See my post on 5/2/2007 entitled 'Interest Rates'. The NS&I website says each bond has a 24000 to 1 chance of a prize. I think it really depends how many you have. My children have �5 since 1967, �5 since 1977 and �5 since 1982 (when they were born). None of them have one a bean. I have had �5000 for 46 months and have won �450. This equates to a return of 2.83%, much less than I could get in a good savings account Its only a bit of fun with the hope of getting a big win, at the same time trying to keep pace with inflation. I was bored with safe investments.