Today I received a cheque from NS&I for £50. I has won on the premium bonds. A couple of years ago I had invested £10,000 in bonds and had a few modest wins as you would expect. I was curious however why they had now sent me a cheque. I had requested that wins should be reinvested by purchasing more bonds and they had done that previously.
I have just checked the number and discovered that the prize relates to a solitary bond given to me as a present by my parents when I was 11.
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My two children are regular (read 3-4 times a year) winners of £25, I'm sure I setup at least one of them to be paid in their bank account but we still get cheques..cheques for god sake, all of our banks have closed within a 7 mile radius, means a trip into town which we rarely do these days, my son has one pinned to the fridge which is a couple of months old.
Other bug bare is the cheque I receive from my a very small investment, comes every quarter and it's for about £2.50 but they say I can't have it paid automatically either into my bank or reinvested.... costs nearly as much to drive into bank to pay in... what will they do if cheques ever disappear?
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Pay them in at the post office.
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I have a single premium bond bought in 1959 by Great Uncle Frank to mark by birth.
Never won a penny.
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My winning bond was bought in 1960 so don’t give up!
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There's an argument that with interest rates being so pathetically low as to be almost nil, one might as well put all spare cash in Premium Bonds. On average that should produce about 1% pa I think. I don't think I get that much, but I do get several £25 wins most months - perhaps £400 a year.
Plus of course the remote chance of getting a jackpot :)
I've not had any problems getting it paid straight into my bank account.
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>>There's an argument that with interest rates being so pathetically low as to be almost nil, one might as well put all spare cash in Premium Bonds.
I think its a good argument and one I follow, using this as the rainy day fund we all should maintain. I believe NS&I currently reckon on an average yield of 1.35%, not bad for an easy access fund but with of course the possibility of getting no yield at all. However, the capital is always as safe as any can be.
I started with £10 in May, 1967. Prizes have nearly all been reinvested and I have sometimes added lump sums. To date I have won 57 prizes from £25 (most of them) to 50 and (once) £100; totalling£1625. What with constantly changing capital I can't see how to work out my personal yield but it is probably negative, even before inflation.
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I bought £1000 worth of bonds and the first month that they went in the draw I won £500.
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I think the Premium Bond cheques are only valid for three months, not the usual six.
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I used to get a little frisson of excitement every month when I checked my premium bonds, a bit like others get when checking a lottery ticket I suppose. Sometimes I even won £25. One month I noticed a winning cheque hadn't arrived. NS&I replaced it and after that I had any winnings paid directly into my bank.
MIL moaned she never won anything. I found her details and checking revealed she was owed £50. She'd never informed them of her house moves!
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>>costs nearly as much to drive into bank to pay in... what will they do if cheques ever
>>disappear?
As of last week, my HSBC app allows me to pay in cheques of under £500. By taking a photograph of the cheque. :o
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>> solitary bond given to me as a present
And presumably not linked with your other account and therefore a cheque was sent. This old bond of course has as much change as the others you have - i.e. very little per bond.
Father in law does quite well. Usually £25 or £50 every month. I removed a few hundred so he'd not get cheques which I then needed to pay in. I'll soon have to do that again. He won £100 this month.
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>>Father in law does quite well. Usually £25 or £50 every month. I removed a few hundred so >>he'd not get cheques which I then needed to pay in. I'll soon have to do that again. He won ?>>£100 this month.
Not fair :-)
I have about half the maximum amount allowed and have one win of £25 so far this year!
Last edited by: Driver on Wed 8 Aug 18 at 23:44
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Mrs C wins the occasional bond too, and has actually opted for the warrant, rather than the direct pay in. She likes the envelope surprise.
Bit of a pain to pay in though I agree. However one of the bank account apps was updated a few weeks ago,and told me I could now use the iPhone camera to pay a cheque in. I've not yet had occasion to use it, but I'll be interested to see and understand how that works next time.
I'm imagining you still have to get the bit of of paper to a bank perhaps, but maybe it starts the pay in process or something?
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I have had £100 of premium bonds so long, I think they were carved on the Rosetta Stone. Which is probably why Ernie the computer has been unable to decipher it.
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>>I have had £100 of premium bonds so long
My wife gave up work when the eldest son was due. Last pay packet £100 premium bond bought - we are still awaiting a win.
Son is 45.
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>> I have had £100 of premium bonds so long, I think they were carved on
>> the Rosetta Stone. Which is probably why Ernie the computer has been unable to decipher
>> it.
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The early tickets were printed on surplus war-economy paper. They get crumpled and stick in the bottom of the drum, so never get picked.
Except once every ten years they give it a proper clear out and mix them all up again, occasionally picking out an old one just to keep CGN happy.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Thu 9 Aug 18 at 08:34
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>> The early tickets were printed on surplus war-economy paper. They get crumpled and stick in
>> the bottom of the drum, so never get picked.
>> Except once every ten years they give it a proper clear out and mix them
>> all up again, occasionally picking out an old one just to keep CGN happy.
I don't think the drum will last very long with my Rosetta Stone bouncing around in it.
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>> The early tickets were printed on surplus war-economy paper. They get crumpled and stick in
>> the bottom of the drum, so never get picked.
I think that account is half right.
AIUI as the tickets get older, the paper deteriorates, gets softer and tends to stick in the drum. that's why they don't get picked out.
The new/er tickets are still whizzing round happily in the drum and get picked out by Mr Ernest Marples. That is why it's a good idea every 5 years to cash in all your Premium Bonds and buy new ones.
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No such thing as a drum for paper bonds.
ERNIE is nothing to do with Ernest Marples.
All the picking is done electronically.
ERNIE is an acronym for Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment.
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>> No such thing as a drum for paper bonds.
>> ERNIE is nothing to do with Ernest Marples.
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>> All the picking is done electronically.
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>> ERNIE is an acronym for Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment.
>>
Are you sure about that? Who would have thought?
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Re old bonds you've forgotten about. We had a related situation where Mrs Aston had bought a number of bonds in recent years forgetting that she had a solitary bond bought for her by her parents when she was a child.
When we found it in some papers this old bond was in her maiden name at her parents address. We contacted N&SI to see if they could add it to her new holdings.
We expected a real rigmarole but it was amazingly easy. So easy I can't remember the details but NS&I can readily sort out issues like this.
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>> No such thing as a drum for paper bonds.
>> ERNIE is nothing to do with Ernest Marples.
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>> All the picking is done electronically.
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>> ERNIE is an acronym for Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment.
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It is so. I heard a woman in Wetherspoons explaining it the other day.
If you believe that Ernie is an acronym, then you will believe anything.
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>>If you believe that Ernie is an acronym, then you will believe anything.
Surely Ernie was the fastest milkman in the west!
Anyway, he doesn't like me - 1 pay out in 6 months - not a good return, unless of course he is saving me for the big one!
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I suspect ERNIE is now ERNIE's grandson at least. I have a vague recollection of a picture of ERNIE and he had valves.
Edit - great grandson
"Since 1957, there have been four generations of ERNIE. With continuous advances in technology, each has become faster and smaller. If ERNIE 1 were still in use today, it would take over 100 days to complete a draw. Our current ERNIE 4 only takes around 5 hours!"
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 9 Aug 18 at 20:36
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The computer known as ERNIE today will take a tiny fraction of a second to pick the winners. You know all the bond numbers in the draw this month* so you pick some randomly.
Well when you say randomly, of course a computer cannot generate a truly random number.
* Not all current bonds are eligible for a drawer. Some are being refunded and you need to hold for a bond for a month before entered into a draw. So buy one today and it will be in the October draw and not September.
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It's on the premium bonds website somewhere. It takes iirc about an hour to generate the numbers for the monthly draw.
They effectively depend on the random motion of sub atomic particles or some such.
The rand function in Excel for example is not truly random.
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Ernie might be quick on the draw, but he's not so quick on paying out. It took a week for my £25 to reach my account!
Last edited by: maltrap on Sat 11 Aug 18 at 09:14
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>>I'm imagining you still have to get the bit of of paper to a bank perhaps.
No. Just a photograph of a cheque. Weird, or what.
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It won’t change my life at all. - Rudedog
