Am I just unlucky with these things? I have held 1 - yes just 1 - bond since I was born. Apparently it was fashionable 40 odd years ago to purchase a single bond for a new baby. In all these years I have never won a single prize. I'm not looking for a big win [yeah,right!] but a small prize would renew my faith.

Is this a record? Can anyone else beat that?

try buying 2, that might be lucky.

3 is my lucky number

I thought about doing that but sadly you can only get premium bonds in batches of £100 worth nowadays. Bummer!

I think I might be able to beat you for the 'unluckiest premium bond holder' title....I've had 100 since birth (30 years) and in a moment of madness bought a further £1,500 about 3 years ago. Never won a thing!
S

But you can get the money back, albeit without interest.

It's just that thing that if you cash them in yours will come up.

my tale is one of luck then, i recently bought £5000 of premium bonds and every month so far ive won £50 and then this month £100, ive won more from them than i could ever have got in interest with any bank or online savings account. apparently the trick is to own new ones, recent numbers seem to come up more than the old ones, so once you stop winning you should cash them out and then buy more. unfortunatly tis true you can only buy them in £100 batches so unless you have £99 somewhere i think the chances of a win are fairly slim.... sorry. tis funny though, ive never been lucky with anything in my life!

Well done you, my boss regularly gets £50 or £100 but I'm not sure how many he has. I might £100 worth just to see what happens, nothing to lose considering you can cash them in eh?

I've got a couple of old ones i was given when i was born (30+ years ago). Had one small win inn the 80's nothing since. I've often wondered whether the really old ones are even still in the draw?

the irony of it, i bought some more and sot his month did i win big??

nope won nothing!! is the first month tho and the new ones i bought will be in the draw for next month

if yours are old i really recommend selling them and buying them back

I can beat you, Nikki!! Some fool friend of the family bought me three single ones on consecutive years of my birthday and I've never won zilch on them. I don't even believe they are in the draws anymore - you never hear of the old ones winning. If I cashed them in or tore them up - then, they would win. That is the law of perversity!

I bought some about 4 years ago and won every month for about the first 6 months, only £50 but better than the interest rate if in a savings account. They went quiet so thought of selling but they have started winning again. Got £100 in February and another £50 this month.

Mmmmm, decisions, decisions.

Ilrush you must be so lucky...I've had 20 bonds in since 1985, NOT a bl**dy sausage have I got back.....

You can check on line to see of you have won.
There are millions of unclaimed prized yet to be claimed. Old bonds are still winning - check page 539 (I think) on teletex channel 4.

don't you have to pay though to check them......last time I went there they wanted money.....

I would never buy small amounts of premium bonds but save up and buy at least a couple of thousand at a time.

Many thanks for that zuleka, will check that out today when I dig out the bonds for the numbers....

Elen Thomas at National Savings had this to say about your run of misfortune:

"Your visitor has been unlucky not to win a single prize in 40 years but with just 1 Premium Bond the odds are very long.

I'm afraid the current odds of hitting the jackpot with £1 holding are a distant 26 billion to 1, but the odds of £1 winning any prize are a much more attainable 24,000 to 1.

The attraction of Premium Bonds is its totally random nature and lady luck does smile on those with small holdings. Each month we get a number of small holdings (under £100) winning really big prizes. For example, in last month's draw a customer with only £5 in Premium Bonds bought in 1980 scooped a £25,000 prize and in February's draw another customer with just £5 from 1970 won a £50,000 prize.

The highest prize to be won with £1 Bond is £50,000 (this happened in September last year. The bond was from 1957!)

The smallest holding to win the £1 million jackpot was a £17 holding which won July 2004's million. The bond which scooped the prize was only a £5 Bond and was bought in 1957. This customer had not won a single prize until she won the jackpot so there is hope for your visitor!

Each month we give away more than 1 million prizes worth almost £70 million, ranging from £50 prizes to the £1 million. There are currently 23 million people in the UK with £26 billion invested in Premium Bonds. Premium Bonds were introduced in 1956 as a new approach to broaden the appeal of saving."

So I guess you shouldn't give up entirely then!

I actually think that premium bonds are not an investment. You are much better off if you stick your money in an interest bearing account.

I have tracked my gains from a £30000 stake in Premium bonds and achived a net yield of 2.3% over 2 years. I would have earned 5% in an interest bearing account.

PBs are nothing more than a guilt-free form of gambling.

Guess what? Two of my bonds won in this month's draw: one for £50 and the other for £100.

This time last year I was thinking of cashing them in as they had not won for a while!!

Well done ILrush!

I've got a single £1 bond I was given when I was born and it's won nothing in 33 years but I'd probably have the shock of my life if it did actually win with those odds!

quote:

PBs are nothing more than a guilt-free form of gambling.

loved that quote

quote:

Originally posted by ILrush:
I would never buy small amounts of premium bonds but save up and buy at least a couple of thousand at a time.

When I had quite a few a couple of years ago all my wins where on bonds bought in groups of £1000.
Incidently there was a thory at the time that if you remind ERNIE of your existance by buying some more you tend to get a win, it seemed to work as well!!

To check you bond numbers in each months draw just go here...
http://www.nsandi.co.uk/

I've held £60 of bonds since 1959/60 and never win a single penny.