NS & I Premium bonds

Burnsy2023 · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:40

[TW]Fox;21536650 said:
I think we are talking to a brick wall. The most convincing argument seems to be 'I might win!'. We are wasting our time

Think of it as an idiot tax that helps fund the treasury. It's good for everyone else to use NS&I as we benefit.

Irish_Tom · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:46

koolpc said:
Mate put 30k into bonds last year and has won approx £400 in 6 months or so

So if he repeats the same 'winnings' in the next six months (of which there is no guarantee) he will have 'won' the equivalent of 2.6% interest…

koolpc · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:53

Irish_Tom said:
So if he repeats the same 'winnings' in the next six months (of which there is no guarantee) he will have 'won' the equivalent of 2.6% interest…

But, he also has a 'chance' of winning a decent amount of money!

Thing is, he already has money in good savings accounts and just wants a risk free gamble!

Burnsy2023 · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:55

koolpc said:
But, he also has a 'chance' of winning a decent amount of money!

Thing is, he already has money in good savings accounts and just wants a risk free gamble!

Like Fox said: Get a decent savings account and buy lottery tickets with the interest. Best of both worlds.

CircleFaust · 20 Jan 2014 at 14:04

is there not more chance of winning the PB jackpot though than the lottery?
its not as much but 1M quid would do me

edit: hang on maybe i'm wrong. does it pick one number for the jackpot from all available bond numbers?
so there could be like 100million bonds in total?

Destination · 20 Jan 2014 at 14:49

Cruiser said:
is there not more chance of winning the PB jackpot though than the lottery?
its not as much but 1M quid would do me

edit: hang on maybe i'm wrong. does it pick one number for the jackpot from all available bond numbers?
so there could be like 100million bonds in total?

Yes, there could be 100M or several billion, who knows just how many bond numbers there are.

MeEsH BaKkA · 20 Jan 2014 at 16:07

I was given £100 worth when I was born, 26 years later I have never won anything.

[TW]Fox · 20 Jan 2014 at 16:11

koolpc said:
But, he also has a 'chance' of winning a decent amount of money!

Thing is, he already has money in good savings accounts and just wants a risk free gamble!

Except it isn't risk free as there is opportunity cost for not winning.

Theophany · 20 Jan 2014 at 16:16

[TW]Fox;25692888 said:
Except it isn't risk free as there is opportunity cost for not winning.

Did you just see the can of worms there and think 'oh, what could possibly go wrong if I open that?'

DXP55 · 20 Jan 2014 at 16:43

In early 1990s I won £50 with a £1 bond I bought in 1957.

I didn't half splash out. - That was about 50 gall petrol

Dave

dowie · 20 Jan 2014 at 16:53

koolpc said:
But, he also has a 'chance' of winning a decent amount of money!

Thing is, he already has money in good savings accounts and just wants a risk free gamble!

Its not risk free - you're just incapable of seeing where the risk is despite people pointing it out to you several times in the thread.

matt_fsr · 20 Jan 2014 at 17:10

Just let him invest in bonds. It's £100 more in the Govt's pockets than his, so it's actually probably in a safer place!

koolpc · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:00

No risk as he already has quite a bit of money in other investments / accounts.

Its a bit of fun. If he wanted to earn 'solid' interest on it i am sure he would know what to do!

dowie · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:12

koolpc said:
No risk as he already has quite a bit of money in other investments / accounts.

Its a bit of fun. If he wanted to earn 'solid' interest on it i am sure he would know what to do!

Nope - there's still risk involved. The stake you're putting at risk is the interest you would otherwise have gained...

koolpc · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:15

dowie said:
Nope - there's still risk involved. The stake you're putting at risk is the interest you would otherwise have gained...

Yea but he already has money invested elsewhere so this is a bit of fun! Now, put 30k on a horse and that would be a massive gamble!

yer_averagejoe · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:17

The thing is with premium bonds is everybody always knows a guy who..

Never themselves. That should tell you enough.

If you like to gamble, gamble with spare change, not your savings.

dowie · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:24

koolpc said:
Yea but he already has money invested elsewhere so this is a bit of fun! Now, put 30k on a horse and that would be a massive gamble!

Yes putting 30k on a horse would be a big gamble... and fairly irrelevant to what is being discussed.

It was your statement that there was no risk which needed correcting.... lottery tickets are also a bit of fun, they also have a risk associated with them - your friend could also choose to gamble weekly on lottery tickets to the equivalent amount he's risking in terms of interest payments he's forgoing by investing in premium bonds... He may or may not have better chances that way - I'm not interested in checking at the moment but a previous poster is asserting that the lottery provides better value and on the face of it he seems to be right.

Better still might be sports betting... the bookie's over-round is minimal compared with the amount of money siphoned off in the lottery... probably a bit more fun than either premium bonds or the lottery too though you don't have the extreme outlier prizes.

koolpc · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:26

yer_averagejoe said:
The thing is with premium bonds is everybody always knows a guy who..

Never themselves. That should tell you enough.

If you like to gamble, gamble with spare change, not your savings.

The 'guy' is my uncle!

koolpc · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:28

dowie said:
Yes putting 30k on a horse would be a big gamble... and fairly irrelevant to what is being discussed.

It was your statement that there was no risk which needed correcting.... lottery tickets are also a bit of fun, they also have a risk associated with them - your friend could also choose to gamble weekly on lottery tickets to the equivalent amount he's risking in terms of interest payments he's forgoing by investing in premium bonds... He may or may not have better chances that way - I'm not interested in checking at the moment but a previous poster is asserting that the lottery provides better value and on the face of it he seems to be right.

Better still might be sports betting... the bookie's over-round is minimal compared with the amount of money siphoned off in the lottery... probably a bit more fun than either premium bonds or the lottery too though you don't have the extreme outlier prizes.

I know but its all about the 'fun' aspect for my uncle. He has the money to do this. Different if you didnt.

dowie · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:46

koolpc said:
I know but its all about the 'fun' aspect for my uncle. He has the money to do this. Different if you didnt.

That's also irrelevant... the point was that you claimed there was no risk - there is a risk. The fact that the amount being risked doesn't mean much to the person taking the risk doesn't negate the fact the risk exists.