Prize Bonds are looking attractive alternatives to deposits

Apologies if I missed this info before, but what would be the simplest way to purchase say €85,000 worth of prize bonds?
 
fill out application form, send it with cheque to NTMA, along with the anti money laundering documentation
 
SparkRite said:
Apologies if I missed this info before, but what would be the simplest way to purchase say €85,000 worth of prize bonds?
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- Do it in your local post office - they can verify your documents and photo copy them if necessary and give you a receipt.
 
As of this week I have added 33k worth of PBs to my existing 100k holding.

Wins for the 30th May:

50 from the 33k batch, 50 from the 100k batch :)
 
dub_nerd said:
Now that's jammy. The €1000 prize should be a once in 140 year event for you on average. The good news is that it in no way affects your independent chance of winning an average number of €50 prizes (13 or so) for an overall 3% tax free return (equivalent to 5.1% gross assuming 41% DIRT).
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.....and another €50 for me today....this is great fun :)
 
im gonna add to the fun...€50 today for moi!...... Ghoul it will be interesting to see how the new bonds compare with the old ones,its getting to be like a mini series.
 
:D :eek:

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This latest win was from my 100k batch

I've decided to edit my previous post where I gave away part of the bond numbers that I own. Had I continued to only win 50s and 100s this would not be an issue but now that I've had a rare win, stalking would have become much easier. Might sound silly but there you go.

Based on dub nerd's posts, I should only win this amount once in several decades even with 100k invested. So chances are I'll be dead and buried before I win that again!
 
Delighted to see you had such a nice win,,,,,,Well done to you and Enjoy...
Nil for me today,,,Next week to look forward to,,,
 
Third week without a win. I guess I'm the unlucky fool paying for the free loading skiving likes of The Ghoul :)
 
brilliant win Ghoul,,thats the thing about bonds i suppose...the surprise factor..anyway nothing today for me,but next week i know..i just know....:)
 
Thanks for the positive comments :) The win gave me a lot of joy yesterday and I was walking around with a silly grin on my face for much of the day. Interesting psychology at work here given that the win was only 1% of my main holding.

I am not a gambler, I have never placed a bet on anything and have played the lotto about 5 times in my life and felt like an idiot afterwards. With my relatively large holding of PBs I think of the 50 euro prizes as my return and anything on top of that is a bonus.
 
monagt said:
FYI article from MoneySmart: Are Prize Bonds For Prize Idiots?


http://t.co/E3eIOA1RGe
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That article is nonsense and, judging by the title and various rhetorical flourishes such as prize bonds having "no place in a ‘serious’ portfolio", is pure snobbery. It barely provides any quantitative analysis at all, and where it does, it's wrong.

Certainly, prize bonds are not for the very small investor. That is part of the nature of the beast. Getting consistent returns absolutely depends on investing enough to even out the probabilistic bumps. But if you understand this, and have enough to invest, the odds are in your favour compared to current deposit rates.

The article says "your 3% gross prize bond interest rate is notional – you could quite possibly win/earn nothing". Well, ok, but your equities could "quite possibly" lose money, or your bank could "quite possibly" go bust. Such statements are meaningless unless you can quantify the risk. You'd expect someone recommending investments in risk assets would understand that. With prize bonds, the risk can be thoroughly and rigorously analysed, unlike equities where "black swan" events occur with unknown frequency.

So, instead of nebulous statements, we can confidently say that if you have one prize bond the chances are 99.85% that you will nothing in a given year. But if you have a €100k investment the chances that you will win nothing are less than one in ten billion. Yes, you could "quite possibly win nothing" but the odds are utterly negligible. The odds of different levels of return are shown in the various histograms on this thread.

The strange statement attributed to the Prize Bond company in the article that "you have a 4/1 chance of winning something in any one year" is meaningless without mentioning a level of investment, and even then says nothing about the likely level of returns.

The only thing I'd agree with in the article is that prize bonds "do not offer a straightforward rate of interest". Anyone who does not understand how larger investments lead to more consistent levels of return should steer clear of them.
 
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