€25k invested in prize bonds

Hibernicis

dxhound2005 puts a lot of work into the stats he produces for which we are all very grateful.

User DukeOfMarmalade on askaboutmoney.com published a spreadsheet some time back which allows you to input your holdings and see the chances is a win. You can download it here https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/prize-bonds-are-looking-attractive-alternatives-to-deposits.182819/page-36#post-1840571

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576227#Comment_121576227

All on the website. Click on map when you go into the results. If x amount is €100K the odds are per that monthly count I do, 10 x €75 in a year. But that is based on the luck enjoyed by 50 million bonds worth over €312 million.

Any individual amount is going to be too small to guarantee anything. I have a block of €10K which has not won anything since June 2018.

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576536#Comment_121576536

Saw that when I checked at 17:19. Talk about bolting the stable door after the horse bolted. It certainly was not on display at 13:30 and 13:45, so a bit of retrospective ass covering there by State Savings. Planned maintenance my ass.

Hibernicis

Any individual amount is going to be too small to guarantee anything. I have a block of €10K which has not won anything since June 2018.

For amounts below €50k it fluctuates widely. I have a €10 batch and a €20k batch both purchased the same week in 2017. The €10 batch won €50 in 2017 and nothing since. The €20k batch won in all years from 2018 to 2023 except 2021 and has won €550 in total.

lordleitrim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121577395#Comment_121577395

In fairness, I saw it at 12.55 just 5 minutes before site went down as that was when I got my prize bond win alert email. I was bemused that I had 5 minutes to check! Surprised as to why some people could see it in advance and not others...

tuisginideach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121577769#Comment_121577769

Won €75. Email in 12.47 and like Lord Leitrim, I saw that notice - giving me 13 minutes to check!

dxhound2005

The red notice is saying 15:00 06 January. It was 13:00 before.

cobham

Site back up this afternoon and we won 75 euro.

footfall789

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576584#Comment_121576584

Thank you ,

All things considered with a average 1% return in Prize bonds , If you have €10,000 in Prize Bonds you should get at least €75 in 2024, hopefully, fingers crossed.

dxhound2005

There are 41 prizes over €75, and about 9,300 at €75. So in real life expect 0.75% with average luck.

Mormegil

Took a little while but finally signed in to SS Online.

For some reason the prizes I won prior to 2014 never showed up on the Prize Bond Tracker but are all present and correct here.

I mentioned before that I had at least 5 wins from one €1000 batch (bought in 2011) but can now confirm it is 6 wins (5 x €50, 1 x €75), another batch from 2012 (again €1000) has won 4 times (3 x €50, 1 x €75).

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121601348#Comment_121601348

That's a pretty respectable return. I'd guess that the majority of the prizes were pre 2017 ?

Mormegil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121604267#Comment_121604267

It certainly is when compared to the 5 x €5000 batches I've bought since 2019 which haven't won a cent 😁

Win Dates on the €1000 (2011) Batch were 2012 (€75), 2014, 2015, 2020, 2022 (x2).

POBox19

Happy New Year from State Savings!

Sorry, no winners were found for selected dates.

tuisginideach

€75 again - and the bond was only 817 away from last week's winner! Bought this time last year but took a year to win!

Hibernicis

€150 for me, which I only know about because of the doomed Tracker

And once again, with NO RED MAINTENANCE NOTIFICATON

State Savings Online is unavailable

We are working to resume service as quickly as possible. Please try again later. We apologise for any inconvenience.

tuisginideach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121606386#Comment_121606386

It was very very slow to load for me - I must have been just in time to get into the 'prizes' section before it failed!

Mormegil

Website seems to be up and running again, not giving me any good news though. 😃

granturismo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121606422#Comment_121606422

Wouldnt work for me on android chrome at 14.00 but worked fine on Windows chrome at 14.15.

I got an email notification at lunchtime today and won €75.

I estimate my return since first purchasing at the end of 2019 at 0.4% per annum.

dxhound2005

Nothing for me today. The €50K winner was sold in 2011. I was looking out for something in the Northern Standard about the €500K winner in Monaghan in December, but they did not publish anything. I would guess that the BF bond was bought in 1996.

Galway Bay FM.

A lucky Galway winner has scooped fifty thousand euro in this week’s Prize Bonds draw.

The lucky bond was purchased in 2011 and the number is PP 141 379.

pbwinner

Winnings on 12th January 2024: €0

Last win 7th July 2023: €50

Total winnings on €25k from Feb 2011 to date: €3300

2011: €75 x 4 = €300

2012: €75 x 6 = €450

2013: €50 x 12 = €600

2014: €50 x 9 = €450

2015: €50 x 5 = €250

2016: €50 x 5 = €250

2017: €50 x 4 = €200

2018: €50 x 2 = €100

2019: €50 x 6 = €300

2020: €50 x 5 = €250

2021: €50 x 1 = €50

2022: €50 x 1 = €50

2023: €50 x 1 = €50

2024: €0 x 0 = €0

dxhound2005

On page 301 @Hibernicis made a very useful post about registering for State Savings. Including this:

One other point. When you register, State Savings will conduct a search to identify all holdings in which you have an interest and attach them to your portfolio. In my experience, they aren't very good at this and miss a fair number of holdings, particularly older ones purchased using paper forms before the Prize Bond Customer Number and SSCN were introduced. This happens even when the name and address are substantially correct. So check your portfolio carefully once you are registered and contact them with any corrections. (This raises some serious questions for people such as executors who rely on State Savings to conduct a search on their behalf, but that’s a topic for another day)

I registered in December, and the first time I logged in I knew that some of my bonds were not included. As I posted before, I have 268 bonds nearly all reinvestments. About 80 were missing, including two for big amounts. There is a form on the site to notify any missing products, but it is not suitable for 80 items. I signed it and attached a handwritten list and posted it on 03 January. Today 19 January I got an email to log in, and my register is now up to date.

I may have a few more reflections on the system, but that is enough for the present.

dxhound2005

Nothing for me today. But somebody in America did well.

Prize Value Winning Prize Bond Location

€75.00 ALS873739 U.S.A

€75.00 ALS874625 U.S.A

€75.00 ALS874951 U.S.A

Trigger Happy

I won €75 today. My holding is down to €600 odd so nice to get some return.

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638528#Comment_121638528

That’s very interesting to read, thanks @dxhound2005. So that suggests a miss rate of 30% or approx one third. Looking at the ones that were missed, can you see any pattern ? Manual vs automatic reinvestments ? Different prize bond customer number shown on the certs ? Older vs newer ? Different address ? Name variations ? Joint vs Solo ? I’d also suggest (and I hope that this doesn’t sound too pass remarkable) that you come across as an organised person and one who is likely to do things consistently, and so the miss rate is even more disappointing.

I may have a few more reflections on the system, but that is enough for the present.

I’d be interested to hear these, and if you’re up for it we could revise my prior post to incorporate your experience/views.

Hibernicis

€75 for me today. From a bond purchased exactly four weeks ago !

pbwinner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638528#Comment_121638528

Probably not possible to know unless one of the 'missing' bonds won, but would you still get notified of any wins for these? I mean, the bonds are still registered in the draw?

pbwinner

Winnings on 19th January 2024: €0

Last win 7th July 2023: €50

Total winnings on €25k from Feb 2011 to date: €3300

2011: €75 x 4 = €300

2012: €75 x 6 = €450

2013: €50 x 12 = €600

2014: €50 x 9 = €450

2015: €50 x 5 = €250

2016: €50 x 5 = €250

2017: €50 x 4 = €200

2018: €50 x 2 = €100

2019: €50 x 6 = €300

2020: €50 x 5 = €250

2021: €50 x 1 = €50

2022: €50 x 1 = €50

2023: €50 x 1 = €50

2024: €0 x 0 = €0

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638868#Comment_121638868

Any individual's register is not the same as the actual Register, laid out in the Regulations. That Register has every bond. My two large amounts which were "missing", won plenty of prizes over the years. The failsafe is that there still goes a letter out in the post and they have to produce a letter every week for every one the 9,000 odd winners.

5 Issue of bonds and registration.

5. (1) As soon as may be after receipt of the purchase money in respect of bonds, the Operator shall allocate an individual serial number to each bond and a bond certificate showing the relevant serial numbers shall be issued by the Operator to the holder.

(2) A bond shall be registered in the register of bonds to be kept by the Operator in the name (or, as appropriate, joint names or title) of the purchaser of such bond or the person for whom such bond was purchased.

(3) The Operator shall record in the register the last address furnished by the holder for the purpose of receiving any document (including the bond certificate) or notification issued by the Operator in relation to the bond.

(4) A bond shall be deemed to have been issued when it has been registered in the register.

Hibernicis

When I logged on at 12:45 the state savings.ie website was extremely slow. Now it is intermittently throwing up the above message. The site is clearly either unstable or severely underpowered or both.