Prize Bonds

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DangerMouse1

Guest
Hi All,

Im going traveling for a year im thinking about putting about half my money into prise bonds until i need it would i be able to cash them in on line i wonder.

Would anyone reccomend me doing this? as i will get no interest with the money just staying in my bank account.

Thanks
 
As you are getting no interest now i dont know what is stopping you from taking a chance you might win with no risk involved.
 
DangerMouse1 said:
would i be able to cash them in on line i wonder.
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I don't think you can - AFAIK you get a paper certificate and you need this to cash them in.

DangerMouse1 said:
Would anyone reccomend me doing this? as i will get no interest with the money just staying in my bank account.
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Why not put the money in to a high yield on line account? That way you will get some interest and as you need the money you will be able to transfer the money out and access it from anywhere in the world.
 
Although the An Post website states that for a 1000Euro investment you have a 4.3 to 1 chance of winning a prize.What are the odds of winning a significant prise i.e. something in the thousands?
 

No you will not be able to cash in your prize bonds online. This is the post office were talking about here, not a flipping swiss bank acount!

Just put your money in a bank account and you can withdraw the money from anywhere in the world with an ATM card.
 
The prizes are calculated as 3% of the total fund so your expected after-tax return is 3% (equivalent to 3.75% from a deposit account subject to DIRT)

Of course this is over the long term...
 
John J said:
The prizes are calculated as 3% of the total fund so your expected after-tax return is 3% (equivalent to 3.75% from a deposit account subject to DIRT)

Of course this is over the long term...
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Except that as this is a game of chance, your actual return may be zero. Or it may be far greater than 3%.
 
dewdrop said:
As you are getting no interest now i dont know what is stopping you from taking a chance you might win with no risk involved.
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There is a significant risk that you will not win any prizes and will just get your nominal sum back which will have been eroded in real value due to inflation. A safer bet might be one or more of the high rate lump sum and/or regular saver deposit accounts listed in the Financial Best Buys forum. At least that way you will be guaranteed returns that will keep place with or at least mitigate the eroding effects of inflation.
 
Two people I know have won on prize bonds. Must be the 00.001%. I don't have any myself.
 
I have prizebonds which I transferred into my own name after my parents died and they would have bought some of these prizebonds whenever they came out first - early 60's mayble.

Anyway I think my father only won once on them and that was 100 euros.

Think I will stick to doing the euromillions
 
i buy for all my nieces and nephews prize bonds at christmas and birthdays

not the most exciting for them to open on the day but by the time the playstation 79 comes out they will have the dosh to buy it

my niece is a little goldmine has won €75 3 or 4 times and she is only 5
 
FLANDERS` said:
never get any notification that a draw has even taken place and I have never heard of anyone ever winning anything.
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The prize bonds website has detailed up to date info on all the weekly draws. You can enter a single Prize Bond number or a range of numbers and check if you have won a prize(s) for those bonds within the last six months. All prize winners are contacted by post and unclaimed prizes (prizes not claimed within six months of the draw date) are held until claimed by the bond holder.
 
Kudos Midsummer!!

Fair enough, I take the points on a few people winning and the draw notifications being on the web, but I still think its a terrible way to use your money.
 
pennypincher said:
Although the An Post website states that for a 1000Euro investment you have a 4.3 to 1 chance of winning a prize.What are the odds of winning a significant prise i.e. something in the thousands?
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1000 will buy you 160 prize bonds.
So going by the odds given on the prize bond website, 1 prize bond will have 688-1 chance of winning a prize in a year.
This is a 35776-1 chance of winning a prize in a weekly draw.

Considering that there is 2,584 prizes in this weeks draw (assuming it is the same each week), this means that there is a 92,445,184 tickets in each draw and this is the odds of winning the top prize.
There is a minimum of 2 prize bonds to buy , so that about 46m-1.
If you have €1000 worth it's about 577824-1 of winning the top prize each week.

So unless my calculations are way off, there is more chance of winning the jackpot in the lotto that wining the top prize in the prize bonds draw each week. But the lotto 'investment' is only for one week whereas the prize bond 'investment' is ongoing.
 
Does anyone know if you win on prize bonds to you have to pay tax on it in Ireland if your living outside Ireland but in the EU or if you reinvest does that count as no interest
 
You don't get your money back on a Lotto ticket though.
 
I decided to set-up a standing order about 7 months ago to buy Prize Bonds. €100 every month gets me 8 'bonds' and with my total invested now at €700 I haven't won anything yet

But all it takes is a €25 win and I've made up for the loss of not making any interest. Here's hoping

Incidentally, putting €100 into a Rabo account every month for a year (4.3% 'On Demand') will only make you €22.36 after DIRT. I'd rather take my chances at winning something big for the sake of €22.36 a year. That's about 6 weeks of playing the Lotto.
 
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Just as a "bet" like Lotto - I have a direct debit for €25 per month for the last 4 years - so have about €1200 at this stage. Won €75 twice - so working out at 3% per annum. Its my idea of doing the Lotto - better odds and you get your money back
 
Have you calculated how much your money is losing in real value due to inflation?
 
I did, but then disregarded it as it doesn't really matter when comparing savings methods, as all money saved on deposit loses due to inflation. The only key deciding factor between which saving method to choose should be interest earned (or not earned in this case).
 
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