Premium Bonds....

[NikNak]

Just checked to see if i'd won anything for December....

as usual.... nope...

Which leads me to ask the question.... does anyone here actually know of anyone who has won a substantial amount..? I not talking "yeah, my mates neighbour won 3 x £100 last month..." etc

I mean.... a goodly amount.... £10k+ lets say.

I happened to be talking to a bank manager a couple of months ago, and he said that in all the years he'd been in banking (he didn't look old enough to deliver papers let alone manage a bank..!!) he said he's seen a lot of premium bond cheques come over the counter i.e. £25's, £50's, £100's and £200's.... but never anything really big.

Which sort of leads me to wonder if it's all a bit of a conspiracy..... we'll hand out cheques for low amounts and publish lists of random numbers of high value 'winners'.... nudge nudge wink wink... that'll keep the idiots thinking they're in with a chance still....


just a thort..... :shock:


Nick

 

[joethedrummer]

Nick,,,yes a buddie of ours won over a million pounds when it all started,, he has not done an exceptional amount more than the rest of us,, funny really "cos someone spoke about him in the pub a few weeks back and said he was "a comfortably unhappy man",,sad really,,,,

 

[KevM]

I'd love to believe that successive governments could manage things well enough to sustain a conspiracy of that fiendish complexity but sadly I think it's all in the stats, a lot of folk hold a lot of bonds.

 

[JustBen]

My cousin win regularly on the premium bonds about 6 or 7 times a year. They are all between £10 - £100 but better than nothing.

I also knew a lad who won about £25,000ish

He'd blown it all within a year and was then in debt.

 

[bugbear]

I'd love to believe that successive governments could manage things well enough to sustain a conspiracy of that fiendish complexity...

You're quite right - it would need far more competence than any of them have demonstrated in any area whatsoever.

BugBear

 

[John Brown]

I had a couple of £1,000 wins a few years back when I had the full allowance. I only have one( a £1 bond) these days, from 1961, and as far as I know it's never won a penny! On the other hand, if you invested £1 at, say, 4% in 1961, you'd only have around £10 today by my estimate, and there isn't a £10 prize.

 

[Woodchips2]

I've been cashing them in steadily over the years and I've found that the month after they're cashed I get a prize (used to be £50 but now only £25) which I presume is an incentive to stop cashing in any more (hammer)
Regards Keith

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We sold our house and held £60,000 between us for two draws. I won £75 and my wife won £25.

 

[bugbear]

Perhaps the conspiracy theorists in this thread might care to spend a small amount of time checking how the draw is done, and how the process is audited and monitored, before throwing around any more carefully vague insinuations.

BugBear

 

[Mike Wingate]

The odds of winning any Premium Bond prize is about 1 in 28,000. My sister wins 3 or 4 times a year with about £6,ooo invested in bonds. If you hold £30,000, you have a chance of winning a prize once a month. With interest rates so low, why not have a few thousand pounds worth of bonds if you have some spare cash. You need give no notice to cash them in, unlike some accounts.

 

[wabbitpoo]

I've been cashing them in steadily over the years and I've found that the month after they're cashed I get a prize (used to be £50 but now only £25) which I presume is an incentive to stop cashing in any more (hammer)
Regards Keith

haha same here - cashed in ALL bonds, and a few weeks later I got a £25 win, even though I don't appear to hold any bonds......curious

 

[John Brown]

The other conspiracy theory I've heard is that only newly bought bonds win prizes. I don't subscribe to any conspiracy theory myself, but you can see how they gain currency, "I've had my bonds for x years, so-and-so bought some, and won in the second month". As with all conspiracy theories, evidence for is noticed more than evidence against.

Like the "small world" phenomenom, you never hear people say "well I was walking down the street the other day, and I saw this person that I'd never seen before in my life. Large world, isn't it?"

 

[DrPhill]

As with all conspiracy theories, evidence for is noticed more than evidence against.

Like the "small world" phenomenom, you never hear people say "well I was walking down the street the other day, and I saw this person that I'd never seen before in my life. Large world, isn't it?"

I like that explanation.

 

[graduate_owner]

We had a premium bond syndicate at work many years ago. We paid weekly (it was 10p a week then !!) and when we had enough to buy a bond, it went under somebody's name (because you can't have a bond in a syndicate's name). The weekly cost went up to 50p eventually, but when the minimum bond was £100 we stopped. We probably had bonds to the value of £1500 - £2000, and had a number of £50 and d£100 wins, but only one good one - £1000. Shared between about 12 people it didn't change my life (but retirement did). Later on we started a lottery syndicate, and with more involved we spent quite a bit more every week, but never had any decent wins - much poorer chances I reckon.


K

 

[NikNak]

New bonds have more chance..?

well try this one for size then....

My mum, who's now in a nursing home, has a block of bonds she's had since the beginning of time. Always complained of never winning anything. Then out of the blue in September she won twice in the same month. Unfortunately she isn't sufficiently 'with it' any longer to understand that she's finally won something.

Then... my old dad (83 1/2 now) has had his 'block' of bonds for absolutely ages and donkeys years.... with my mum's win fresh in his mind he said i'm going to cash them in and buy some new ones. Which he did. Waited the mandatory 1 month before being entered into the main prize draw.... and yep you've guessed it.... he won £100 on his very first 'try'.

Hmmmmmm...... :shock: scratches chin.... where's mine kept....??


Nick

 

[joethedrummer]

New bonds have more chance..?

well try this one for size then....

My mum, who's now in a nursing home, has a block of bonds she's had since the beginning of time. Always complained of never winning anything. Then out of the blue in September she won twice in the same month. Unfortunately she isn't sufficiently 'with it' any longer to understand that she's finally won something.

Then... my old dad (83 1/2 now) has had his 'block' of bonds for absolutely ages and donkeys years.... with my mum's win fresh in his mind he said i'm going to cash them in and buy some new ones. Which he did. Waited the mandatory 1 month before being entered into the main prize draw.... and yep you've guessed it.... he won £100 on his very first 'try'.
Hi Nik,,makes you wonder,,hope yer mum and dad keep well, 83 and a half ,hope I last that long as yer dad and stay as sharp as he is .
Hmmmmmm...... :shock: scratches chin.... where's mine kept....??


Nick

 

[John Brown]

New bonds have more chance..?

well try this one for size then....

My mum, who's now in a nursing home, has a block of bonds she's had since the beginning of time. Always complained of never winning anything. Then out of the blue in September she won twice in the same month. Unfortunately she isn't sufficiently 'with it' any longer to understand that she's finally won something.

Then... my old dad (83 1/2 now) has had his 'block' of bonds for absolutely ages and donkeys years.... with my mum's win fresh in his mind he said i'm going to cash them in and buy some new ones. Which he did. Waited the mandatory 1 month before being entered into the main prize draw.... and yep you've guessed it.... he won £100 on his very first 'try'.

Hmmmmmm...... :shock: scratches chin.... where's mine kept....??


Nick

Well, I guess that proves it beyond all doubt!

 

[Alex H]

I bought 250 in about 1988 and within 3 months won £250, so I 'reinvested' it. For the next 22 years I won nothing with my 500 :shock:

 

[MickCheese]

I bought 250 in about 1988 and within 3 months won £250, so I 'reinvested' it. For the next 22 years I won nothing with my 500 :shock:

But you still have your original £250 plus another £250 I don't know how you money would have performed over those years but you can never dream of it becoming a million pounds if it were in the bank!

Mick

 

[DonJohnson]

I have had a £10,000 block invested for many years and I usually get about five or six prizes every year. They used to be £50's but of course now have dropped to £25's.
Funnily enough, the only £150 win I received was from a single £5 bond purchased around 1980 when in an office syndicate of the type mentioned in an earlier post.
My understanding used to be that regular monthly prizes could be expected with a £20,000 investment, but no doubt the current odds have raised that to £28,000.
If there is a conspiracy in effect, I hope that this posting complaining about the lack of a £250,000 win might prompt the authorities to give me one - just to prove that everything is kosher!