The Lemon Fool

The YL family PBs have yielded an equivalent (annual) rate of 4.7% this month (same as last month, December 2023).
OK, all things considered and in the light of the published prize rate currently being 4.65% (https://www.nsandi.com/interest-rates)
(Winnings for whole of 2023 calculated to be around 3.8%)

(Calculations are total winnings this month, divided by the total capital invested, multiplied by 12. Very crude. YMMV)

Prizes are coming down with interest rates.
https://www.nsandi.com/interest-rates

New 4.40% prize fund rate for Premium Bonds from March 2024 draw
Odds remain the same at 21,000 to 1 for each £1 Bond
NS&I required to strike a balance between the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector
NS&I is reducing the prize fund rate for Premium Bonds from 4.65% to 4.40% from the March 2024 draw. The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize will remain the same at 21,000 to 1.

kempiejon wrote:Prizes are coming down with interest rates.
https://www.nsandi.com/interest-rates

New 4.40% prize fund rate for Premium Bonds from March 2024 draw
Odds remain the same at 21,000 to 1 for each £1 Bond
NS&I required to strike a balance between the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector
NS&I is reducing the prize fund rate for Premium Bonds from 4.65% to 4.40% from the March 2024 draw. The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize will remain the same at 21,000 to 1.

And here are the details of the new prize allocations. A reduction in the number of the higher value, even down to £50, but a large increase in the number of £25 prizes.

https://nsandi-corporate.com/news-research/news/premium-bonds-prize-fund-rate-reduced-march-2024-draw


Edit to add quote

The new published rate of return is for non taxpayers. The equivalent for basic rate payers is 5.5% & 7.33% for higher rate taxpayers.

Thirteen months after I last tried and gave up in disgust with the Byzantine 'not recognised' problem, I managed to buy some bonds so it seems that someone actually fixed it.
But the NS&I website... on every screen I had to tick the cookie button again arrrgh talk about clonky.

Anyway, the £5 of bonds that I have had since 1953 has now been raised into the giddy hundreds. Hooray.

V8

IC Fri 19 Jan 2024 (print edition date):
Should you hold Premium Bonds? (print edition title)
The case for (and against) owning Premium Bonds (online title)
https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/ideas/2024/01/16/the-case-for-and-against-owning-premium-bonds/
via Google: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=investors+chronicle+premium+bonds

Here are the Feb 2024 draw details

Press release: https://nsandi-corporate.com/news-research/news/two-premium-bonds-holders-dorset-and-wandsworth-hit-ps1-million-jackpot

News item: https://www.lovemoney.com/news/13635/premium-bonds-winners-have-i-won

High value winners: https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker/winners

Prize checker: https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker (due 2 Feb 2024)

£225 (25+50+50+100) on a full holding.

Best wishes,

Steve

Woohoo - first time either of us has won 'big' - MrsF got a £500 alongside a couple of £100s and 2 x £25. Making her total for the last 6 months a rather good £1825, after a zero last August. Which will probably cover the bulders for the day.

My holding returned a far more pedestrian £150, which including my big fat zero in September brings my 6 month total to £750, so only 3%

Paul

A miserly £50 on a full holding so back to work for another month

5 prizes totalling £425 on one full holding & zilch on the other.

him £25 her £225 - this happening too many times

Jeez - is it Fijitsu software?

Mr T7

2 x £50 on full holding. Little and often, only 1 zero month in the last 12!

Tricia

£200 & £50 on two modest holdings.

Happy with that.

Watis

I am very lucky. I've been holding between £3-20k this past year, won in 7 of the last 12 months. Last month won £1k. My first ever medium prize win. Only £6k in the draw and this month £50. My 12 month return over 20%. I'm putting the money somewhere else now.

We've probably all seen stories like this one, where a holder claims to have never won anything:

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/perso ... ion-answer

NS&I assure us that there is no possibility of bonds being lost in the system. I wonder whether there is an auditing system in place to confirm this?

After the Post Office / Fujitsu scandal, I wonder for how much longer people will be happy to accept the word of NS&I that all is well with their bond holdings?

Watis

terminal7 wrote:him £25 her £225 - this happening too many times

Jeez - is it Fijitsu software?

Mr T7

It's strange how randomness plays out.

Our winnings last year were:

Mrs Watis: £625
Me: £225

But so far this year, it's switched around:

Mrs Watis: £100
Me: £350

Watis

Watis wrote:We've probably all seen stories like this one, where a holder claims to have never won anything:

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/perso ... on-answer/

The Express is always trying to imply there might be dodgy goings on with Premium Bonds, they'd love it if it was true. It's not.

Scott.

Watis wrote:NS&I assure us that there is no possibility of bonds being lost in the system. I wonder whether there is an auditing system in place to confirm this?

I am inclined to trust NS&I based on my experience.

About 60 years ago I was bought a few PBs by my parents. After a couple of £25 wins early on, nothing.

I lost touch with NS&I (or the post office, it might have been back then). And I moved house a few times.

Last year I decided I wanted a max holding. But I knew I had held those few bonds and did not want to exceed the maximum. So I contacted them and, after some time and effort, they found my original holding, which turned out to be for £7. So I bought another £49,993 worth.

I was impressed that they successfully made that effort for a trivial holding from 60 years earlier.

Lootman wrote:

Watis wrote:NS&I assure us that there is no possibility of bonds being lost in the system. I wonder whether there is an auditing system in place to confirm this?

I am inclined to trust NS&I based on my experience.

About 60 years ago I was bought a few PBs by my parents. After a couple of £25 wins early on, nothing.

I lost touch with NS&I (or the post office, it might have been back then). And I moved house a few times.

Last year I decided I wanted a max holding. But I knew I had held those few bonds and did not want to exceed the maximum. So I contacted them and, after some time and effort, they found my original holding, which turned out to be for £7. So I bought another £49,993 worth.

I was impressed that they successfully made that effort for a trivial holding from 60 years earlier.

Similar experience here. My parents bought me £2 of Premium Bonds when they first came out, and I'd pretty well forgotten about them. 5-6 years ago, I bought £50k, and everything was hunky-dory, then a year or two ago I got a letter to say I was over-subscribed, and the £2 was deposited in my nominated bank account

--kiloran