premium bonds

[don1982]

I have a shed full of these - gathered over the years - quite productive in 50gbps but - what do folk feel about me cashing in and getting a whole wedge in one block of new ones?

[damajowi]

its still a lottery

[THECORBYLOON]

What does "gbps" mean?

[Oneeyedvic]

I am guessing that gbps - Great Britain Pound Sterling - but I may be wrong.

As damajowi says - its still al ottery - what is the difference between buying a lucky dip from your newsagent and a luck dip from WH Smiths - nothing it is purely down to luck

[maggie01]

Its all down to luck as the others have said but if you have had them a long time and have not had much luck with them. Then a change is as good as a rest and you could be lucky. I have had a couple of small wins on mine but a couple I have had in for 30 yrs (that was when you could buy them singly) and have never won on them. Good Luck what ever you decide

[123paul]

A few months back �1M was won by a very small value bond purchased in the '60's.  On the whole the significant prizes do appear to be won by bonds purchased in the last 10 years; but this is pure chance as everyone else has rightly said.

If you have the �30,000 max you need to get them out & into a decent savings acc, they just don't work out with the present interest rate / RPI.

[Coll]

Don't forget the winnings are tax free, so this has to be taken into account when looking at the expected return. Also, it is the only gamble I know where you get your stake money back.

[Segilla]

I've never won anything bigger than �250. For about 10 years, I've held max allowed and a few months ago, amalgamated ca �12k smaller ones in two tranches. The Max size I was given was �2k, but they were continuously numbered.

But is Ernie's impartial? Consider this.

Of my latest wins on the PB site, 8 start with No 3.

One month, 2 wins, bonds on bonds starting 3JR2324...

Another month, 2 wins, bonds 39HL1529169 and ..972

Of two �2k bonds, taken our Oct and Nov 1998. One has won 14 times, the other 3 times. Will anybody who suggests that this is within accepted statistical error assure me that if these 2 bonds were theirs and they need to cash up one of them, they'd be happy to sell the one that wins most often!

[Segilla]

PS. In October the �!M prizwinners both started with the same number, 71 I think.