National Savings & Investments (NS&I) will increase the Premium Bond prize rate to the highest in 15 years at 3.15pc in February from 3pc in a boost for more than 22 million savers.
The savings bank is backed by the Treasury, so when customers invest in its products they are effectively lending to the Government.
Why do I think that Ritchie is going to complain about this?
That’s the wrong question, Tim.
He’s obviously going to complain but the interesting part is how vehemently and how high in the Murphy numerology he will reach in his rant.
I thought he approved of saving in government bonds?
Premium Bonds in the last few monrhs have turned into a really nice little earner.
@Ottokring
Yes
The odds say we should win something every month with our stash and that has been true, with the exception of Jan 23 – which was rather disappointing!
We seem to be earning just under 3%, which is fine for emergency money – we have other things doing better (except for our passive lifestyle fund, less said about that the better over the past few months!)
Are these idiots incapable of holding the SHIFT key on their keyboard while pressing 5?
@starfish
I held the maximum of premium bonds (IRC 25k at the time) for a couple of years. I think the total winnings worked out at half a per cent. It’s still gambling, even with large numbers. And like most gambling, most people don’t win so that some can win big. The only guaranteed way to win at random chance gambling is to be the person running the game.
Starfish
That is about right. My yield went up from 1/2 ish % to bang on 3%.
I have under the maximum, but still win something just about every month. One needs >£25k to achieve that.
Why ignore a steelmanned Murphy?
@ottokring
Yes – that’s what drives our amount ‘invested’
@bloke in spain – “The only guaranteed way to win at random chance gambling is to be the person running the game.”
And even that’s not guaranteed if we believe some of the stories about Donald Trump
Given that premium bonds return virtually nothing, whereas the Lottery returns 50%, there is a way to go yet! Even if in both cases your chances of seeing any return are vanishingly small.
Given that premium bonds return virtually nothing, whereas the Lottery returns 50%, there is a way to go yet
With Premium Bonds, you’re gambling with your interest. If you buy £1,000 of bonds you’d expect to win a £25 prize once a year on average (and have a very remote chance of winning a million), but you’ve still got your £1,000 whatever happens. If you buy £1,000 of Lottery tickets, you can expect to end up with around £500, but have a very remote chance of winning really big.
If you own the maximum amount of Bonds (?£50k, they keep increasing it), you can be reasonably confident of getting (currently) ~3% return, which isn’t bad for a ‘safe’ investment.