The Lemon Fool

Mike88 wrote:I have £18000 worth of Premium Bonds and after a year haven't won anything - zilch. Is this a record?

Probably not, but according to this calculator only about 1 in 10000 people with £18000 worth of PB's win nothing in a year - so pretty unlucky :

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... or/#result

With average luck, you would have won roughly £200...

Mike88 wrote:I have £18000 worth of Premium Bonds and after a year haven't won anything - zilch. Is this a record?

It may not be a record, but it is jolly bad luck!

With that many bonds, I would expect a £25 win every other month on average.

In case they have your address wrong, or something, I'll offer this link again: https://www.nsandi.com/do-i-have-any-unclaimed-prizes

Watis

Watis wrote:

Mike88 wrote:I have £18000 worth of Premium Bonds and after a year haven't won anything - zilch. Is this a record?

It may not be a record, but it is jolly bad luck!

With that many bonds, I would expect a £25 win every other month on average.

In case they have your address wrong, or something, I'll offer this link again: https://www.nsandi.com/do-i-have-any-unclaimed-prizes

Watis

There can be no mistakes as I have elected to have my prize money deposited direct into my bank account- the same account used to purchase them online.

CryptoPlankton wrote:

Mike88 wrote:I have £18000 worth of Premium Bonds and after a year haven't won anything - zilch. Is this a record?

Probably not, but according to this calculator only about 1 in 10000 people with £18000 worth of PB's win nothing in a year - so pretty unlucky :

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... or/#result

Or, to look at it another way, you've had about the same 'luck' as someone holding £18,000 who won £25,000 in a year.

Sorry!

swill453 wrote:

Bouleversee wrote:I could be wrong but I thought there was a time limit after a death that the bonds went into the draw.

That's true, it's 12 months.

The web site is silent on what would happen if nobody informed NS&I of a death, and the bond won a prize after more than 12 months elapsed

I asked NS&I this and got the answer:

I can confirm once a holder has passed away any prizes won after the 12 month period would become invalid.

Should a next of kin fail to inform us that the holder has passed away, prizes can still be won but will not be eligible to be claimed by the next of kin after the 12 month period.

So that clears that up.

Scott.

XFool wrote:

CryptoPlankton wrote:

Mike88 wrote:I have £18000 worth of Premium Bonds and after a year haven't won anything - zilch. Is this a record?

Probably not, but according to this calculator only about 1 in 10000 people with £18000 worth of PB's win nothing in a year - so pretty unlucky :

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... or/#result

Or, to look at it another way, you've had about the same 'luck' as someone holding £18,000 who won £25,000 in a year.

Sorry!

So I can look forward to winning £25k in the March draw. Great!

My mum has had some for years after her mother passed away. She occasionally has a £25 cheque but never seen more. I think I have or had one given to me as a child somewhere but no idea where. I wonder if she remembers.

Pipsmum wrote:... I think I have or had one given to me as a child somewhere but no idea where. I wonder if she remembers.

You could try the Tracing Service:

https://www.nsandi.com/i-think-i-have-s ... m-not-sure

Would you Adam & Eve it?

This is Money

Yes, I saw that. I think the long term holder only held a few as well. Made me feel slightly sick as I had just added up my winnings on £50k for the current financial year and found they came to the princely sum of £350 and last year was little better. Ah well, I expect their need is greater than mine.

Bouleversee wrote:Yes, I saw that. I think the long term holder only held a few as well. Made me feel slightly sick as I had just added up my winnings on £50k for the current financial year and found they came to the princely sum of £350 and last year was little better. Ah well, I expect their need is greater than mine.

The March 2018 prizes are not yet here https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker but after February's 4 x £25 I think I'm at £450 to date. Last year I think it was £550.

All things being equal, your results for 2018/19 will improve.

They never are equal though, are they PD?

1x £25 prize. Fantastic! I think I am going to sell them all.

I have not far off the full amount 'invested' in PBs.

Nov £50
Dec £25
Jan £50
Feb £75
March Nil

My wife and I have £70,000 between us, and for 6 months running we've won £75, which is almost exactly the 1.4% interest rate.

Only £50 this month though.

Scott.

£18000 worth of bonds and still nothing.

£100 on just over £12k this (calendar) year to date.
If I get nowt for remaining 9 months -possible,but unlikely- that's, ermm, about 0.8%
I do live in the South East though, so I'm more likely to win

My wife and I hold the max.
In 2016 we got 925 (prizes in 10 months)
In 2017 we got 975 (prizes in 11 months)

That was probably about par for the course. they have since raised the prize % so I think one should now get about 1.24% pa on average.
Prizes are very very heavily tilted to £25 so the £1 million pound jackpots are not material in relation to the total prize pot.

I have been asked to clarify my previous post

I meant that the prizes on my wife and my combined holdings of £100,000 in Premium Bonds in those 2 years totalled £925 and £975 (almost all were £25 prizes but there was one £100)

In one year we got prizes in 11 out of 12 months and in the other we got prizes in 10 out of 12 months.

The prizes on premium bonds are based on a 'pool' of notional interest, currently I think 1.24% pa, which is then paid out randomly in prizes ranging from £25 to £1 million. ie HMG funds a prize total that represents 1.24% per annum of the total value of all premium bonds

So if a husband and wife between them own £100,000 in PBs they would expect to get prizes totalling £1,240 each year.
Obviously this could be distorted if the larger prizes (eg £1 miilion) were a significant proportion of the total prize pool. However there are only 2 prizes of £1 m per month and the total prize pool is so large those prizes are not going to significantly reduce the number of £25 prizes.


I hope this is clearer!

The interest rate is actually 1.4% now, it went up by the full 0.25% at the last base rate rise.

From the calculator at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... calculator , a holding of £50,000 would expect to win approximately £500 per year, so I guess this shows that the large prizes do have a distorting effect on the expected return.

Scott.