- Reader put £10,000 in Premium Bonds in 2008 and has ‘very few’ wins
- We ask if newer bonds are more lucky than older ones when it comes to winning
- Experts say how much you hold in bonds is more important than how long
I bought £10,000 worth of Premium Bonds in October 2008 but have only had a handful of prize wins, all for £25.
Each month when I look at the Premium Bonds prizes I can see that many of the winning bonds were bought this year and some within the last few months.
My question is: Should I cash in my old Premium Bonds and buy new ones to increase my chances of winning more prizes?
Eyes on the prize: Experts say when it comes to winning Premium Bonds prizes, the main thing is not how long you have held the bond for but the amount of bonds you hold
Helen Kirrane of This is Money replies: It can feel sometimes that there is an element of beginners’ luck when it comes to Premium Bonds.
Over the summer, a Premium Bonds saver scooped one of the £1million jackpot prizes on their bond’s third draw.
But on the other side of the coin, another Premium Bonds holder won a £50,000 prize from a £5 bond they bought in 1983 in the most recent draw this December.
In fact, the oldest bond to ever scoop the £1million jackpot was bought in 1959 — and was picked out as a winner by ERNIE 45 years later in 2004. The winner, from Newham in London, had a holding of just £17.
Savings experts say that the main thing is not how long you have held the bond for, but the amount of bonds you hold.
The maximum holding for Premium Bonds is £50,000 and each bond number is worth £1.
In October, our analysis revealed that half of top £1million, £100,000 and £50,000 Premium Bonds prizes were won by those with the maximum £50,000 holding.
Andrew Hagger, founder of personal finance website MoneyComms replies: This is just a myth.
It doesn’t matter when a bond is purchased – it goes into the same monthly draw with all the others, so cashing in and buying again wouldn’t improve your chances.
If you want to increase your chances of winning, buying more bonds to add to your existing holding is the only way to do this.
A spokesman from NS&I replies: It’s become a popular myth, but new Premium Bonds are not luckier.
The reason it may appear that way is that of all the Bonds currently held, more than 90 per cent have been bought since 2000. They may appear luckier because there are simply more of them.
The thing to remember is all Bond numbers are equal. Each Bond number is worth £1 and has the same chance as any other to win a prize in each draw. It makes no difference when or where your Premium Bonds were bought.
Helen Kirrane replies: Each £1 bond is just as likely to win, regardless of when or where it was bought — it is simply the luck of the draw.
It’s true that the more bonds you hold, the better your chance of winning big prizes – so you might be able to boost your chances of scooping a prize if you buy more bonds.
But this does not mean it’s impossible to bag a bigger prize if you don’t hold the maximum amount.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
