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The popularity of Premium Bonds
Every month more than a million prize-winning numbers are chosen at random and one bond-holder pockets £1m. Other prizes range from around 1.6m at £25, to nine at £50,000 and four at £100,000. All prizes are paid tax-free.The odds
A drop in the number of prizes in 2009 - approximately 20,000 - as a result of an overhaul has been reversed. They have shot back up to 1.74m. It helped improve the odds of winning in 2010, too. In 2009 they were 36,000 to 1. By December 2010, NS&I said the chances of winning any prize with a single £1 bond were 24,000-1.
You can compare the odds of winning a million with Premium Bonds to the National Lottery. You have far more chance of winning the lottery each week, where your £1 stake gives you a one-in-14m chance of winning the whole thing. But, unlike the lottery, you do not lose your stake if you do not win. You simply go into the next monthly Premium Bond draw. That's an important difference.
In their own way, the bonds also pay a rate of interest: current 1.5%. This is used to calculate the prize fund size for each monthly draw, (rather than added to the value of the bonds you hold).
Improving winning chances
The only sure way to increase your chances of a prize are to buy more bonds. NS&I calculates that with the maximum £30,000 investment and average luck you should win 15 prizes a year.
However, note that phrase 'average luck'. There is no guarantee you'll win anything.
>> Premium Bonds Calculator: Enter your numbers, see if you've won
Picking winners
The numbers are generated by Ernie, the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment. NS&I will send 'Agent Millionaire' in person to tell the top winner. It writes to everyone else winning smaller prizes. Alternatively if you think you have won write to Premium Bonds, National Savings and Investments, Blackpool FY3 9YP, or go to www.nsandi.com. Around £24m in prize money is waiting to be claimed.
Conspiracy theories
You may begin to notice that the winning bonds tend to be ones bought recently. This is because there are more newer bonds in the draw. Since the £1m jackpot prize was introduced in 1994, more Premium Bonds have been bought than in the 37 preceding years put together. In May 2003 the maximum holding was raised from £20,000 to £30,000 and in that month alone £1bn worth of new bonds were bought. Sales were running at more than £400m a month in 2009.
How to buy Premium Bonds
You can do this by using a debit card, calling NS&I on 0500 007 007, or by completing an application form available at any Post Office branch and investing over the counter. You can also download an application form from the NS&I website at www.nsandi.com, or by requesting a form from NS&I by calling 0845 964 5000.
The minimum investment is £100 but you can also save £50 a month by direct debt.
Useful links
• National Savings & Investments
• This is Money publishes details of the major monthly prize winners, from £1m to £5,000 - Premium Bonds winning numbers. And talk premium bond theories in our Saving & Banking message board.
• Also, our round-up 50 years of Premium Bonds contains everything you need to know - the history, theories on improving your chances of winning and much more.
source: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk
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