€25k invested in prize bonds

There are two different types of account. Needless to mention State Savings don't bother to make this very obvious. Firstly, there is a Prize Bond tracker account, which is what you appear to have. You set it up with user name and password, enter details of your prize bonds manually and then log in as often as you wish to see if you have won anything. Secondly there is a State Savings Online Account. This has a lot more functionality, i.e. displays your holdings for National Solidarity Bonds, Savings Certs and Bonds, Instalment Savings as well as Prize Bonds, shows current values and statements for each of these, and also allows you to conduct certain transactions (purchases, disposals etc) though there are some limits on this, in particular disposal and reinvestment is restricted to sole holders. The State Savings Online Account will also notify you automatically by e-mail if your Prize Bonds win, and Prize Bond purchases and wins are automatically added to your account. Because the State Savings Online Account has a lot more functionality, it is secured using two factor authentication (using your mobile). So it takes a bit of effort to set it up. In general, this appears to take 2 - 3 weeks for most people (And an awful lot longer in some cases, but then this is the useless gaff-prone sloths in State Savings we are talking about). If you have more than a handful of prize bonds or one or two savings certs/bonds it is well worth going through the steps required to get a State Savings Online Account, if for no reason other than it saves you having to interact with the shower. You can apply for an account here:

https://www.statesavings.ie/your-savings/register/personal-details

How long does it take the State Savings site to update and show your winnings? I got a notification earlier to say I'd won but can't see the amount anywhere.

I'll have to contact them.

It appears on the Prizes Tab immediately. If you are set-up to reinvest it takes a few hours for it to appear on the Holdings tab, presumably the time it takes to allocate the numbers to the new bonds.

A dry January for me.

January Count.

Friday 07

24 million bonds AXX to AYU inclusive won 140 prizes. Average per million 5.833. Highest AYC, AYL 11 each. Lowest AXY, AYN 3 each.

Friday 14

24 million AXZ to AYW 151, 6.292. AYH, AYR 11. AYM, AYS 1.

Friday 21

25 million AYB to AYZ 124, 4.960. AYF, AYS 8. AYU, AYY 2.

Friday 28

26 million AYC to AZB 152, 5.846. AYL 11. AYR, AYU, AYZ 2.

99 million bonds won 567 prizes. Average per million 5.727. x 52 x €50 = €14,890.91. Divided by 62.5 to get what €100K would win in a year with the same luck = €238.25. Nearest to 5 x €50.

There was a €1,000 and a €500 winner as well but for the purposes of the calculation I only counted €50 winners.

Anyone else play Schroeder’s Prize Bond where you have both won and not won until you actually open the Prize bond checker site? 🤣🤣

so far, all my Bonds have been dead for nearly a year. Hopefully that will change soon. 🤞🤞

Nothing for me today. The number of €50 prizes in the February draws is 4,407 up from 4,373 in January.

The newest bond to win on 07 January was AYV 705719, newest 04 February AZE 816084, sales of around €57 million.

The €50K went to an AZD bond, which would have been bought in January.

€50 today on 74 large monkeys!

Although they might be lying as it didn't show up in the overall sum.

€50 again - start of the year seems to be my time!

That's prize bonds for you, it does seem a bit unfair, an AZD series only a month old and wins 50k and bonds 30 40 50 years old never won anything, my oldest bond purchased AG series purchased in February 1985 never won anything, and my wife has an AB series purchased in 1982 and nothing.

Anyway back to the real world, nothing so far in 2022, €250 won in 2021.

I got €91.70 from KBC for around €39000. Granted it wasn't that balance for the whole year.

Going to stick it in PB for a while and see do we have any better luck.

Had my first win in 23 weeks last Friday. The following table shows the total amount I have invested since my initial purchase in 2017. All winnings have been automatically reinvested. The weeks I won two prizes are shown in bold and the week I won three prizes is in red. As can be seen from the table, quite an irregular pattern, with some good runs and some extended droughts.

The final two columns show the total number of new bonds that were issued between wins and the weekly average.

Woo hoo - first win of the year!

Wins on 11th February 2022: €50

Previous last win: 23rd December 2021: €50

€134k invested in prize bonds since July 2017

Win ratio: 27 wins in 241 weeks (11%)

2017 (Jul-Dec): 5 x €50 = €250

2018 (Jan-Dec): 4 x €50 = €200

2019 (Jan-Dec): 5 x €50 = €250

2020 (Jan-Dec): 10 x €50 = €500

2021 (Jan-Dec): 2 x €50 = €100

2022 (Jan-date): 1 x €50 = €50