Premium Bonds a Con..........?

Anyone else had/got them think the same?

I held them for 18months, few years ago, I first put in £500 then over the months I saved up £6000, yet I only won once and that was just £25.

Looking at the winers it seem to be that unless you hold at least 10-15k you aint gonna win ****.

Also I bet people who are rich just leave the max 30k in there and win all the time, this is unfair, they could make it fairer like if you win one month you dont get put in next months draw.

Ive held 2k in them all this year too and not won **** either.

Update:

1percent of 6k is 600pounds so I would of got more in savings then bonds, know it all

Update 3:

Sorry mean 1percent would be 60pound not 600 but it still more then 25

Update 5:

Ok maybe not a con but if your just going to have a little bit of money in there they are not worth doing as you wont win anything, your better of leaveing it in savings, they only seem worth having if u hold10-15k

Comments

  • If you flip a coin, you have a 50% chance of winning but if you just flip it once, does that mean you won half the time? If you flip ten times, is it safe to say that you'll win 5 times out of the ten or is it also possible that you may win 0 times, 1, 2, 3 ,4 6, 7 ,8 ,9 or 10 times? You only converge at the expected results at an infinite number of trials. Now if the probabilities are sizable as in the coin toss, it doesn't take too many trials to be reasonably close to the expected results but when the probabilities are extremely low as with the lottery bonds, it could take an eternity. For example, the median time to win on an average lottery is about a million years. Those lottery bonds popular in Europe have slightly better odds but like the lotteries you won't be hitting your expected results within a reasonable time unless you plan on living forever. If we take the probability of winning as 1 in 24,000 then the median to win which is the point by which you have a 50% chance of winning before and a 50% chance of winning afterwards ( perhaps infinitely afterwards ) would be 16,635 draws, this is much better than the million plus years for a lottery win but it's still a very long time, doubling your chances by buying more bonds reduces this to 8,317 so buying more does help but the fact remains you have to wait for the return to converge on your expectations.

    Yes you'll converge upon the average of 1.5%, eventually.

  • You are playing a game of odds. Of course they are fair, if you have 2 you have twice as much chance than if you have 1. Premium bond payouts are down in recent years because ALL investment returns are down and they can only pay out what they earn in interest. Notice now the min payout is now £25 when it was £50. I have only managed about 1.5% over 5 years, not good.

    The only positive thing is that being government backed your cash is 100% safe and if you do win it is tax free, and of course you do have a chance - albeit slim, of winning BIG!

    I just like checking mine every month to see if I can retire !

  • Premium bonds earn 1.5% interest, but instead of paying it out, it goes into a prize fund. If you've won £25 from saving up to £6,000 over 18 months, you've done considerably better than if you'd just put the money in a deposit account - and it's tax free.

    It's not a get rich quick scheme. The chances of winning are 24,000:1

  • Ive had about £300 pounds worth for 6 years, and Ive won over a grand and a half.

  • Ha ha ha! A con

    Be real dude - it is not a CON as you put it - it is the law of averages.

    The more you have, the more chance you have of winning - it is a chance you take - a gamble.

    End of story

    DUDE - 1 percent of 6000 - I think you need to try again on that one...........

  • It's about probability. You are not entitled to "win". You pay your money and take your chances.

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