I got a measly £25 this month 
As with most “lotto” style ventures, Premium Bonds are really just a mechanism which takes large amounts of money from mug punters, which the operators can then make money from (gambling it themselves on stock markets or investing in safe schemes etc) and who then will pay-out nothing or very little, to the vast majority of mug punters.
The probabilities and maths involved in assessing Premium Bonds are very complex and made that way deliberately so the average punter can’t properly assess the proposition.
The simpler people are left to reason thus:
“I can’t lose any money because I can always take my money back out, and I might just scoop a hefty jackpot, so how can I lose?”
What they fail to assess is the true reality of how much return they will get from Premium Bonds vs the return they would get from say ISAs or interest accounts and so on.
When such analysis is done it soon becomes clear that Premium Bonds are a mugs game. That said the returns from interest savings accounts and the like have been getting less and less but even so, Premium Bonds will give most people a smaller return than other investing options.
Here’s a good article which explains the true odds and the real facts about Premium Bonds.
I have a key principle in life where lending money is concerned as follows:
If a bank or other institution would charge you X% to lend you some money, then you yourself would be a fool to lend YOUR money out to someone else and not charge them that same X%
If you have Premium Bonds then you are effectively lending your money out to someone else for zero percent charge, or for a very very small charge.
As I get a heck of a lot more in prize money on my premium bond investment, than interest on the savings accounts, I would beg to differ.
And I no longer want to tie up my money in 6 year savings bonds.
That may be true but as ISA rates are so low as not to bother might as well go for Premium Bonds as part of a balanced portfolio. Stocks and shares are also at rock bottom .
Would that not be the best point to buy then?!
Nice long post
BUT stupid.
Your quote
If you have Premium Bonds then you are effectively lending your money out to someone else for zero percent charge, or for a very very small charge.
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That statement covers all investments that you make and hope and expect a return on.
Well you’ve already stated that you have the full £50,000 invested. On that basis it is a “virtual certainty” that you will win £250 per year. There is an 80% chance that you will win £500 a year which of course would be a mere 1% return on your huge investment.
To win £1000 per year you would have to one of the lucky 5% of people in that bracket and even if you were, that’s still only a 2% return.
There are savings accounts offering better returns than the average 1% that premium bonds provide. Santander for example offer 3% on up to a £20,000 investment.
It covers speculative investments where a return is not guaranteed. It does not cover investments like savings accounts which provide fixed returns.
I have got a better return with p bonds than saving schemes
So how much have you won? And how many bonds did you have and for how long?
Yes but you have to know what to buy .
Its a gamble too.
On which interest you pay tax .
Bottom line is that all Lotto’s, however they are presented, are for suckers. The odds are vastly stacked against you.
The odds of winning the Premium Bonds Jackpot is 1 in 27 BILLION !
The odds of winning the National Lottery Jackpot when it first began were 1 in 14 MILLION.
Either way, ridiculous odds.
Mr Realist, you may have forgotten to mention the depreciation of the value of the £ whilst it is stuck in Premium bonds for years.
Exactly Emjay. I bought £10 worth of premium bonds when they first came out, at the time I was a miner bringing home about £12 a week. I haven’t won a bean in all these years but the equivalent investment today would be about £400 if I was still working.
My premium bonds date back to the 60’s when I used to buy the odd one every now and again when you could buy them at £1 a time. Last year our wins amounted to just under £500, mainly made up of £25 bond wins.
While this appears to be a correct statement, it isn’t as simple as that…
As a rough guide, you would need to double your original nest-egg every seven years to keep up with inflation.
This is how the government have raised a lot of money over the past two decades. They have deliberately lowered the interest rates for savers, and they are the ones who have lost out.
The people who get any benefits are the borrowers, such as the mortgage holders.
Thus, the governments can correctly say that the poorer people are better off now than twenty years ago.
However, we all know that the people who really are better off are the bankers, and civil servants on obscene salaries and bonuses.
The rich get richer, and the poorer get poorer.
My personal finances are nothing to do with anyone else
Premium bonds, ISAs, investment bonds, gold bullion, what ever. What are you going to do with the money?
I have a few ‘investments’ that I was saving for my old age.
But I am old now and I don’t need anything. My home was paid for a long time ago, and I have my boys toys. 
I would like to buy good health for my OH, and maybe a bit for myself. But they don’t sell it.
So my kids will get it all.
So any ideas what to do with it would be welcome. :shock: