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[Finance] Premium Bonds - prize pool increased again - you ever have any luck?
- Thread starter Mustafa II
- Start date
Is that Rob Holding's brother?
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
Sweet FA this month. Boo.
Just found out I won £25!!
6 months into my owning bonds, a win. I said to my wife I would give it a year to see if I got a win in that time, so we are both very happy.
We always joke that we never win anything in raffles etc., hence the overexcitement at the win.
6 months into my owning bonds, a win. I said to my wife I would give it a year to see if I got a win in that time, so we are both very happy.
We always joke that we never win anything in raffles etc., hence the overexcitement at the win.
How much have you gambled?
Scoffers
Well-known member
Definitely seeing a slow down in winnings. I know 2 people who’ve got the max holding, plus I’ve got a decent amount, and all we got between us was £25 !
HalfaSeatOn
Well-known member
Just googled Yahoo Finance and the PB pot in May 24 was £453m. In May 25 £413m. NS&I has lowered the prize fund rate from 4.4% to 4% and then to 3.8%. However, the odds of any single bond winning a prize remain at 22,000 to one as NS&I has increased the number of £25 prizes to offset the reduction in mid-range prizes.
Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
How can it possibly be a gamble when you don't lose your stake?
I've often thought if I ever became a billionaire I'd make a machine that buys up all the possible combinations of lottery numbers in every draw, just so I could ruin it for everyone else. Yes, I'd lose money but it would like being a backer of GB News I guess.
Mustafa II
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #950
Buying every possible combination in the UK lotto would cost about £90m per draw. Assuming there were no other winners, you should return around £13m, a loss of £77m per draw.
So if you were worth £1bn and decided to spend all your wealth doing this, then you would be skint after 11 draws, so about 2 months.
Inflation erodes its value so you are gradually losing your stake
Boroseagull
Well-known member
Big fat zero this month, oh well there's always June 
Yes. But the golden showers maybe reinvested or even spunked away on something worth more than keeping rate with inflation, such as a Business Class flight, coke for a new 1901 seat, etc etc.
We've had a return for 18 months twice the rate of inflation. The £7,500+ has either gone into Share ISAs or SIPS and earnt Dividends and increased in value (and temporarily decreased) or been put in a savings account and earnt interest.
The person replying to my post was, I believe talking about the money spent on purchasing the Premium Bonds not being a gamble, however I don’t feel that strongly about it
So the cash in your wallet is also gamble using that logic
Mustafa II
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #956
This is true.
I actually never use cash, partly for this reason.
ALL of my money is earning interest or in an investment account (or used to overpay mortgage).
Premium Bonds is a very, very, VERY low risk gamble, but it is a gamble. It is likely to earn less than other savings or investments and your money will usually lose value overall, through inflation.
One of the main points of it is that you are gambling to win more than the other savings and investment options that can beat inflation, which are usually more sensible alternatives.
It’s arguably a punting of the ‘lost‘ interest. As to ‘likely’, if you have the max holding and already paying tax on your interest, not sure that’s true anyway, as you are ‘likely’ to get better than the net rate you can get elsewhere (even assuming you are 100% on top of all your investments and moving money around rate-chasing).
Pretty sure it’s legally ‘gambling’ as you’re taking part in a lottery for prizes, even if your stake isn’t at risk (for example PBs aren’t an acceptable investment under Shariah laws due to this)
Thank you
It's only money.