€25k invested in prize bonds

Agent Smyth · 05-01-2013 5:56pm

Oaklands

no thats not the answer i was looking for and thats probably my fault in how i asked the question

Is it better to have all your bonds be it in 5,10 or 20000s worth in one batch with consecutive numbers
or is it better to purchase smaller batches with lots of different numbers over time
I know the more bonds you have the better your odds but do the odds improve more if they are all consecutive ??

thanks

oaklands · 05-01-2013 6:06pm

Agent Smyth wrote: »

Oaklands
....
Is it better to have all your bonds be it in 5,10 or 20000s worth in one batch with consecutive numbers
or is it better to purchase smaller batches with lots of different numbers over time
I know the more bonds you have the better your odds but do the odds improve more if they are all consecutive ??

thanks

Its only the total number of bonds that matter. How they are made up (sequential or not) doesnt change the probability of winning.

So having 5 different sets of 100 bonds is the same as having one set of 500 sequentially numbered bonds - in terms of probability of winning.

The probability of winning does not improve or disimprove if all the bonds are consecutive.

oaklands · 05-01-2013 6:15pm

Agent Smyth wrote: »

Oaklands
....
Is it better to have all your bonds be it in 5,10 or 20000s worth in one batch with consecutive numbers
or is it better to purchase smaller batches with lots of different numbers over time
I know the more bonds you have the better your odds but do the odds improve more if they are all consecutive ??

thanks

Its only the total number of bonds that matter. How they are made up (sequential or not) doesnt change the probability of winning.

So having 5 different sets of 100 bonds is the same as having one set of 500 sequentially numbered bonds - in terms of probability of winning.

The probability of winning does not improve or disimprove if all the bonds are consecutive.

leonards · 08-01-2013 10:06am

ok. been following this thread for a while.... decided to start saving €200 a Month in prize bonds. Just got my first batch.

Winnings from most recent draw: €0

newmug · 08-01-2013 7:02pm

Quick question. Say I gift E30,000 worth of prize bonds to my fiancé, would she have to pay tax on that?

Agent Smyth · 08-01-2013 7:43pm

If you receive a gift or inheritance from your spouse or civil partner, you are exempt from Capital Acquisitions Tax.

pbwinner · 09-01-2013 6:02pm

oaklands wrote: »

I have written up a script to automatically send an automatic email notification each Friday, just after 12:30 when the results are published on the PB website.

A sample email output is attached, with some of the detail hidden.

If anyone on this thread wants to receive an automatic weekly email notification, then PM the ranges of your bonds to me and include your email address for notification. In summary, you will get an email detailing your wins or no win result - like in the attachment, plus a list of your holding which was checked against the results.

As far as I know there should be no risk in me knowing your numbers, but make your own call on that.

I have been running this successfully for the last 4 weeks for several family members, without problems.

So the first 5 to PM me (with details) before Fri will be included this week & the service is foc. The only criteria is that you have made meaningful contributions to this thread. I will be ablle to add more if there is interest in the comming weeks.

From time to time I may publish aggegate results for all holdings on this thread.

The following format would suffice in the PM:

BondsHeld:
AB123450 -> AB123458
BC123450 -> BC123458
BD123450 -> BD123458
SC123450 -> SC123458

Email: joe at blogs.ie

If you use the bond tracker, then a copy and paste of that would suffice.

(TIP: create a new email account on gmail or yahooo or any other provider to further anonymise your info and use it for the notification. e.g. pb123456 at gmail dot com would be great.)

One thing I would suggest is wait a few hours before checking the web site - I checked last week a little past 12:30 and it said I didn't win anything, however a €50 cheque arrived today from that draw.

pbwinner · 09-01-2013 6:03pm

Winnings from today's draw: €50
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €25k: €800

oaklands · 09-01-2013 6:51pm

pbwinner wrote: »

One thing I would suggest is wait a few hours before checking the web site - I checked last week a little past 12:30 and it said I didn't win anything, however a €50 cheque arrived today from that draw.

Thanks for the update. However the script takes care of this - provided the results are not altered after the initial release of results.

What could have happened is that you checked the website just before the results were released. In this case you may have got the results for the previous week. This can also happen if clocks have drifted several seconds or more. Based on my observations the results get released between 12:30 and 12:31 so far. The date of the draw is displayed on the results page.

I got an SMS at 12:32 (quickly followed by an email) saying that my winnings were zilch for the draw & I checked just now and its still the case unfortunately.

If you could PM me your winning bond number, I can check against the data I got from the website to see if it was there at 12:32. (Alternatively, if you are concerned about security of your PB number, you could PM 5 or 6 digits of it & I will PM back the matching winners for you to check.).

Update: No need to do this - as I have just checked the current results for €50 prizes and they are the same as they were @ 12:32 on Friday 4th Jan 2013. So you must have got in just before the results were updated on the site and inadvertently got the results for the week before.

Does the website now say that you won last friday?

Fighting Irish · 11-01-2013 11:13am

How can i find out how many prize bonds i have in my name?

I've gotten many over the years as gifts from relatives etc

Daawaa · 11-01-2013 12:50pm

Fighting Irish wrote: »

How can i find out how many prize bonds i have in my name?

I've gotten many over the years as gifts from relatives etc

Register here prize bonds and put in your numbers. Then click Check Winning Numbers.

You'll get a window that'll show if you won with the date and amount

good luck

Fighting Irish · 11-01-2013 1:21pm

Daawaa wrote: »

Register here prize bonds and put in your numbers. Then click Check Winning Numbers.

You'll get a window that'll show if you won with the date and amount

good luck

No i think you took me up wrong, I have prize bond certs but i'm nearly sure i got more when i was younger that my father might have or they're in the house somewhere. I want o find out how much € i have in prizebonds under my name

So if possible i want to ring the post office and ask them how many prizebonds were purchased for/by "john doe"

hairyprincess · 11-01-2013 1:28pm

Winnings from todays draw: €0

Total winnings since Feb 2010 on €500: €150
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €50: €0

pbwinner · 11-01-2013 2:40pm

Winnings from today's draw: €0
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €25k: €800

cold case · 11-01-2013 3:15pm

€0 winnings today

Last winnings: €75 in March 2010

leonards · 11-01-2013 4:26pm

€0 winnings today on €200

Agent Smyth · 11-01-2013 5:43pm

Winnings from 11/01/13 draw € 50
Last win 14/12/12 €75
total wins this year € 50
Total wins 2012 €375

First of many I hope this year !!!

el diablo · 12-01-2013 1:39am

How long does it usually take these clowns to respond to an email? I emailed them over a week ago (and three days ago) about a withdrawal that hasn't been credited to my account but still no response.
I sent them a letter a few weeks back to withdraw my remaining prize bonds to my bank account but I still have not been credited.

Is the freephone number on their website the only phone number they have? I'm overseas and can't call that number. :rolleyes:

Thanks for any info.

WhiteMan32 · 12-01-2013 2:29am

Winnings from yesterday's draw: €0
Total winnings since Feb 2012 on €12k: €150

uberalles · 12-01-2013 9:37am

They should further cheapen the PB image by giving a "free prize bond" like scratch tickets.

Min win should be 100 euro IMO. This 50 euro win is too low

gebbel · 12-01-2013 10:23am

Winnings from €5000 in one year: €0

Withdrawal to somewhere else on Monday: €5000

oaklands · 12-01-2013 1:10pm

uberalles wrote: »

They should further cheapen the PB image by giving a "free prize bond" like scratch tickets.

Min win should be 100 euro IMO. This 50 euro win is too low

They sort of do this already by allowing you to automatically re-invest your winnings. You get 8 bonds for the minimum €50 prize in the post instead of a cheque.

I suspect the reason they dont have loads of lower value prizes is that it would increase the administrative workload which essentially means there would be even less dosh for prizes and more for AnPost & FexCo.

In my opinion, they should reduce the €1M prizes from 12 to 4 per annum and increase the quantity and/or value of the €50 prizes.

oaklands · 12-01-2013 1:28pm

el diablo wrote: »

How long does it usually take these clowns to respond to an email? I emailed them over a week ago (and three days ago) about a withdrawal that hasn't been credited to my account but still no response.
I sent them a letter a few weeks back to withdraw my remaining prize bonds to my bank account but I still have not been credited.

Is the freephone number on their website the only phone number they have? I'm overseas and can't call that number. :rolleyes:

Thanks for any info.

I sent in the form via email on the 25th November to get a list of any PBs I had lost track of. I got a nice reply the next day confirming receipt and that it had been passed on for processing.
Yesterday I contacted them again asking if it normally takes 8 weeks to procees these things! So even allowing for Christmas its a bit excessive. I have seen several other comments about people having to contact them twice before getting a result.

Regarding the phone numbers you should find the number at the end of this web page. Saynoto1890 cover lots of these types of phone numbers, which I find great.

100gSoma · 17-01-2013 3:12pm

Cute Hoor wrote: »

Almost 26 million per letter of the alphabet, up at the mid S's at the moment, that's 18.5 X 26 million = 480 million. Then you have to add in the ones before they moved to the letters, another 99.999 million(?), bringing it up to around 580 million, knock off 80 million for encashed bonds and you have 500 million. Not very scientific but a reasonable guesstimate.

hmmm... The fund is listed as having crossed 1billion euro for the first time in 2009. 1.1billion (increasing for 3 years) divided by 6.25 is 176million. I think 500 million is too big an estimate. Even taking into account that the bonds were cheaper years ago etc.

100gSoma · 17-01-2013 3:14pm

Agent Smyth wrote: »

According to the prize bonds web site,
"At end December 2011 the value of Prize Bonds outstanding was €1.4 billion and there approximately 231 million individual prize bonds."
so i would think there there is anywhere between 231 and 300 million prize bonds as of now
i think some where here or on their web site i read the prize fund is equal to 3% of the total fund.

Ignore my last post so... Thanks Smyth

el diablo · 18-01-2013 1:42am

oaklands wrote: »

I sent in the form via email on the 25th November to get a list of any PBs I had lost track of. I got a nice reply the next day confirming receipt and that it had been passed on for processing.
Yesterday I contacted them again asking if it normally takes 8 weeks to procees these things! So even allowing for Christmas its a bit excessive. I have seen several other comments about people having to contact them twice before getting a result.

Regarding the phone numbers you should find the number at the end of this web page. Saynoto1890 cover lots of these types of phone numbers, which I find great.

I finally got a response 12 days and 3 emails later. My problems still has no been resolved though. :rolleyes:

gebbel wrote: »

Winnings from €5000 in one year: €0

Withdrawal to somewhere else on Monday: €5000

Similar story here. Three years, almost €9000. Zero winnings. All withdrawn now (still waiting for the last withdrawal to land in my bank account though).

Agent Smyth · 18-01-2013 1:09pm

Winnings from 18/01/13 draw € 0
Last win 11/01/13 €50
total wins this year € 50
Total wins 2012 €375

pbwinner · 18-01-2013 1:16pm

Winnings from today's draw: €0
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €25k: €800

cold case · 18-01-2013 1:19pm

Winnings today €0

Last winnings €75 in March 2010 on 162 units

hairyprincess · 18-01-2013 2:48pm

Winnings from todays draw: €0

Total winnings since Feb 2010 on €500: €150
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €50: €0

leonards · 18-01-2013 3:48pm

Winnings today €0 on €200 since Dec 2012

WhiteMan32 · 18-01-2013 7:56pm

Winnings from today's draw: €0
Total winnings since Feb 2012 on €12k: €150

nhg · 20-01-2013 9:16am

nhg wrote: »

I purchased 30K worth yesterday, I will hold them for 10 mths before i cash them in again, the bank offered me 2.5% to lock the money away for 9mths - hopefully I will win something:rolleyes:

I buy €200 worth every month on DD since Jan 2011 (child's college fund) & nothing on them yet, I won €75 earlier in the year on one about 25 years old & my dad won €75 this year on one about 33 years old, my granny used to always buy them for birthdays.

Had my first win on Friday on the 30k - €50 (showed up in my bank a/c this morn with tomorrow's date). Hopefully first of many.

vedwards · 23-01-2013 6:37pm

Someone recently did the maths on the changes to the prize bonds value, winning frequency etc and deemed that if it was worth it before to 'invest' it certainly isn't now and having no win on my 6000 bonds since November 2012 I am going to invest elsewhere.

Up to November I was very pleased and the anticipation of a win with the postman arriving every Tuesday morning made life more tolerable. In August I had 4 wins.

30-NOV-2012 EUR7523-NOV-2012 EUR7507-SEP-2012 EUR7524-AUG-2012 EUR7517-AUG-2012 EUR7517-AUG-2012 EUR7503-AUG-2012 EUR75I had at least two a month before that.

oaklands · 23-01-2013 7:17pm

@VEDWARDS
Based on Dec-12 numbers you should have been winning between 10 and 11 €75 euros per annum on average with 6,000 bonds. It looks by your post that you were achieving a higher return than expected.

Based on Jan-13 numbers you should win between 9 and 10 €50 euros prizes per annum on average with 6,000 bonds. You should also win €100 every 1.66 years.

On a point of information, I don't believe there was any recommendation that it is not worth investing now. The decision on whether it is worth investing is differerent for every investor based on their particular crcumstances and the information available at the time. However, it is true to say that the expected returns from Jan-13 on the new system are significantly reduced from 2012.(The return is now 32% less than it was in Dec-12 for €50/€100 vs €75 prizes. )

notGill · 23-01-2013 7:27pm

I was given a present of €250 prize bonds last February. I won €75 the following month which I reinvested so I have a total of €325 with no wins since.

I think I'll throw another €400 into prize bonds (for the gamble) as it is only earning a minimal interest rate in my deposit account and I definitely won't need it for another 3 months.

If I haven't won anything come June/July, I might clear out the account.

This thread makes for interesting reading!

oaklands · 23-01-2013 7:44pm

@notGill
with 116 bonds or €725.....you should win €50 every 5 years and €100 every 86 years!! (on average)

For the €1M prize expect to win it once every 186 thousand years or so!!!

....on the other hand you could win it this Friday...best of luck

notGill · 23-01-2013 8:18pm

oaklands wrote: »

@notGill
with 116 bonds or €725.....you should win €50 every 5 years and €100 every 86 years!! (on average)

For the €1M prize expect to win it once every 186 thousand years or so!!!

....on the other hand you could win it this Friday...best of luck

After my win of €75, I think I'm not due another win for at least 4 years!

It is a nice feeling to win on such a small sum (especially in comparison with the investments in this thread!).

If I was to win €50 soon after buying the next set of bonds, that would a 19% return over the year (fund minus reinvested winnings), not too shabby! I live in hope.

FoolsGold1 · 24-01-2013 8:40pm

As the new (old) kid on the block, just want to say Good Luck to everyone. Apart from a very few odds and sods from earlier times,
(0 wins), my main bonds bought in '10. '11 and '12 total 40K - mostly all during '12 - netted 31 x 75 = 2,325 up to 31/12/12. I topped that up for the New Year and 4th 0, 11th 0, and 18th 2 x 50 (from 2 y.o. Bonds, not the new ones).
Yes, I know the pros and cons but, as a gutless gambler, am only prepared to flutter on my 'lost interest' and 'inflation' problems, but am prepared to enjoy for a while anyway. "Sorry" won't even deter me, as I'll live in hope! Friday was never payday for me anyway - more like towards end of month so...I'll let you know if I ever see white blackbirds!!

highgiant1985 · 25-01-2013 12:01am

I have savings account and was thinking of moving a small bit of that into prize bonds as a random variable to see if I get lucky but with the expectation of winning nothing from them (which I'm 100% ok with if it happens).

If I purchase prize bonds now online how soon does it take for me to be entered in the draw? (Is it instant or does it take a few days?)

smemon · 25-01-2013 12:58pm

highgiant1985 wrote: »

I have savings account and was thinking of moving a small bit of that into prize bonds as a random variable to see if I get lucky but with the expectation of winning nothing from them (which I'm 100% ok with if it happens).

If I purchase prize bonds now online how soon does it take for me to be entered in the draw? (Is it instant or does it take a few days?)

Not sure but they say it'll take 7-10 working days before you get them by post. I've been waiting 5 working days now.

cold case · 25-01-2013 1:00pm

Is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble accessing the prize bond website today?

6 minutes later . . . logged on . . . No winnings today

pbwinner · 25-01-2013 1:24pm

Winnings from today's draw: €0
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €25k: €800

FoolsGold1 · 25-01-2013 1:38pm

Nothing doing today either - 25 Jan.

Agent Smyth · 25-01-2013 1:50pm

Winnings from 25/01/13 draw € 0
Last win 11/01/13 €50
Total wins 2013 € 50
Total wins 2012 €375

@ FoolsGold1 31 x €75 wins in 2012 That a nice win ratio, I bet the postman was wondering what was going on with all the letters arriving every Tuesday lol

hairyprincess · 25-01-2013 2:25pm

Winnings from todays draw: €0

Total winnings since Feb 2010 on €500: €150
Total winnings since Feb 2011 on €50: €0

FoolsGold1 · 25-01-2013 3:08pm

Hi! Wednesday reaches me, but ANY day will do!

Boardnashea · 25-01-2013 3:15pm

oaklands wrote: »

Regarding the phone numbers you should find the number at the end of this web page. Saynoto1890 cover lots of these types of phone numbers, which I find great.

Excellent website. Many thanks:)

nhg · 26-01-2013 9:53am

nhg wrote: »

Had my first win on Friday on the 30k - €50 (showed up in my bank a/c this morn with tomorrow's date). Hopefully first of many.

Just checked my bank a/c this morning, another €50 win, two weeks in a row

Win in this weeks draw €50

Win on once off purchase of €30k since 23/11/12 - €100
Win on regular €200 month purchase since Jan 2011 - €0
Win on odd presents of prize bonds received over the years - €75

FoolsGold1 · 26-01-2013 11:31am

nhg wrote: »

Just checked my bank a/c this morning, another €50 win, two weeks in a row

Win in this weeks draw €50

Win on once off purchase of €30k since 23/11/12 - €100
Win on regular €200 month purchase since Jan 2011 - €0
Win on odd presents of prize bonds received over the years - €75

Super! You're on a roll.

€25k invested in prize bonds

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