Instant savers account

You could always put it into Premium Bonds. You should average an income equivalent to a mid-market savings account (after tax, which doesn't apply to Premium Bonds), your capital is safe, and you might just strike it lucky.

Jon

I have 500 worth of premium bonds for ten years now and have not won a bean.

Scarborough BS pays 5.05%. Leeds & Holbeck pays 5.00%.

Egg pays 5.5%, so your aversion to online accounts is costing you 100 a year gross.

Forgot to add that Abbey cash ISA pays 5.35% net. With the new tax year approaching, you could put 6,000 of your 20,000 in there - 3k now and another 3k in April - and get the interest tax free.

We're not talking about 500 quid, though, but 20,000. Forty times more. At that level, you do get a steady income, averaging something like 50 quid a month or so. At 30,000, you should expect something roughly every month.

All the same, you do seem to have had rotten luck.

Have you checked your holder's number on the NS&I Web site? Also, have you changed address since you registered them (and did you notify NS&I)? The cheques (warrants, more accurately) are posted to the address they know about.

Jon

"Jon Green" wrote

There was something in the press a few years ago which suggested that newer numbers win more often.

In message , John Redman writes

This isnt quite what it sounds.

It is that more bonds are being purchased than ever before, substantially more, and therefore those most recently issued bonds represent a larger proportion of all bonds issued than ever before and therefore are more likely to win.

Bonds arent 'entered' into ERNIE. The device issues streams of random numbers which are then compared against the list of issued bond numbers. Many of ERNIEs random numbers relate to bonds that arent issued.

Oh ghods, not this old chestnut again! Sorry, but it does come up (like a bad meal) anytime the subject of PBs arises.

Yes, you'll see more recent bonds than old ones in the winners' list. That's because old ones get cashed in, so they're not as highly represented; also, PBs may be getting more popular. There's precisely no evidence whatsoever that, proportionally, a new bond will win more often than an older one that's still in the system.

Jon

That would explain it.