Premium Bonds. No Wins In A Year?

[Jennykenny]

My husband held £40,000 worth of Premium Bonds.
When he died I was allowed to leave them in the 'draws' for a year, (previously he won at least 1 X £25.00 a month and often more). Now that they have been paid back apparently not one win has happened in a year. I just can't believe that.
Is there anything I can do?

[Buenchico]

The 'How Lucky Am I?' calculator here says that the chances of not getting a single win, with a £40,000 holding, over a period of one year, are 1 in 100,000
www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator

Are you sure that the notifications of any wins weren't, for example, sent to a disused email address?

[david small]

On the NS&I website there is a facility to check for unclaimed prizes. You also have the ability to see what prizes were won at any given time/month.
With £40,000 you most definitely would have won something. I do hope you do not let this matter rest.

[david small]

You will need your husbands holder number. Good luck.

[Hopkirk]

'you most definitely would have won something'

Not true.

It is possible that nothing was won.

[Prudie]

Of course you may not have won but statistically it's highly unlikely. All those I know with a lot like that do indeed win £25 at least most months. I'd contact NS&I, they must know whether they went in the draw, this appears like something's amiss to me.

[cassa333]

I have £3k of PB and if I win £25 in any five year period I think I am on. Winner lol

I would expect to win more often with £40k worth though.

[Jennykenny]

Buenchico.
My husband didn't use the Internet, and I check my two email addresses daily.
Besides, previously, and for myself this month, the winnings were always sent as a cheque in the post (I won 2x £25.00 this month).
David, I have a list of his numbers, will,have a check, but what I think happened is they forgot to include his bonds in the draws. Will ring them on Monday. I don't hold out much hope.
Thank you all.

[dzug2]

Statistically the chances of you winning the jackpot are extremely slim - but people do win it. The fact that you haven't doesn't show your bonds weren't in the draw

[Calibax]

If you log on to http://www.nsandi.com/ you can enter you husband's holder number in the box and check the current month, previous six months or unclaimed prizes against that number. That should tell you if there are genuinely no wins or whether they might have gone astray.

[Jennykenny]

In case anyone is still interested, letter came a couple of minutes ago to say that a separate cheque for £300.00, (12 x £25.00) would be sent.
So, quite pleased.
(You'll probably laugh at the ridiculousness of this, but I mentally asked my late husband to let me win the £1,000,000 prize which was to be drawn on the anniversary of his death, on 1st December 2015. I guess he wasn't listening.)

[AliceTickband]

I have had premium bonds since forever and won nothing...do I complain?..no I don't....it's just luck.

[jno]

repeal the law of averages? I belonged to the office lotto syndicate for five years. In that time, we beat the law of averages three weeks out of four - ie we had 50 tickets so should have won something every week; instead, it was every month and it was almost never more than a tenner, or whatever the lowest prize was then.

[Prudie]

Well done JK, so in fact yes by the law of averages you should have won and NS&I agree with you. 12 x £25 seems so exact it's like compensation, did they say the tickets had been in the draws?

[jno]

Jennykenny, there seem to be several unclaimed £1m prizes in the lotto - do check that he didn't leave one of those tickets lying round for you!

[hc4361]

I think that the winnings for your husband's account were automatically reinvested for that year (I have always chosen that option) and that amount was sent seperately to the main holding.

[Jennykenny]

No Juno, I"m the one that always bought the tickets, - no such luck.