RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Anyone know the chances of winning the £1m if you buy £20k's worth (think thats the max allowed) ??
Wondering if tying up £20k for a year or so is worthwhile - seeing as most other invesments are pretty naff at mo - plus no risk to money invested.

Ro.

Luke

Ro

I believe that many finacial advisors reccomend this idea. Ive got 5K£ and I beat the bank every year winnings V interest

I would do it.

Tiggs

about as likley as buying £20,000 of lottery tickets.

you will see 3-5% over the year.

brickboy

Can't remember what the chances are of winning the big prize, but IIRC the average return on a max. allowance of bonds is 3.75%, and it's tax free.

Hammy Hamster

Here's what my IFA told me...
The lottery gives you a 1 in 14 million chance. Premium bonds give you a 1 in 13 billion chance of winning the jackpot (£1m). If you can afford the maximum holding of (£20k) the premium bond should return over 5% interest in prizes, and the odds on winning a million drop to below 1 in 700,000.

But the choice is yours!

Tiggs

"return over 5% interest "

be lucky to see that this yr

Hammy Hamster

Assuming you were unlucky enough not to win anything over the year, the gamble would have cost you c.£600 (if you originally had the money invested in a Bld Soc). Remember, you can cash them in at any time and get your £20k back (don't think you can do that with the lottery .

I've never regretted it.

Ratman

Current chances of winning, I believe, are 1 in 28,500.

So, if you're "averagely lucky" and hold the maximum £20K bonds, you'd expect to win 8 prizes in the year (probably all £50!).

Average return is now only 2.40%, but tax free.

Which reminds me, I think I'm overdue a win, hint hint.

NB All my winnings (which have only ever been £50 prizes) have arrived in clumps, e.g. 3 prizes in 2 months then nothing for 6 months. Anyone else find this?

Ratman

Luke

yeh same here

jasey

Yeah - it's the government - they used to run the buses remember - nothing for ages then three in a row

Most months the £1M prize is won by someone with £20k holding (apparently) and I read that there were approx 250,000 people with the max holding - I make that 250,000 to 1 - which is much better than 13,000,000 to 1

Bajie

Friends of mine had 14.5k invested while searching for a new home.
Got a healthy return as they won money every month. Not millions but they did beat the bank rates.
They did say they were after security rather than a risky investment as it was a short termer.

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I had 20k in and got a win nearly every month in a year, iirc i only had 2 months without a win, but some months had more than one cheque, had a £500 cheque once too!. Much more fun than the building society

pslewis

Worst part is the 2 calender month wait for your bonds to go into the draw!!

Pete

Of course what you REALLY want to do is put £20k in YOUR name, £20k in the wifes name and £20k in each of the kids names. Then you REALLY ARE talking hedging your bets!!

[Edited by pslewis - 2/24/2003 7:56:07 PM]

speedking

Check the website here.

Don't forget that the average return is 2.4%, the guy who wins a £1m after holding the max. for 5 years gets a return of 1000% pa , so a lot of investors have to get very little to balance it out.

Most of my wins have come on new bonds or after changing address (yet they say it isn't fixed!). I would advise buying in smaller batches to maximise returns.

apples24

iTrader: (1)

gettin peed off with mine held 10k's worth for 6 months now and all i won was £50 on the first draw i was entered in.

WISHING

You can now hold upto £30k !!!