€25k invested in prize bonds

Positives are:

• your capital is guaranteed by the Irish Government (apart from the impact of inflation) and you can get it back at any time after 90 days from the date the prize bonds are purchased
• you could one one of the "larger" prizes (Currently these are 12x €500k, 52x €50k, 1040x €1k, 1040x €500 annually)
• you have the excitement of checking your results every Friday, and even if you win nothing all you money is still there for next week's draw
• Any wins are free of Irish Taxes (DIRT, income, CGT etc)

Negatives are:

• Based on the current prize structure, the current size of the fund and the current nominal 1% prize fund rate, your €15k holding's chances of one or more €75 wins per annum are as per the above table. Obviously you could do better or worse than this
• The current nominal prize rate at 1% is very low compared to the rates on offer for deposits and bonds generally, compared to where it was historically. You may be able to get a substantially better rate elsewhere, even allowing for tax etc
• Your chances of a "large" win are very remote. There are approx 750,000,000 prize bonds in issue and 2,144 "large" prizes annually. You'd get better odds on Gemma O'Doherty being the Minister for Justice and Enoch Burke being the Minister for Education in the next Government

If you do decide to proceed you should, as @The Continental Op suggests, register for an online State Savings account. It saves the hassle of having to deal directly with the State Savings and their copious forms and inconsistent and unreliable manual processes.

Good luck should you decide to proceed.

Think mine was a full week maybe a bit longer but not 2 weeks.

I did this in the UK for my dads premium bonds. You need a death cert and proof of your ID etc etc etc NS&I are a pain to deal with in the UK so I guess is won't be much easier here.

Found this https://www.statesavings.ie/help-support/help-articles/initiate-deceased-case which should help.

Glad you found the post useful.

Regarding your father’s holding, if you read up the links on this page it will guide you through the process

https://www.statesavings.ie/help-support/help-articles/bereavement-guide-support

A couple of points to bear in mind.

There are two different forms/procedures, one for prize bonds and one for all other state savings products. I suggest you complete both, on the off chance that in addition to the possibility of prize bonds your father/parents could have had a savings cert or two (these were sometimes given as wedding presents etc in the past)

State Savings will conduct a search based on the info you give them. Based on the evidence I’ve seen their search capabilities are extremely poor, often yielding less than 50% of a persons holding. You can improve your chances by giving them the maximum possible amount of information, e.g. all variations of name and all addresses at which the person resided.

See also this post that I wrote last year:

Just checked Prize bonds nothing today on 5k

Yes, that's right. As a consequence the number of prizes awarded has been dropping since last June.

Not surprised, I used to average about €50 x 2 a month but winnings have now completely dried up, feel like cashing it all in and maybe getting a new car or something.

@Seve OB

You'll need to send this form along with the evidence of identity to State Savings to get your SSCN. Did someone mention that it takes a while? There is a good post at #9028 from @Hibernicis explaining the process.

https://www.statesavings.ie/media/pdf/online-purchases-form.pdf

thought that all I needed to do was buy them in a post office. they don't make this simple!

I received a single letter

"We refer to your recent purchase of Prize Bonds

This Prize Bond certificate is issued in accordance ……."

Goes on to list numbers and values in a box

I presume that is the actual bonds

there is no SSCN number on the bottom

I'll wait to see if I get another letter before filling any more forms in

They stopped printing the SSCN on the Prize Bond Certificates at the end of 2022. It isn't appearing on any bond I received in 2023 or 2024. No idea why they chose to do this.

@Seve OB

You could call them on 0818 205060 / 01 7057200, quote your PB numbers and ask them for you SSCN. Failing that you should complete the form that @POBox19 linked to in post #9941

€75. Four X €75 wins since late April from the same batch!

Someones luck is only going to change if they set up a new user account here named pbloser24

Invested on 6th May 2024.

7th May - No win

14th May - €75