# Premium bonds



## mickee92 (Mar 2, 2016)

Just a simple explanation on what premium bonds are and if anyone uses them??

Are they worth it or just old fashioned? And if anyone does have money in premium bonds what are the best "sites" to use?


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## Rob180bhp (Oct 8, 2017)

It's like buying a lottery ticket each month and entering a draw, then when your ready have your pound back

Only problem minimum amount is maybe £100

On average your probably likely to get less interest or winnings than a high interest account, and most people will say that are a waste of time

But tell that to the people who have won big

I have several thousand bonds, and I regularly win but just have more bonds instead of the money so it's like interest in a Bank

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## mickee92 (Mar 2, 2016)

Rob180bhp said:


> It's like buying a lottery ticket each month and entering a draw, then when your ready have your pound back
> 
> Only problem minimum amount is maybe £100
> 
> ...


Right so I would need to put £100 a month in or can it just be a few hundred lump and then leave it to do its thing?

So your would say its worth while? If you don't mind me asking have you won big or whats the most/regularity of winning prizes?


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## Rob180bhp (Oct 8, 2017)

mickee92 said:


> Rob180bhp said:
> 
> 
> > It's like buying a lottery ticket each month and entering a draw, then when your ready have your pound back
> ...


Start with £100 and a month or just one off amounts, I have a direct debit each month so it's like saving for me

But the more bonds you u have the more you will earn but still not guaranteed a penny so it is a gamble, but with no loss as you have your money back at the end

Biggest amount is only £250 and that was a one off but regular £25s or £50s

Over a year so far I have been lucky and it's beaten my isa interest amount

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## mickee92 (Mar 2, 2016)

Rob180bhp said:


> Start with £100 and a month or just one off amounts, I have a direct debit each month so it's like saving for me
> 
> But the more bonds you u have the more you will earn but still not guaranteed a penny so it is a gamble, but with no loss as you have your money back at the end
> 
> ...


Sounds worth it to me. Would you recommend anywhere to open a premium bonds savings?

Cheers.


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## Ikon66 (Sep 12, 2003)

i have £1k just for a bit of a punt really. Interest rates are rubbish at present so thought why not. You can save every month or just stick a lump sum in and see what happens. You wont lose anything except interest 

On a side note does anyone know if you win do they e-mail you, never checked mine for a while? :?


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## Ikon66 (Sep 12, 2003)

mickee92 said:


> Sounds worth it to me. Would you recommend anywhere to open a premium bonds savings?
> 
> Cheers.


Only one place you can is NS&I https://www.nsandi.com/


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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

If you have a decent chunk invested in them then they can be a better return than most savings accounts, especially with the poor interest rates at the moment but you need to have well over £10k invested to be in with a good chance of winning anything each month. Also, you are winning as opposed to earning interest so there is no tax to pay on the profit you make.


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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

Ikon66 said:


> i have £1k just for a bit of a punt really. Interest rates are rubbish at present so thought why not. You can save every month or just stick a lump sum in and see what happens. You wont lose anything except interest
> 
> On a side note does anyone know if you win do they e-mail you, never checked mine for a while? :?


Cheque in the post normally


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## Ikon66 (Sep 12, 2003)

ashfinlayson said:


> Ikon66 said:
> 
> 
> > i have £1k just for a bit of a punt really. Interest rates are rubbish at present so thought why not. You can save every month or just stick a lump sum in and see what happens. You wont lose anything except interest
> ...


Cheers


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

Interesting... I Currently have a Help to Buy ISA that only allows £200 investment each month, but save a bit more then that in another basic 'savings' account which currently earns 0.05 % gross interest rate (Not allowed another ISA when you hold a Help to Buy one!).

So really it would be worth my time investing some in a Premium Bonds account each month as there's at least a chance of getting a return of some description, rather then what I'm currently getting (50p PA for every £1000 invested!!)?

Is the money easily withdraw-able when you want it back?


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## Rob180bhp (Oct 8, 2017)

NickG said:


> Interesting... I Currently have a Help to Buy ISA that only allows £200 investment each month, but save a bit more then that in another basic 'savings' account which currently earns 0.05 % gross interest rate (Not allowed another ISA when you hold a Help to Buy one!).
> 
> So really it would be worth my time investing some in a Premium Bonds account each month as there's at least a chance of getting a return of some description, rather then what I'm currently getting (50p PA for every £1000 invested!!)?
> 
> Is the money easily withdraw-able when you want it back?


Yes i think they need a few days notice

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## Rob180bhp (Oct 8, 2017)

And there used to be a maximum purchase limit of 30k also depending how muxh you want to invest

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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

NickG said:


> Interesting... I Currently have a Help to Buy ISA that only allows £200 investment each month, but save a bit more then that in another basic 'savings' account which currently earns 0.05 % gross interest rate (Not allowed another ISA when you hold a Help to Buy one!).
> 
> So really it would be worth my time investing some in a Premium Bonds account each month as there's at least a chance of getting a return of some description, rather then what I'm currently getting (50p PA for every £1000 invested!!)?
> 
> Is the money easily withdraw-able when you want it back?


Keep potting the max you can into your help to buy ISA because you will get that extra help from Gov but also you want as much as possible in there because what they don't tell you is that the solicitor will charge you an extra "processing fee" when you buy your house so it's only worthwhile if you've got plenty in it.

You have nothing to lose though by switching to premium bonds from your other savings account because 0.05% = f*** all and is exactly why I started buying premium bonds. It's only a very small chance of a windfall but a lot more likely than winning the lottery.

It only takes a few days to get your money out of NS&I if you need it desperately.


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

ashfinlayson said:


> Keep potting the max you can into your help to buy ISA because you will get that extra help from Gov but also you want as much as possible in there because what they don't tell you is that the solicitor will charge you an extra "processing fee" when you buy your house so it's only worthwhile if you've got plenty in it.
> 
> You have nothing to lose though by switching to premium bonds from your other savings account because 0.05% = f*** all and is exactly why I started buying premium bonds. It's only a very small chance of a windfall but a lot more likely than winning the lottery.
> 
> It only takes a few days to get your money out of NS&I if you need it desperately.


Yeah we'll definitely do that, both of us are putting the max in each month at the minute so we are getting there well with the saving. Just thinking with the other £400 a month we save in a crappy and essentially no interest account we may aswell give the PB a try, as you say, we can't really lose and even if we win one prize of £25 it's a lot more then we'd ever get in interest!


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## mickee92 (Mar 2, 2016)

Glad I started this thread!!

Think I'll start the premium bonds then as I've been convinced ^^^ thanks guys 

Also same as Nick I have a help to buy isa and would like a different form of savings which has a better outcome potentially.


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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

Yeah I've tried all sorts over the last few years, was also in the same situation with saving a deposit and looking for somewhere decent to invest. Shares were by far the most effort for smallest gain + tax implications. Premium bonds are at least the easiest and tax-free way to make a small profit.

Glad to read about people being smart with money, most of my friends aren't interested in saving a penny let alone saving for a deposit.


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## FJ1000 (Nov 21, 2015)

ashfinlayson said:


> Yeah I've tried all sorts over the last few years, was also in the same situation with saving a deposit and looking for somewhere decent to invest. Shares were by far the most effort for smallest gain + tax implications. Premium bonds are at least the easiest and tax-free way to make a small profit.
> 
> Glad to read about people being smart with money, most of my friends aren't interested in saving a penny let alone saving for a deposit.


Regarding tax implications of shares...I invest through TD Direct, and can buy some UK and European shares into my ISA account (so no tax). You can also put ETFs and funds in there.

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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

FJ1000 said:


> ashfinlayson said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah I've tried all sorts over the last few years, was also in the same situation with saving a deposit and looking for somewhere decent to invest. Shares were by far the most effort for smallest gain + tax implications. Premium bonds are at least the easiest and tax-free way to make a small profit.
> ...


What do you mean buy them into an ISA? it's on sale that the gains tax has to be paid. Or do you mean you pay the proceeds of the sale direct into your ISA?

There are also the purchase and sale fees you have to pay making it not worthwile unless you're working with bigger numbers. But stamp duty is paid on any transactions over £1k


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## qooqiiu (Oct 12, 2007)

That's with 83k invested. I don't see that as in anyway a "good" investment.


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## FJ1000 (Nov 21, 2015)

ashfinlayson said:


> FJ1000 said:
> 
> 
> > ashfinlayson said:
> ...


No capital gains tax on shares in an ISA - that's the main benefit of ISAs.

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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

qooqiiu said:


> That's with 83k invested. I don't see that as in anyway a "good" investment. But I am very risk averse with my money.


830 chances is better odds than 100 chances in my case and you wouldn't say that if one day you won big. But with the best part of £100k, you do have a few more opportunities for investment than Joe Bloggs saving for his deposit.


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

Well I owe the OP a thanks for drawing my attention to it, as well as all the other posters contributing to the thread... I've invested in some, £5000 to be precise, so let's see how this goes. Hopefully I won't miss the £2.50 I could have made in interest over the next year!! :lol:

They'll only be in there a year until we are ready to buy our first house, I'll update if there's any success! 8)


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

Epic! 8)

Our first draw yesterday... won £25!! Officially 10x better off then we would have been and still have another 11 draws!


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## ashfinlayson (Oct 26, 2013)

Get yourself a lottery ticket quick smart


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

ashfinlayson said:


> Get yourself a lottery ticket quick smart


I didn't buy a lottery ticket, but maybe I should now!! 2x£25 prizes this month!!

That makes us 30 times better off with interest then we would have been for the year and we are only in month 2 of 12! :lol:


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

Well after going very quiet since February's draw, November turned out well, with 4 £25 wins! That puts us at £175 for the 10 months to date (The equivalent of 3.5% interest over the year if i've done my maths right!).

2 more months and then we can get the real equivalent interest rate, safe to say we are way up on even what our Help2Buy ISA's are currently returning in Interest!


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