Premium Bonds…..why, oh why…

That sounds incredibly greedy to me.

But there are lots of £25 prizes and only one 1,000,000.
So the odds must be vastly different.

Depends on how much you have invested in them. What you've won for the past few months is very good. They have cut back on the prize money.

22 million people have premium bonds and they give out 2 lots of £1,000,000 a month ! Last month they gave out 3,231,893 lots of £25.

katey
In October there were 2 prizes of £1million, and over 3 million prizes of £25.

www.nsandi.com/get-to-know-us/monthly-prize-allocation

So the odds of your winning a big prize are quite different from the odds of winning a small one.

Count yourself lucky. I have never won anything with my £10 worth of premium bonds, and prefer to invest in ISAs where the return may be less, but is rather more predictable.

Sorry crossed posts peasblossom and muse

For every £1 bond you have you have a one in 34,000 chance of winning £25.

A one in 56 billion of winning a million.

I looked it up but I can’t do the Maths to calculate the odds if you have say a thousand in bonds.

No, because they draw out a lot of numbers and the first valid one out gets the million pounds then when it gets down through various values of prize to the £25 prizes there are a lot more of them. So if your Premium Bond gets drawn then there is a much greater chance that it will be for a £25 prize than for a million pound prize.

Here are the details.

www.nsandi.com/get-to-know-us/monthly-prize-allocation

I've won £25 this month too. I think there are about 3 million £25 prizes per month whereas there are only a couple of prizes of £1m. I did once win £500 though!

Seeing this thread prompted me to check, I have one 5 X £25 whoopee!!

Thank you for reminding me to check.

I have won 3 x £25.00 this month

Only one £25 this month but it’s more than sitting in the bank.

I found it strange that when I had a small direct debit in place and purchased bonds every month, I pretty much won every month...never a large amount.
Since cancelling the payment, I've rarely won!

I have the maximum holding of Premium Bonds and have regular wins virtually every month - I worked out the interest as being higher than ISAs.

I have a few more recent bonds but one old £1 bond dates from 1956 (bought by my mother). It has never won a penny! How can that be in 65 years not to have won anything? I'm convinced that no matter what they say the older bonds do not get a look in. Or does anyone have an old bond that has won?

Count yourself lucky. I have never won anything with my £10 worth of premium bonds, and prefer to invest in ISAs where the return may be less, but is rather more predictable.

I like the frisson of excitement each month ?

Kateykrunch it may be your turn to win £1m one month (after my turn of course).

Juts had a quick look through the winner numbers and they all seem to be more recent, purchased in the 20th century. I noticed a couple from 1994. So where are all the winners who bought their bonds before 2000? People have been buying them since 1956 yet all the winners seem to be from the last 20 years. I'm suspicious.

DH has a theory that only the newer bonds go into the draw, Chestnut.

I think he could be right.

I have Premium Bonds from early 1970 's and late 1980's never won a penny!

I am very happy having won £25 x2. As tanith said it is a lot more than the bank pays me. I also like the excitement of looking each month and most months I am lucky.

Thanks everyone for explaining the odds, I understand a bit better now. Congrats to everyone who has won this month as well. I agree, the winnings are better than the current interest rates available in most savings accounts. I also love the excitement of checking each month.

We won £75 today! My husband had to have dental work this afternoon and it cost precisely £75. What the Lord giveth with one hand.............

I’d be happy with £25, please…?

I bought £350 worth of premium bonds about a year ago but have never checked because I thought you were contacted if you won, is that not right?

We bought Bonds with our lump sums when we retired about 12 years ago with high hopes. We have never had more than £100 win in a month. It makes you realise how many people have them. We got £25 this month. Better than interest we would get anywhere I suppose. We are ever hopeful