the odds?

Thanks for reminding - Mrs just checked and we've won £100. Wahoo!

In between selling and buying our house we had two accounts at the maximum - over 10 months we got 2.5%. We needed instant access, so it suited us. Still keep the accounts live with £100 in each and use them for temporary extra funds. Not a gambler but I like the (remote) possibility of a bigger prize!

What are the odds?

Currently 24,500 to 1 (the odds do change occasionally).

This means that if you have £50,000 invested, statistically you should win (just over) two prizes each month.

If you have £75 invested, statistically you will win once every 326.7 months (or once every 27 years).

Damn you lot! Who won my prizes this month? First time this year I’ve not had any but have been winning £100 a month recently. Again, treat it as liquid, tax free money as my rainy day fund.

£500 sat in there for last 20 or so years plus a few quid (since I was born, so 45!).

Have won the odd £25 a few times over last 10 years maybe. They've come in pairs, a £25 one month then another £25 the next, then nothing for years.

Probably £150 total won over all the years. Counting the main pot at say 20 years, 0.015% return per year.

Have had the odd £25 over the years but not much invested.

I've have had a £1 bond since birth (lot of money over 50 years ago lol). Not won a cent since.

Just reminded me to chuck a few quid into them - ta

To be fair, if you have £1 invested, you should win once every 24,500 months, which is once every 2,042 years. I'm not that surprised you haven't won yet!

EDIT: That said I have a friend with a similar investment, which I told him was a waste of time (for the above reason). His response was that he doesn't play the lottery, but wanted to provide God with a means with which to give him a big win, just in case the big man felt that way inclined one day. 🙂

According to an online inflation calculator my pound should now be worth £17.25. I guess that wasn't a wise investment then since all I have is a piece of paper worth a pound 🙁

I've got premium bonds! Had them for 35 years, to my knowledge I've not won a thing.

Good prompt, just needed to shift some cash out of bank for a period so whacked 20k into bonds ! I look forward to a tax free million tonight ....

Might be worth you checking - they may just be auto-reinvesting winnings

https://www.nsandi.com/

I have some and after 6 months am averaging 1.5%, that's tax free and the capital is guaranteed so not a bad return.  Cash is parked in there awaiting a better home, so may be there a while.

Any new investors check the expected returns on the mse website, due to the min 25 gbp prize the avg 1.5% only equates to prizes at a certain level.

sweet **** all after 4yrs

I've had £100 in for the last 30 years, never won anything. Topped it up to £500 a few months ago, and still nothing.

But at least it can be easily withdrawn if required, and probably wouldn't get much from an instant access savings account anyway.

We've got quite  few Bonds & 10 years ago managed to win £1000, which was nice. I don't think I've won more than £25 on a single Bond for at least three years, but I do get a steady-ish income. Given current interest rates I can't grumble.

people saying they have won bugger all and not saying how many they hold??...

had 15k a few years ago before drawing them out for a property purchase and most months had a £25 and had the odd £100. was definitely up on the average after holding them for about 3 years.

been buying £200 a month for nearly a year and had nothing so far.

My daughter was bought £1,000 worth when she was born by my mum (who used to run a Post Office and so was big into National Savings and the like) which proceeded to win another £1,000 worth in the very first draw they were eligible for 😀

I think they're up to £3,000+ worth now with no further input over the last 14 years.

Guy in my office won £1025 today.

My cousin won £100k.

I've had £3k for two years. Add to it every month. Never done anything .

Mrs Zip £75 ....Zip nil.

Just scored 25 quid.

Holding 3k for just over a year now, brings total returns up to £75 🤷🏻‍♂️

I won 75 yesterday, usually only get 25 or 50 per month.  Stll ticking over at 1 to 1.5% so q happy.

Look at the profile of big prize winners- shows where the winner lives, holding and when purchased.  Was always a myth it was southern recent purchases, I think that was just the bias of purchasers.

I've had 200 since I was born in 1959. Never won anything.

Zip nil - Mrs Zip £25.
I don’t appear to be any good at premiumbondsing.

2*25 here for Jan

First month in the game for me... nada, rien, zippo, not a sausage.

£25 win in December for me....

£3400 now for over 3 years. Nowt. Ever. I'll keep adding.

I'm intrigued by them but can someone explain why they are so popular?
I've read that there is over £70 billion invested in them but the odds of winning anything are quite low and they do not yield interest.
As others have said, they've won bugger all over many years and when you take inflation into account the amount invested is worth less and less as time goes by.

They are tax free as are the winnings, and easy to manage / forget. 10 x the amount I have in Bonds in todays high interest account attracts slightly I more gain annually in interest than I’ve received but I’d have to pay income tax on that interest gain, which actually negates the difference.

And of course there is the “lure” of a decent sized win.

"As others have said, they’ve won bugger all over many years and when you take inflation into account the amount invested is worth less and less as time goes by."

All relevent to how much you have invested.

Mines kept up with a decent savings account over the years and I don't have to move it around each year filll out paperwork and keep on top of the admin to ensure it does so.

@Kryton - I get that but with the new personal savings allowance you'd have to be earning more than £500 interest per annum to benefit from the non-taxable bit (assuming 40% tax payer). So maybe 2% rate on £25k?
Maybe it's just the thrill of the draw?

Zilch here.

£50 since birth, £40k for 3 months during house upgrade a few years back: nowt, nada, zilch

new personal savings allowance

I didn't know about that, my Accountant deals with my affairs 😀

For me personally - an accountant notwithstanding - its not having to declare/administer the income and a chance of the win I guess. Its simple for me to have a DD setup and elect for winnings to be re-invested as Bonds, so I can forget about the account and leave it for a rainy day at some point in the future - final mortgage balance, kids into uni that kind of thing.

I don't think many people use them as their sole means of saving, but as part of a mixed investment portfolio they make sense. If you look at the big Jan prize winners most have holdings of tens of thousands and that's not the sort of sum you'd leave if it wasn't working for you. They're low risk, quick access, typical yield on a par with similar instant access savings accounts but potential yield much higher.

Purist you’re spot on - I treat them as my emergency fund esp now you can withdraw them reasonably quickly on line. If I just had the money in a ‘normal’ savings account I’d be too tempted to spend it on another new bike!

Thanks for the explanation

£25 win on £101 investment here.

Guess I'm pretty lucky as I've had a decent 7% return with a win each month when I had 10k invested.

25 big beautiful pounds.
My duck is broken .

2/3rds of FA here. on £5k invested for a few months, I might write a stern letter to someone.

Thanks for heads up...3 x 25 in feb. I think I m averaging 1.5% pa tax free so q happy. It's a savings pot for a house purchase so needs to be low risk.

Me ...nothing
Mrs Zip ...nothing.Building society interest is winning at the moment.

25 quid for us

That's 100 in the last 6 months. It's on par with the bank

Zilch. And I moved it out if a poor paying ISA.

3 x £25 this month 🙂

A million quid less than the top prize for me

Just 1 x 25 today, tho I did see someone won 10k on a 60 quid holding

Nothing. Again.

Any big winners today?

Not yet, their email system must just be a bit slow today

just logged on, it says next results 2 april. Tomorrow

Yeah, it's the second working day of the month that they release results.

Anyone met Agent Million??

They've got April's big winners list up already.  One that pleased me was a 5K winner from a £5 holding, held since the 70s.

Now you can invest from £25.00 I've just started doing these instead of the Lottery. I see it as gambling without losing my stake.

I'll probably never win anything at least I'm not losing! 🙂

The wife has the full 50k's worth and gets 2 to 3 £25 wins a month plus she's won 1k recently.
Recon its about time I buy some as I have non at the mo. I enjoy the fun of Peer to peer lending giving me around 12% per annum.

Bear-UK, which platform(s) are you using for P2P? I got 13.5% return on a grand at Ratesetter inclusive of a £100 sign-up bonus offer, but 12% - if it's not based on bonuses - is mad.

If you win, even just £25, do they email you?
Or do you need to check online?

They email you. Just checked the big winners list and I'm not on it. It's sooooo unfair.

Me nothing  Mrs Zip nothing.

Me and the wife just got £25 win each.

25 for me