BOOM: Premium Bonds

[pr1]

First time I've "won" nothing in a month, which feels like losing £137.50

[WTFH]

£900 for the tax year for me, which is about 2%

[DealorNoDeal]

Yes, that’s how it works. It’s gambling more than saving, which is why it’s tax free. I’ve received well over the headline rate in the last year, but others will have received much less, that’s how probability distributions work.

Before they changed the prize distribution, with maximum holdings, it was easier to achieve close to the fund rate, making it somewhat comparable to an instant access savings account. Now there's much more luck involved whether you get a reasonable return.

[jamesbrown]

Before they changed the prize distribution, with maximum holdings, it was easier to achieve close to the fund rate, making it somewhat comparable to an instant access savings account. Now there's much more luck involved whether you get a reasonable return.

Yes, the expected value of the distribution is one thing, the overall distribution another. Obviously, for a fixed prize fund, if they weighted it all towards the highest prizes with a single bond for each other prize category, the probability of a win for someone with average/expected luck over any practical holding period would be vanishingly small.

But it has always been about gambling because they literally take random samples with a pseudorandom number generator from the population of bond numbers with as many samples as prizes available in each category of prize (or something conceptually equivalent to that), they just tweak the distribution of prizes every now and then.

[AtW]

Only £75 (25+50)

[Zigenare]

Only £75 (25+50)

You can buy a tulipload of smarties with £75...

[jamesbrown]

£225 in April. Not too shabby.

[WTFH]

£350. Nice start to the new tax year

[pr1]

First time I've "won" nothing in a month, which feels like losing £137.50

£300 in May... back on track

[TheDude]

I have had £550 on a £20k investment over three years...