Premium Bonds .. revolt!

[fido]

Surely this will finally get the middle classes to revolt?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance...

The million pound prize is no longer, and there is now a pathetic £25 prize to keep your meagre hopes up.

[elster]

Thought they had already done this.

I know it was agreed on a loong time ago.

[sebo]

I thought it said it's still there but only one instead of the usual two ?

I won £50 once.

[Matt_N]

fido said:

Surely this will finally get the middle classes to revolt?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance...

The million pound prize is no longer, and there is now a pathetic £25 prize to keep your meagre hopes up.

The millions pound prize is still there, just one instead of the two prizes before.

[ViperDave]

about bloody time, cant see why there would be a revolt as this can only be a good thing for most investors. I guess the op cant figure out the moons rotation either.

[Lefty Guns]

fido said:

Surely this will finally get the middle classes to revolt?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance...

The million pound prize is no longer, and there is now a pathetic £25 prize to keep your meagre hopes up.

I take it by your scornful use of the term "middle-class" that you disapprove of those succesful individuals who work hard and save their money? bds aren't they? What have they done to deserve winning prizes on premium bonds

[Bill Carr]

Lefty Guns said:

fido said:

Surely this will finally get the middle classes to revolt?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance...

The million pound prize is no longer, and there is now a pathetic £25 prize to keep your meagre hopes up.

I take it by your scornful use of the term "middle-class" that you disapprove of those succesful individuals who work hard and save their money? bds aren't they? What have they done to deserve winning prizes on premium bonds

I can't help but feel that you've rather mis-read the tone of the original post (although I stand to be corrected).

[fido]

Lefty Guns said:

I take it by your scornful use of the term "middle-class" that you disapprove of those succesful individuals who work hard and save their money? bds aren't they? What have they done to deserve winning prizes on premium bonds

I think we're in agreement - I'm both middle class ('Bank employee' still qualifies?) and have the maximum £30000 from which i hope to reap these pathetic prizes. Just to add, i misread the article (beer goggles) and thought they had removed all the top prizes .. but even so it was my only hope, and imagine so for many other 'middlies', of escaping from my soulless existance.

Edited by fido on Wednesday 18th March 13:45

[Lefty Guns]

My apologies, it would appear i did misinterpret the tone!

We're all little fonzies.

FWIW we've got £60k and actually do OK on prizes

[Steamer]

Lefty Guns said:

... actually do OK on prizes

I was doing okay too... until 6 months - now I get squat

[ViperDave]

Same here, hopefully now we may get some £25ers and maybe more £50s and the chance of the million has just gone from all to half of all so not too bothered about that.

[Steamer]

ViperDave said:

and the chance of the million has just gone from all to half of all so not too bothered about that.

I keeping asking people - but I have NEVER heard of anyone that actually knows a winner of the 1million on the bonds.

...Biggest winner I know was a £10K

[pembo]

I looked into getting these in the past but decided against it, when you look at the chances of 'winning' you were better off just sticking it all in the bank because if you compared it with interest you would generally lose out. I guess the change in prizes is to bring it don so that it is still worse than having it in the highest interest account. Of course there is always the chance of getting a big pay out one day but wouldn't you be better off having half in a savings account and the rest being played on the FTSE, thats how they make the money to give out the prizes anyway so you might as well cut out the middle man.

Just my opinion

[Minty UFB]

My G/Mother invested around £50 in early 1950's and today including all winnings they are now worth around £50. Thats right not one single win ( even though back in the 50's this was quite a lot of money).

[Ladyhayles]

Minty UFB said:

My G/Mother invested around £50 in early 1950's and today including all winnings they are now worth around £50. Thats right not one single win ( even though back in the 50's this was quite a lot of money).

Yeah but its all relative - there are people who hold thousands of bonds (me included) and therefore their chances of winning will be greater. Its not really suprising that your grandmother hasn't won anything to be honest.

I've won £50 on three occasions and had money invested in premium bonds for approximately two years. I'm not overly fussed that they've removed one of the £1million prizes because the likelihood of winning it is probably the same as winning the lottery but I am happy that I possibly have a greater chance of winning a smaller prize on potentially a more regular basis.

[Scrumper]

Ladyhayles said:

I'm not overly fussed that they've removed one of the £1million prizes because the likelihood of winning it is probably the same as winning the lottery

It's nowhere near that good I'm afraid.

1m on the Bonds: 1 in 32,000,000,000
Lottery jackpot: 1 in 14,000,000

[V8mate]

The return on the investments is now set at 1%; you can get more than that on a cash ISA.

[Scrumper]

V8mate said:

The return on the investments is now set at 1%; you can get more than that on a cash ISA.

Sorry for the slight pedantry. The 1% is actually the rate used to calculate the size of the prize pool, not the return.

This is good: http://www.everyinvestor.co.uk/personal-finance/sa...

[V8mate]

Scrumper said:

V8mate said:

The return on the investments is now set at 1%; you can get more than that on a cash ISA.

Sorry for the slight pedantry. The 1% is actually the rate used to calculate the size of the prize pool, not the return.

This is good: http://www.everyinvestor.co.uk/personal-finance/sa...

Correct. So if they set the returns at 1%, on average, you'll get 1%. You might be lucky and get more; you may be unlucky and get nothing.

[dan1981]

I got 50 quid in the post yesterday!