Prize Bonds are looking attractive alternatives to deposits

Duke of Marmalade said:
Prize bonds are a genuine alternative to deposits. The more so the greater the investment because of the law of large numbers. Ignore the big prizes, as I do*. The tax free return in €75 prizes is 0.79%. This beats our high street banks.
The inflation comparison is of course relevant but quite irrelevant in terms of choosing where to invest your deposits.

* Though it does sort of satisfy any lotto fantasy that I might have. Every Friday I have as much chance of a big win as with the Lotto and the "thrill" of looking up the result. That is simply icing on the cake.
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With deposits, you are guaranteed a return providing it is in an interest bearing account, with prize bonds, you might get a return if you win.
 
I already posted above how I have reduced my holding in Prize Bonds from €400k to €200k. I was winning about €600 per annum.

I have invested €150k in the FTSE 100 high yielding dividend shares. To date, I have trebled the amount in dividends received than I would have won on Prize Bonds. These were only half yearly dividends with another due in about 6 months.
 
Having got rid of my large holdings last year, I got notified today that I won €50 last Friday on a holding of 10 bonds from 2004 that I hadn't bothered to cash in!
 
podgerodge said:
Having got rid of my large holdings last year, I got notified today that I won €50 last Friday on a holding of 10 bonds from 2004 that I hadn't bothered to cash in!
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Wow! It would take on average 300 years before you would get a win on 10 bonds.

Edit: Corrected to current rates
 
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Duke of Marmalade said:
Wow! It would take on average 160 years before you would get a win on 10 bonds.
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Is there any real advantage to buying prize bonds in larger blocks? When I opened my state savings account my initial invest was done over two or three larger blocks, but since then I've just been topping it up with the minimum €25(4 units) investments on a monthly basis. I've only won once (€50) since opening my account almost one year ago but I've only got around €6.5k worth.
 
PoundMan said:
Is there any real advantage to buying prize bonds in larger blocks?
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Absolutely no difference. The first 6 numbers have the same chance of coming up on a roulette spin as 6 numbers spread around.
PoundMan said:
When I opened my state savings account my initial invest was done over two or three larger blocks, but since then I've just been topping it up with the minimum €25(4 units) investments on a monthly basis. I've only won once (€50) since opening my account almost one year ago but I've only got around €6.5k worth.
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That is actually a 0.77% return which is about 3 times the average.
 
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I have 2 x £5 prize bonds that were bought by a long deceased relative in 1957. No wins in 66 years. I think I saw somewhere that each bond could expect a small win every few hundred years and a big win every 10,000+ years.
 
My mother produced a prize bond from 1979, i checked the numbers. never won.

Seems like keeping 1-2-3k in prize bonds is fairly pointless ? If not depositing big numbers like 100K+ the odds are stacked against ?
 
Des Pondent said:
I have 2 x £5 prize bonds that were bought by a long deceased relative in 1957. No wins in 66 years. I think I saw somewhere that each bond could expect a small win every few hundred years and a big win every 10,000+ years.
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So you're saying there's a chance ?
 
redstar said:
Basically, its a recurring bet relying on the luck of a draw ..... Not exactly an 'investment'.
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Exactly. It's a ticket for a raffle that is refundable at its nominal face value. No harm in somebody with their finances otherwise generally in order having a few but they're not an investment and there's a distinct possibility that you'll win little or nothing.
 
gianni said:
So you're saying there's a chance ?
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Yes there is a chance, lots of people win every month, but if you only have 2 bonds, it looks like you could wait hundreds of years for a small prize, thousands of years for a bigger prize or millions of years for the top prize. Maybe some of the mathematicians on here could give the exact figure on this.

My relation bought 2 bonds for £10 in 1957, that was probably a week's wages back then, I think it would have been better to blow the tenner on something else at the time.
 
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ClubMan said:
Which is sort of dumb given that there are much higher deposit rates on offer these days.
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A lot of the higher deposit rates are provided by fairly exotic looking banks. What's the highest instant access deposit rate available from an Irish bank.
 
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