€25k invested in prize bonds

Nothing here again ....And a Prosperous, Happy & Healthy New Year to you all...

Nothing for me today. The €250K winner was bought in 2010.

"One lucky Wicklow punter awoke this week to the news that they had won the princely sum of €250,000 in the weekly Prize Bond Star Prize draw.

The lucky Prize Bond (number MM 317579) is held by a Garden County resident and was purchased in 2010."

While your points are logical and sound plausible there are a few real world considerations to bear in mind

At no point in the last 5 or 6 years have the sloths in State Savings been proactive in relation to rates, quite the opposite, rates have lagged everybody else. They rate reduction some years ago was the result of the retail banks complaining to CBI/NTMA/DOF and anybody else that would listen. There is no reason to expect State Savings to get off their h***s and move rates upwards off their own bat.

Retail rates (from the domestic banks) are still zero or close to it. Certainly there is no pressure coming from that quarter. And given that the number of Irish people holding a Raisin account is a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the population, the headline rates they offer won't exert any pressure either.

The NTMA funding plan for 2023 is to issue €7 billion to €11 billion of bonds and no Treasury Bills, a huge decrease from the borrowing requirement even a few years ago. This, combined with the amazingly healthy profile of the State's overall debt portfolio means that it is highly unlikely that NTMA will want/need any net inflow into State Savings products, or even be concerned about any modest/moderate net outflows.

So on the basis that there is no competitive pressure and no pressure from NTMA to change rates I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the current rates are still operative on 31/12/2023. But who knows, we are second guessing the intentions of a bunch of Mandarins so anything is possible.

And good luck with chasing Minister McGrath. A more wriggly and slippery individual would be difficult to find. His courteous reply to you will be along the following lines "I fully understand and share your concern however under current legislation the setting of rates for State Savings products is within the remit of NTMA and I am precluded from interfering". Interesting that the statement he made in relation to rates way back in 2016 when he was in opposition has been removed from the FF website now that he is in Government and is now showing a 404 error - talk, as they say, is cheap and no better buachaill than the bold Michael to talk the talk.

I agree with Hibernicis about the interest rates, don't expect any increase. I wrote much the same back at the end of August, post #8228, and similar things since. For most people I expect any €50 win DIRT free will outperform other guaranteed products. Two Credit Unions that I know of are paying 0.05% subject to DIRT and zero this year.

Two things I noticed today, which point to the variations which exist in random luck all adding up to the average. The Greek bonds approx ZH759000 to ZH821000 (that we know of) won loads of prizes in the range 759000 to 791000 between the start of May and the start of November. Only last week and this week did the range 791000 to 821000 finally figure in the winners with a ZH814 last week and ZH817 this week. Because each draw stands alone with no influence from past draws, and no influence on future ones, those bonds worth the guts of €200K could just as easily have continued for 12 months with no win.

Fermanagh bonds post #8390 got 12 x €50 since July, where average luck would have said 4. But those were 4 in the ACK32x and 8 in the ACK34x range, with zero in the ACK33x range. Until today when ACK331783 was the only winner in Fermanagh. If they had been unlucky enough just to have bought that 10,000 set of bonds only, they would have been bemoaning the vagaries of random bad luck.

I see Trade Republic are offering 2% on savings. May be better than keeping the money in prize bonds.

Nothing for me this month.

Have added some family pbs recently.

There are 3 bonds dating back to the 50s I think H717xxx. They appear never to have won anything.

Of the rest, 105k worth since 2016 - 55 prizes worth €2750. Not a great return at all.

It is only possible to check back 6 months, and there have been no H717 winners. But there are 3 prizes waiting to be claimed. Unclaimed means the winning letter came back undelivered. Uncashed means a cheque was delivered, but it was never cashed.

Unclaimed / Uncashed Winnings

If unclaimed within 6 months, a prize becomes unclaimed. Find out more

For H717000 - H718000

Prize Bond Number Prize Value Status

H717395 €75.00 Unclaimed i

H717678 €50.00 Unclaimed i

H717830 €75.00 Uncashed i

It's so nice to have those old ones, true heirlooms !

I have one first issue bond, a six digit number, which was issued in April 1957, the year Prize bonds started. It was an engagement present from my grandparents to my parents. I also have the receipt, which is dated 8th April 1957. The wording below appears on the reverse, and shows that the Bank of Ireland operated the scheme (and the draws) on behalf of the Minister for Finance. The first prize bonds were sold in March 1957 and the first draw took place in September that year. Draws took place Bi-annually (March and September) in the initial years and at that time the numbers were placed in six cylinders and drawn manually.

Well, Nollaig na mBan didn't bring any prize bond joy to me!

The number of €50 prizes in the January 2023 draws is 4,712 up from 4,373 in January 2022, an increase of 7.752%. Applying that to the fund value at the end of 2021, €4,442.6 billion would make the current value €4,786.995 billion, an increase of €344.395 million.

The newest bond to win on 07 January 2022 was AYV 705919, newest 06 January 2023 BCQ 456969, sales of around €617.195 million. That would mean bonds cashed in approx €272.8 million. That compares with sales of €660.544 million and cashed in €327.663 million in 2021 from the Annual Report.

My reading of the 1993 regulations Section 19 is that any prize won in the 6 years following a death would pass to the person to whom the bond is transferred. If the death had not been notified to Prize Bonds in that 6 years, any further prize after 6 years would not become part of the estate. That became 12 years in 1997, and as far as I can see that is the most up to date regulation on the subject.

So someone deceased more than 12 years could win the €250K and that would go back into the prize fund. But the regulation does say that the NTMA can use their discretion, so someone could come forward with a case to get the money. But a person could be dead anytime since 1957, with nobody being aware of their Prize Bond holding, when their estate was transferred. As far as I know, solicitors write to State Savings, banks etc to enquire whether the deceased held any monies with them, when they are arranging probate.

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/si/431/made/en/print

Wins on 13th January 2023: €0

Last win: 6th January 2023: €50

Weeks since last win: 1

€134k invested in prize bonds since July 2017

Win ratio: 37 wins in 289 weeks (13%)

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): 7 x €50 = €350

2023 (Jan-date): 1 x €50 = €50

€50

Congratulations €50, last win 28/10/2022, first win this year obviously

Prize Bond bought October 2020

Winnings to date (no winning records kept pre 2005) €2,175 on €11,650 (including reinvestments) worth of PB's bought monthly over a 25 year period plus €20,000 bought in Feb 2016 (seven €50 wins on the February 2016 purchase), plus €20,000 bought in July 2020 (two €50 wins on the July 2020 purchase), plus €30,000 bought in October 2020 (three €50 wins on the October 2020 purchase).

Winnings 2011 €75

Winnings 2012 €150

Winnings 2013 €200

Winnings 2014 €100

Winnings 2015 Zero

Winnings 2016 €200

Winnings 2017 €250

Winnings 2018 Nada, Zilch, SFA

Winnings 2019 €250

Winnings 2020 €150

Winnings 2021 €150

Winnings 2022 €100

Winnings 2023 €50 (and counting)

Roll on next Friday for a big one