Like many Premium Bond holders, Susan Dingle was given hers when she was a baby.
Her parents’ motto was ‘spend a little, save a little’, so they gave her £5 in Bonds when she was born in 1958.
Over the next ten years she was given more bonds — amounting to £15 — and she’d check the winning numbers every month to see if hers were there.
The 65-year-old, who runs a commercial cleaning firm, has held on to the Bonds and still keeps the original slips in the attic at her Plymouth home.
But despite her parents’ careful investment, Susan has never won a penny. The £5 saved 65 years ago is still worth only £5.
Susan Dingle, 65, is just one of 13.4 million Premium Bond holders who haven’t won a prize from their hard-earned savings since May 2004, Money Mail can reveal
Susan, a mother-of-three, is just one of 13.4 million Premium Bond holders who haven’t won a prize from their hard-earned savings since May 2004, Money Mail can reveal.
More than 22 million people hold them, but Britain’s most popular savings product rarely pays out for three-fifths of them.
Was Susan right to have kept her childhood savings in Bonds or would it have been wiser to put the cash in a savings account?
The £5 Susan has had since birth would now be worth around £97, had it risen with inflation.
Premium Bonds are issued by Treasury-backed National Savings & Investments (NS&I), and holders can invest from £25 to £50,000.
Instead of a regular interest payment, each £1 Bond is entered into a prize draw every month, and winners receive prizes from £25 to £1 million. The Bonds are tax free and you never lose your original stake.
Two-thirds of the 13.4 million savers who haven’t won a prize in the past 19 years hold from £1 to £9. And the average sum held by savers who haven’t won is £98, NS&I says.
Her parents’ motto was ‘spend a little, save a little’, so they gave her £5 in Bonds when she was born in 1958
The 65-year-old, who runs a commercial cleaning firm, has held on to the Bonds and still keeps the original slips in the attic at her Plymouth home
NS&I increased the prize rate from 4 pc to 4.65 pc in September. That means with average luck you should win £4.65 for every £100 invested each year. The odds of winning a prize each month increased to 21,000 to 1 from 22,000 to 1 for every £1 Bond.
Had the rate been as high in 1958 as it is today, it is likely Susan would have won something by now. The prize fund rate and the odds of winning often change. But based on the current odds, around five in six people with £5 should win a prize over 65 years, says Greig Bingham, of actuarial consultancy OAC.
Other experts agree that, even if you hold a small amount and don’t win, it is worth keeping them.
Andrew Hagger, of personal finance website Money Comms, says: ‘If you have got £100, I would leave it there. Sometimes you might pick a winner.
‘Everyone dreams of the day someone knocks on your door and says you’ve won the £1 million jackpot. You’re not going to get a lot for £100 in a savings account.’
Anna Bowes, of rates monitor Savings Champion, agrees it’s not worth moving a £100 investment to a top savings account paying 5 pc for £5 interest a year.
Susan has held on to her Bonds for nostalgic reasons. She says: ‘They have got the Post Office stamp where they were bought and the year.’
Debra Britton’s late parents, Brian and Joan, each bought a £1 Bond in 1957. The mother-of-two thinks her parents, who ran an insurance brokerage, bought them to mark her birth. But, like Susan’s, they’ve never won a prize. The Bonds were transferred to Debra, a careers adviser, and her sister after their parents died.
Debra, 65, from North Somerset, uses savings accounts rather than Premium Bonds. She says: ‘The chance of winning £1 million doesn’t tempt me as the odds seem minuscule.’
Debra is right. Michael Dunne-Willows, of the Royal Statistical Society, says even if you saved the maximum £50,000 in Premium Bonds for a full year, the odds of winning the £1 million prize are around 100,000 to 1.
He says: ‘This is like playing the Lottery and is extremely unlikely. However, every month you also have a chance of winning one of the smaller prizes.’ Plus, you don’t lose your initial investment.
Some lucky savers with only a few Bonds have won big. One Londoner won the £1 million prize with a £17 investment, the smallest holding to win the jackpot.
Premium Bonds Winners
| Prize | Area | Value of bond |
| £1,000,000 | Greater Manchester | £5,000 |
| £1,000,000 | West Scotland | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Outer London | £48,496 |
| £100,000 | York | £20,000 |
| £100,000 | Wiltshire | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Wales | £50,000 |
| £100,000 | Essex | £10,000 |
| £100,000 | Staffordshire | £10,000 |
More October 2023 winners
In August 2021, a saver from Devon won the jackpot with £1,001 saved; and a further 11 people have scooped the top prize with under £1,000 saved.
Ms Bowes says: ‘You have to decide if you want the security of knowing you’ll have some interest or the possibility that you might win more than that tax-free. There is the “just in case” factor.’
An NS&I spokesman says: ‘Premium Bonds are one of the nation’s most popular ways to save, with the excitement each month of the chance to win tax-free prizes up to £1 million.
‘In October alone, we paid out more than five million prizes worth over £470 million.
‘Each Bond has an equal chance of winning, and in the past three months more than 29,000 prizes have been won by people with holdings of £50 or less. The smallest holding ever to win the jackpot was £17, showing that small holdings can still win big.’
Premium Bonds fact files
Winning £1m on Premium Bonds or being hit by lightning: Which is more likely?
Should I sell my old Premium Bonds and buy a new set?
We investigate the Premium Bonds conspiracy theories
Do you need to max out the £50k Premium Bond limit to win big?
Are Premium Bonds REALLY handing out enough prizes to savers?
Winning £1million on Premium Bonds or hit by lightning: Which is more likely?
How do we cash in the £30,000 in Premium Bonds my father left my mother?
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
AJ Bell
AJ Bell
Easy investing and ready-made portfolios
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown
Free fund dealing and investment ideas
Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor
Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month
EToro
EToro
Social investing with CopyTrader feature
Bestinvest
Bestinvest
Free financial coaching
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
