Let’s face it. The only reason anyone ever puts money into Premium Bonds is because they’re hoping for a win. Ideally a big win, but all wins are pretty good aren’t they?
So I thought I would share my experience of owning Premium Bonds for just over a year now and let you know exactly how much I’ve won and my opinion.
It all started with a cool £5,000.
Interest rates on bank accounts had dropped to super low amounts and I really wasn’t happy with the idea of watching inflation eat my money.
So I moved £5,000 into a product that I’ve never really liked. Premium Bonds.
When I moved the money over I was essentially getting nothing at all from my bank so any return from Premium Bonds would have been better.
Winnings In Year 1
I held £5,000 in Premium Bonds for pretty much exactly a year.
During that time I had two wins. Each one the lowest prize you could win, £25.
That meant my return of £50 had returned me 1%.
This is seemingly better than many people achieve so I can’t complain. I was actually pretty happy with that.
Winnings In Year 2
Around 3 months back I moved another £5,000 into Premium Bonds meaning I now had a total of £10,050 (my £10,000 plus the winnings).
With double the amount of Premium Bonds my chances of winning went up significantly.
The first 2 months passed by and I didn’t win a thing.
Then this month I received a notification of a win.
I logged in to check, drum roll…
I won a whopping £50.
That’s an almost 0.5% return which is still better than many bank accounts and I’m only 3 months in.
Total Winnings In 15 Months
My total winnings stand at £75 on a £10,000 investment.
That’s a return of 0.75% in total which really isn’t that bad at all.
Maybe I’ve been lucky but Premium Bonds have now become my default place to store my emergency funds.
Would I recommend putting any money into Premium Bonds? Yes I would, but only to keep your emergency funds or if you happen to have a spare £50,000 that you may need access to very quickly. Outside of these 2 scenarios I wouldn’t touch them at all.