Found some premium bonds from the 1980s

Wise Guy
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I found £100 worth of premium bonds in my name from the 80s. Just checked the number on the unclaimed prizes search... nothing :rolleyes:
 

mrk

mrk

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Soldato
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ha! me too.

Found some that my mum bought me, wrote to NS&I etc - turns out they are worth £55 (thanks mum, cheapskate!) - no wins at all in the last 35 years.

i'm going to cash them in and buy £55 worth of scratch cards and see what happens.
 

HaX

HaX

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I've put £30k into Premium Bonds over the last 18 months (Saving for a house deposit). The most I've won has been £25. A month or so ago the odds of winning anything were reduced, presumably due to the Bank of England base rate being reduced to 0.25%.

I'd like to put my savings into a higher yield investment, though shares are a bit risky, and the majority of ISAs pay a pittance.
 
Soldato
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around 2000-2005 was best time to hold them -Then interest rate dropped more people with lots of back pocket change stuffed them in Premium bonds - Odds now are no chance.

If you look online most winners have 50k

HaX

Where ever you put that sort of money these days they are all a pittance unless you put 3k in 10 different accounts
 
Associate
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It used to be a good thing.

I just dug out our cheque receipts from when we put £20,000 into premium bonds back in 2006. Every month we would get 2, 3, or sometimes 4 or 5 envelopes drop through the letterbox. We only had it in there for a couple of years and eventually gave up recording the amounts won but it certainly beat having the same amount in the bank.

April 2006 - £100, £50
May - £50, £50, £50, £50
June - £50, £50, £50, £50
July - £50, £50, £50, £50, £50, £100
Aug - £50, £50, £50
Sept - £50, £50
Oct - £50, £50
Nov - Nil
Dec - Nil
Jan 2007 - £50, £50, £50, £100
Feb - £50, £50
March - £50, £50

Total for £20,000 invested over 12 months was £1700 = a return of 8.5%

£20,000 in a bank in March 2006 at standard base rate would have been around £1000 or 5% (rate rose to a max of 5.75% in 2007 then dropped away to 0.5% in 2009, and stayed there.
 
Soldato
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Funnily enough I found mine from 1988 just the other day and it turns out I won 25 quid in 2015. Winnings don't expire but I have changed address a few times since then and you have to update your address by snail mail before you can set up an online account.

The app is quite handy btw
 
Soldato
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Premium bonds are not an investment, you are gambling your interest you would otherwise earn elsewhere on winning a prize.

Precisely, so if you an risk that 5 pounds per thousand that you might have earned in an ISA, you could gamble that right up to a single win of £25 in a year on an investment of £5000 actually breaking even ;)
 
Soldato
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I know someone that has 50,000. He wins every month (usually twice a month)

He originally bought 45000 worth and setup the account to reinvest any winnings - wasn't too long before he had the 50000. Just a bit strange that he gets a couple of £25 cheques through the post every month and has to go to a bank to deposit them - but he thinks this is great as it tops up his other incomes.
 
Soldato
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23,304
Unless you have about 30k+ in Premium bonds now, they aren't worth it. They keep upping the cap and reducing the chance of winning.

A few years ago 30k would see you pretty much winning every month (I usually won £25-75 a month, won £500 once). If your a way off the 50k cap, you can probably make more having the money in P2P loans now over a year.
 
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