Premium Bonds

Best investment I've made. Even though there are not as many prizes now, they have earned me more interest than savings accounts, and they are more fun.

Me too Ilovecheese.

I've the same amount as you watermeadow including the £10,000. Had them for two years now and won every month. Nothing bigger than £125 one month.

I have a few thousand in Premium bonds. I have won £25 here and there, and that's fine by me. What alternatives do we savers have ?

My attitude is that interest rates are an insult - even if you win only one £25 prize p.a. on an investment of £25,000 it is still 10x the interest you would get on anything else. Go for it!

We have a fluctuating amount of pb. DH successfully plays the stock market and puts funds in premium bonds between transactions. We occasionally win something but it is easily accessible.

Ooh how do you buy premium bonds?

DD has some, she reckons she gets a better return than an immediate access savings account.

I did start to try to do the expected 'interest rate' but it rapidly became complicated (and I have experience in being able to handle complex calculations).

I won £125 last month and £25 this month. It's my only gamble in life!

Thoro

Ooh how do you buy premium bonds?

You can buy them online.
www.nsandi.com

I have had a better return on my Premium Bonds (and I don't have the full allowance) than I would have done by tying up the money for 2 years in a fixed rate deposit.

I totally agree Sparklefizz. I won £25 this month and £75 last, one of these days I will hit the jackpot. I do keep meaning to buy more. Anything I do win goes back into the pot.

I won £25 this month and £50 last month. You beat me Charleygirl..... but there's always the hope of a big one. The biggest I have won is £500.

Sparklefizz ditto but that was many years ago. I am certain it is only an admin error that has stopped me from receiving £1 million.
That would brighten up my Christmas.

I bought mine on 31st May this year and I’ve had 3x£25, seems pretty good to me.

The family building society has a windfall account.
10k invested automatically goes into a monthly draw.

Thank you for that info Sago. Must investigate. I have PBs and usually have a monthly trickle of small wins. Nice!

Some of you have better luck than I have. I win £25 two or three times a year, once won £100. I’ve had Bonds for 63 years and my faith is wearing thin.

Have got premium bonds bought years ago but won next to nothing. Have not bought any more as I understand they can’t be in joint names and as we have got older everything is in joint names to make things easier when one of us dies.

We bought £20k of PB a while ago when a savings bond matured which had been paying 4%!
We receive £25 most months so, as others have said, a decent return these days.
I did try to buy them for GC innocently assuming once I’d bought one we could just top them up! Not at all! Very time consuming especially for DD who had to do a lot of the paperwork-it really was a faff so gave up so, sadly, some DGC have PB and others don’t !

Watermeadow
When did you buy the bonds? You might find this interesting.
A friend alerted me to this fact some years ago.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-7133565/Do-newer-Premium-Bonds-better-chance-winning.html

Lovetopaint037

Have got premium bonds bought years ago but won next to nothing. Have not bought any more as I understand they can’t be in joint names and as we have got older everything is in joint names to make things easier when one of us dies.

There are potential problems to having everything in joint names should one of you need care.

I’d had some for ages and won nothing but I cashed those in and bought more and since then I’ve had £25 every other month, sometimes £25x2.

We have quite a few. We get a win most months. Not a big win but it's better than any interest we would get.

Both OH and I have PB and I seem to do much better than him. I seem to get something most months but only about twice a year for him. Still worth doing though.