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
£25 for me 😑
My email doesn't seem to have arrived yet :o(
£100. Ker-ching.
£50 here, 1.7% return on money so far
Only just bought some.
(See my previous thread about needing a new van) Have nearly enough money for van, depending on what I can get for old broken one. Have taken out a credit card with no interest on purchases for 27 months to buy it with, funds to pay it off will sit in premium bonds until the interest free bit runs out then I'll sell them and pay it off. Bit of admin hassle but you never know, might be worth it. With interest rates so low on savings nothing to lose really.
Also, it was worryingly easy to get a credit card, I thought it was supposed to be really hard post-credit crunch? Took 20 mins to get £6.5k! Was hoping for 2. (not going to spend it all, can't afford that for a van) but with a day-to-day card, a special one for abroad and an overdraft facility that seems to have crept up every time I check it I could easily borrow a year's salary at 20% with no hope of paying it back, madness. (Note to self, find out if it's possible to block access to the Santa Cruz website from my computer, just in case...)
No millions for us this month. Suppose I'd better keep on working...
I've had a hundred pounds worth for just under 60 years. Never won a single penny.
Me too. Just found £5 from when I was born, still worth £5
I'm in the unluckiest 0.2% of holders, based on my holdings and duration, according to MSE's calculator.
will wait for the May draw then see where else i can put the money!
£25 for me - third month in a row - yay!
