Has anyone invested in premium bonds, its one of the only investment opportunities i have not taken up but am interested in putting a bit into it for a few years and see.
Worth it, is there a big return?
Potentially, yes. You could put Ā£25 in today and have Ā£1,000,000 by Christmas.
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Yeah, I was reading into it. Its like the lottery but you save up at the same time as the more you have in bonds the more chance of winning is that right?
I hope I understand it right because Iāve just set up for the December draw 
Just treat it as a savings account, the chance of winning anything is tiny
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The problem with Premium Bonds is they have been slowly reducing the number of prizes and jackpots over the last few years in line with the lowering of interest rates. It was a much better proposition years ago and I hardly won anything back then with Ā£5,000 of them. Nowadays the chances will be even less.
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Yep. Itās like a lottery, but you can get your stake back. The worst that can happen is you get back what you put in.
Nationwide have just announced a similar scheme, which offers prizes and a guaranteed 0.5% interest rate.
https://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/mutual-reward-bond/features-and-benefits
Thats my intentions 
Better in bonds than being spent at shops
I didnt know this 
Nationwide is legit a sick bank, they have some of the best saving products too if im right
The āinterest rateā on them is due to drop on December 1st, so itās even less likely to have much by the way of reasonable return.
Personally, Iād be more tempted to chuck money into a locked Savings pot rather than put it in a premium bond.
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a Standard Pot and use Monzo Plus interest or open a ISA Pot
My 11 month return on Premium Bonds is currently 1.26%
Bit more than Ā£25 in there.
Whilst your capital is safe, it does depreciate in purchasing power as the years tick on, and donāt expect to win much with less than a few thousand in them.
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If you want to get even close to the advertised 1.4% rate (soon to be dropping to 1%) you need to have a significant sum in there, ideally the full Ā£50k
The odds on winning the bigger prizes are so small Iād just not even think about it, although you get your stake back, unlike the lottery!
this is a good site to gauge returns on investment https://premiumbondsprizes.com/
If youāre just throwing in a few grand then donāt bother youāll probably never win anything for years
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Can confirm. Have had a small sum in premimum bonds for a few decades now (gift from grandparents), and never won anything. I keep meaning to cash them in and put the money to better use elsewhere instead.
Between 2014 and 2019 had about Ā£5000 in Premium Bonds and only won in February 2017, May 2017 and June 2017. Ā£25 a pop.
Always an interesting read.
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Iāll have a look at this, thanks for posting it
Iād probably go with a bond index fund instead. Vanguardās global bond fund perhaps.
On the contrary; they seem to be doing well.
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You had me there, for a moment. 
Youāre bad (I believe is the term 
).
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I mean I have the max amount in and my return rate is pretty high, same for my family. So of course its a probability game so more chances of winning. Personally if you want a safe place to put your money to forget about it, premium bonds is probably a good place to put it.
EDIT: I would go as far to say if you miss the old functionality of a locked Pot I would use as savings vehicle such as this, as its not necessarily the Interest rate that youāre after
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