Premium bonds are becoming more popular everyday.  Millions of people are investing in these bonds and some are questioning if they are really worth it.  Premium bonds were introduced in 1956 as a way to get the public to invest into the British Government. This was set up like a lottery so that the common man could save and at the same time have a chance to winning millions of pounds. Nearly twenty million people, a third of the population now owns at least one premium bond. Investors can buy these bonds directly from the post office or they can purchase from the National Savings and Investment firms.

Since interest rates are falling, premium bonds are seen as a safe way to invest and at the same time have the thrill of winning one of the over million and a half cash prizes awarded each month. Fifteen percent of the prize money is used for high cash prizes and another fifteen percent is used for medium cash prizes.  The remaining seventy percent of the money was used to award lower prizes that are as high as fifty pounds. A fifty-pound prize on a one bond is almost a 500 percent return. Right now you have a 1 in 21,000 chance to win, but with the bonds becoming more popular, those odds may be greater in the future.

You have to buy at least one hundred pounds to invest in premium bonds and you can only have thirty thousand pounds in an account. The bonds are backed and protected by the national treasury. Anyone who invests can be assured that when they decide to pull out their funds, the money will be there.  Anyone can invest as long as you are sixteen. Many parents buy premium bonds as a way to pay for their children's college. Young investors can learn the value of savings and at the same time get the chance to win enough money to set them up for life.

Unlike lottery tickets, the same bond can win over and over. The more you invest, the more times you will have a chance to win. The winnings are tax-free and you can even reinvest the money you win until you reach the thirty thousand pound limit. It has been reported that the odds in winning has declined in the last ten years.  It is a matter of statistics that the more bonds that are bought the lower the chance that your bond number will be picked.

The odds are still better than the American lottery because you don't have to buy a different ticket each time. You can find out if your bond number is picked by looking at the National Saving and Invest website. Here they list all the winning numbers and all you have to do is call or contact them for you to claim your prize. It is recorded that the National Saving and Invest firm has over five hundred thousand unclaimed prizes that they are holding for claimers.

Premium bonds marked their fiftieth anniversary in November 2006. They have been the most popular form of investment in British history. Premium bonds are bought and kept by over 40% of Great Britain's populations. Where traditional investments yield a small return over time, premium bonds yield no return at all but give the investor a chance to win a monthly lottery.  This popular investment strategy have made millionaires out many British citizens and at the same time provided the investors that didn't win a secure place to save their money and help out the national treasury.  They have the option of pulling out the money at any time without loss. Here are some bizarre facts that surround these popular bonds.

From its conception until the late eighties there was even a beauty contest to celebrate the premium bonds program.  The National Saving and Investment agency, the department in charge of the bond program, held an annual Miss Premium Bond competition in which employees of the agency entered during the annual Civil Service Sports and Social Club Day held in Lytham St. Annes. Just like regular beauty pageants, the competitors would walk down the catwalk flaunting their looks and style. They would smile politely to the judges and then answer questions related to the pageant. No other investment company has ever sponsored such an event.

Similar to the American lottery there has been some weird stats derived from the program. Similarities from the statistics include that Hannah is the most frequent name that has won a premium bonds lottery and Sean was the most frequent male name. The ten top readers were all female except for one.  Some winners don't even claim their prizes. There is an unclaimed prize for twenty five thousand pounds waiting patiently for the owner to claim. There are also more than five hundred thousand pounds stored at the agency just waiting for somebody to come and take it home.

There are even conspiracy theories that call the premium bonds program a scam. There are people who will cash in their bonds and then buy new them so that they will have modern numbers. The first bond ever bought is still in the system, but these people believe that only new numbers will be generated from ERNIE the famous number generating machine.

Other conspiracy theorists have come up with ideas that the machine is prejudiced to what region of Great Britain the winners will be chose from. One man in Wales even has said that the bonds were rigged because Wales had the fewest amount of winners. What he failed to realize was that fewer people in Wales bought premium bonds and that naturally the statistics would favor a larger buying population.

As there is winners there are also losers. You can't really loose because the bonds are cashed in at the same amount they were bought at. One gentleman reported that he had never won in twenty years.  He states he has even stopped looking at the monthly numbers. He could be one of the people who has never claimed the over five hundred thousand pounds that have never claimed.

Premium bonds are is the most unique way of saving money in Great Britain.   In increments from a hundred pounds to up to thirty thousand pounds, the government will secure your money.  The government will use your money for civil projects and in return, the bond numbers on your bonds will be put into a monthly lottery where you have a chance to become a millionaire.  The bonds can be cashed in at anytime, but if you didn't win any of the lottery prizes, you will just get the cash back that you put in.  This is a great way to save money and at the same time have a little fun gambling with fate.

Who can purchase these bonds? Any British citizen sixteen years old and older can purchase premium bonds. A young person can start a nest egg for college or for later life and an adult can save me for a rainy day or for their retirement.  Not only is the money in a safe and secure place, they have a chance to earn any where from fifty to a million pounds if their bond number is picked. At least two bond holders a month become millionaires.

Non-British people may buy premium bonds only in Britain. Postal law does not allow bonds or prize money to be mailed.  You have to go to Great Britain in person and purchase the bonds from a post office or the National Security and Investments agency. If you win a cash prize, you need to schedule another trip to the island to pick up your money.  The prize money is tax free in Great Britain, but you may have to check your nation's laws about how much money you bring back to your homeland without paying taxes or tariffs.

Premium bonds can be redeemed at cash value without loss.  So if you are a foreign investor and need your money, you would have to make a trip back to Britain to get your funds. There are certain restrictions and fees for carrying a large amount of money so you might make arrangements with a British bank to transfer the funds for you. There is also the concern of currency devaluation. The pound might fluctuate and you would have to suffer the loss during the exchange of currencies. A severe depression on either shore could cause a substantial loss. You would have to watch the money market closely to insure your money was safe for withdrawal

To insure your money you could make a formal arrangement with a British national to purchase the bonds for you.  The bonds would be in that persons name and a legally binding agreement would have to be made with that person so that you could cash in your bonds or claim a prize. A certain percentage of the prize money would have to be given to that person for letting use your money and their name. A British barrister and an attorney from your country would be advised.

As with most things that are concerned with the government, conspiracy theories are generated to prove or disprove unfairness between two parties or plot to hurt the population.  Premium bonds are not isolated from these kinds of attacks. Conspiracy theorists have accused the National Savings and Investments agency of defrauding the public and being bias in the way they hand out the prizes and pick out the numbers of the bonds. These conspiracy theories are meant to hurt the agency and they are being reported in blogs and other methods to bring the idea of premium bonds to a halt.

The National Savings and Investment agency has issued statements that debunk these theories and preserve their integrity. Their number-generating machine, ERNIE, creates random numbers that correspond with the numbers on the bonds. Large drawings are held each month and some people believe that the number generating is fixed. One of the most bizarre theories is that some people believe that ERNIE is a super computer that knows how a person thinks. People have even sent ERNIE Christmas and Valentine Day cards to the computer in hopes that it will sway its picks.  This is totally untrue; the machine is totally random and does not have the capacity to know anything. 

Psychologists have made the assumption that even the employees of the National Savings and Invest agency does not even know how the numbers are picked by ERNIE. The people that make the theories have an intrinsic need to know how a process works and when they do not know, they will come up with ideas that make them feel more comforted.  Ironically, most of the conspiracy theories come from people who have never won any of the cash prizes and they feel that they are not in control of the situation.

The maximum holding for premium bonds is thirty thousand pounds. A theory exists that only the maximum amount in the system will generate winners for those people only. If you do the statistics thirty thousand pounds has a better chance of winning than if you have just two or three thousand pounds invested in bonds. Again people with the lower amount of money invested are perpetrating the theory. With over a third of the population of Great Britain investing the premium bonds system, so people may never win a cash prize nor see their investment grow.

There is a theory that only new premium bonds are winning. This may be true. Though the program has been going on for decades, there has been a surge of new buying since the one million pound prize was introduced. Again the numbers come into play, the more that people play, the less chance you will win a cash prize. As with any lottery system, the more people that play and save, the more people will lose.

The good thing is a larger prize and more money can be put into the system where people who win will make a larger profit. By doing the simple math, most of these theories are debunking themselves.

Premium bonds are the British answer to the need for savings and the fun of gambling. Each bond you buy will have a specific number. The number of the bond is put into a numbers generating machine and monthly thousands of numbers are chosen randomly to receive a cash prize in lieu of interest. The investment is completely safe and you can cash in your bonds at value whenever you wish.  There is a thirty thousand pound cap on the investments so large corporations cannot buy millions of bonds to skew the chance for the common man to win.

There are ways to improve your odds. For example the more bonds that you buy and hold the more chance you will have in winning a cash prize that can equal as much as one million pounds.  Statistically you have about 23,000 to one shot with a one-pound premium bond. By buying more bonds, your odds of winning increase significantly. The system is designed to choose number randomly so the more numbers you have in the system the more money you will make as a cash prize.  You can even sign up for a monthly fifty-pound savings program where you can have the money automatically drawn from your regular checking account.

A thirty thousand pound investment would give you a little of four hundred thousand chance to one for winning the big million pound prize. So the more you save the more chances you have of winning enough money to set you up for life. You can even buy the premium bonds online or over the phone.  You can even purchase the bonds at your local post office. It's that easy. Purchase, save, and win. Of course not all bonds are going to win you money, but you will have a nice nest egg to help you in your advanced years or if you run into financial troubles.

You can buy the bonds for a child or if you are sixteen you can buy them yourself. It is a great way to save money for college or to put away some extra cash for when you meet that special someone and want to start a family.  If you win a high-end prize you can even pay for your college with the winnings. The big prize of a million pounds would be enough to set you up for life. So don't let your young age keep you from purchasing and holding premium bonds.  Even if you are a senior citizen, it is never too late to put away some money for a cloudy day.

If you win a cash prize, it is free of taxes.  So when you win those million pounds, you get to keep the whole million. You can reinvest and at the same time live the quality of life you always dreamed of. Even if you one the minimal prize of fifty pounds, you would have made more money on your investment than you would have if you put it in a savings account at the bank.

There are many web pages dedicated to successes of the premium bond program in Great Britain but there are also some false facts that are circulating around the net that gives premium bonds a bad name and puts out false information that would keep some otherwise wise investors from even purchasing their first bond. This report presents some of this false information so that the discerning investor can make clear and logical choices when investing their money in the premium bond system. Remember these are myths and false facts that have been discounted by the government agencies that were selected to monitor the actions of the National Savings and Investment agency.

One myth is that the million pound winner is always notified in person on the last day of the month after the drawing. The winner has to be at home or the prize will be given to another premium bond member or will not be given away at all. The myth also supports another. Since you have to be home to win the prize, the myth says the statistics support the idea that most people that win the million pounds are in their nineties and that they are home all the time anyway.  Most people in their nineties live in a retirement community or nursing home and they would not have an address that would support the myth.

There is a ridiculous rumor that nobody has ever met a million pound winner. This myth contends that it is a government hoax and the sole purpose of this hoax is to trick people into giving their money to the government in lieu of taxes. This is completely false. Not only is there a website that lists all the million pound winners, it even lists the towns they live in and what date they won. Of course the National Savings and Interest agency is going to keep them secret because the publicity generated would destroy their privacy and make the million pounds more of a burden than a pleasure.

There is even a rumor about premium bonds and the famous British comedian Bennie Hill.  Though Bennie Hill died at the age of 92, the myth says he had just won a million pound prize and his jealous grandmother because of the money killed him. Bennie Hill was already a wealthy man and the age of the jealous grandmother would make her about hundred and twenty years old.  This does not only make sense chronologically but the woman at that age would have a hard time killing anyone.

There has even been a website posted with these myths and the challenge for anyone that has won a million pounds to come forward and dispute the myths. To this day, no one has posted on the site.  This is logical because by posting they would be giving up their privacy as well as the possibility of setting themselves up for a scam. The National Savings and Investment is a sound agency that guarantees your money. These myths are just created to destroy their integrity.

Premium bonds are a great way to save money and at the same time have a chance to winning up to a million pounds.  Each one-pound bond has a unique number on it that is put into an automatic number generator machine that produces numbers for a monthly lottery.  If your number is picked you and a million and a half other investors have a chance to win a cash prize from fifty to a million pounds.  If you have premium bonds you have twelve chances a year to receive a significant amount of money in lieu of the percentages from a regular savings account.

Some people have won a cash prize for the premium bonds and don't even know that they have won. They could have moved and their new address wasn't registered with the National Savings and Investments agency.  A notice of their win would have gone out and the recipient would have never known. The National Savings and Investments agency will keep the money until someone claims it. You just have to step up to the plate and claim it. But like many investors, you don't know how. There may be money out there you just have to ask.

There are online services that will search the National Savings and Investments unclaimed prize list and let you know that if you have a payment or prize pending.  The great thing about this service is that it is free. You just give them the bond numbers and they will tell you if you have won.  They cannot do anything with the bond numbers themselves. The bond itself is the proof that you won when you present it for the prize. The bond number itself is useless to anyone trying to scam the system.

The investor must remember that the bondholder number is a unique code given to each holder.  The bondholder number will allow the finding service to search all premium bond numbers you have in your account.  If you don't know your number, it is the number tat was given to you when you bought your first premium bonds.  The numbers are arranged in eight digits and a letter at the end. The premium bond numbers will have letters throughout the number sequences and will be distinct from any other sequence. This way you can discern between your bondholder number and your actual bond identification number.

With most online bondholder checking services, the list of prizes is updated on a regular basis. Again, just your book holder number is needed and not the individual numbers from your individual premium bonds. The service will match the numbers and give you the results, either positive or negative, by email.  You don't have to worry about moving and having the notice sent to the wrong address. You can even be out of the country and be able to be notified.  Both recent and past numbers will be matched and you will have an answer within a few days.

The British have found a unique way to invest their money.  By buying premium bonds the citizens of Britain can enter their bond numbers into a lottery each month and have a chance to win over a million pounds. There are millions of other cash prizes that awarded to the bond numbers drawn and this cash prize is seen to be better than interest generated from traditional savings program. The system is so popular more than a third of the country invests this way. The investor can pull out their money at any time and there is not penalty or cost to do so. The government to fund projects and at the same time give their citizens a chance to be millionaires uses the money invested.

What would happen if this system were used in the United States? Premium bonds would be a welcome financial opportunity for American citizens. The current lottery system is taking in millions of dollars across the country but there are few winners. Once you buy a lottery ticket you don't get your money back and you lose that dollar. This is gambling and not investing. The odds of winning an American lottery are astronomical.  One person in Florida in 1999 bought ten thousand lottery tickets. After the numbers were pulled, the person only won eight hundred and sixty three dollars. The investor lost over nine thousand dollars in taking a huge chance of winning the twenty three million dollar prize.

This would not happen with premium bonds.  Thought the prize money is not as huge as the American lottery, the British investor would have twelve chances to win a million pounds over the course of a year. The chances of winning fewer amounts are even greater. The British citizen is allowed to invest up to thirty thousand pounds into the system and if they don't win they can take their money out anytime they want. They lose nothing for their investment. This way the premium bond market is not considered gambling and the investor can be assured that their nest egg will remain in place.

The problem with premium bonds coming to America is that the government will have to restructure their thinking of how to save and distribute the funds. They are making millions now without having to do anything but have the weekly lottery and pay off the winners. They pocket out the cash without having the responsibility of letting people have the opportunity to save. Church groups and other anti-gambling groups will win a victory, as they will look at the investment opportunity as a savings plan and not a gambling operation.

Unlike the British system where the investors purchase their bonds from the post office the postal service in the United States would probably be overwhelmed if they had to take responsibility for the program.  The United States would probably benefit by selling premium bonds online and have an agency that deposits and awards the prizes. This would take a lot of planning but the American population would definitely embrace it.

Premium bonds are bonds that do not pay interest. They do something much better. You purchase premium bonds and let it sit just like in a savings account. Each month there is a lottery and if your bond number is picked, then you have a chance to win over a million dollars. Over one and a half million cash prizes are given away each month and if your bond number is picked, you win from fifty British pounds to well over a million pounds. The great thing is if you do not want to participate in the program anymore you can take back your money like it was never invested at all. This program is so popular that over a third of the population of Great Britain participates in it.

Unlike the American lottery system where numbers are picked randomly from ping-pong balls, Great Britain uses ERNIE to generate numbers from premium bonds. ERNIE is a random number generator hardware system and has been around since 1957. ERNIE first generated the bond numbers by picking up on signal noise from a bank of neon tubes. It was the size of a mini van and could only generate about 2000 numbers an hour. The first number generator lasted almost seventeen years and was replaced by an updated version in 1972. 

The computer age came to age in the eighties and in 1988 ERNIE 3 was invented. The generator was about the size of a personal computer but ran at nowhere near the speed personal computers run today. It took ERNIE 3 almost six hours to generate the numbers for the monthly lottery. ERNIE 4 is being used today and it came of age in 2004.  Working at speeds five hundred times as fast as the original model, ERNIE 4 uses thermal noise instead of the noise from neon lights. It can compute over a million numbers and hour

Once the numbers are generated, a staff of hundreds validates the generated numbers with real bond numbers that the numbers match. Once matched, prizes are allotted to the public.  The machine is checked over monthly to ensure proper validation and to keep the system honest. With over a million and a half winners monthly, the machine keeps every thing running smoothly. The investments pay off as winners are awarded their prizes depending on the order that their premium bond number was generated.

ERNIE is so popular in Great Britain that the machine actually receives cards on holidays such as Christmas.  Jethro Tull, a poetic singer and song writer even wrote mentions ERNIE in his song, "Thick as a Brick." The magic of ERNIE and the thrill of lottery and a chance to win a million has the majority of the population of Britain investing more and more.  The idea that your money can earn more than a mere one or two percent that savings accounts earn has the British public flocking to the bank to let ERNIE make them a million.

Premium bonds have been debated for decades over their ability to actually beat out interest bearing savings plans and conventional banking practices. Premium bonds allow the bond buyer to participate in a monthly lottery that picks out individual bond numbers.  If your bond number is picked you are awarded a cash prize that can range from fifty pounds to a million pounds. Your investment is safe and the government uses the money to fund public projects. There have been conspiracy theories and other grumbling about the premium bond system and now there are religious concerns.

A recent ruling in the Islamic world has made premium bonds ownership against Islamic law. Muhammad Adam al-Kawthari has interpreted the Koran in stating that contrary to shares, premium bonds are a loan instead of a partial owning of a company as in shares. The act of making money off of your own money in the form of interest is considered usury and takes away from the pillar of faith that represents being charitable. Islamic scholars have declared all bonds that produce interest as unlawful.  Even a premium bond cash prize is considered apart of interest and cannot be allowed.

Is the Islamic religion is against premium bonds, imagine what the sales with be like if it was suddenly made lawful. The sale of bonds would go up and the odds would be skewed a little. The Moslem population in Britain might bring many millions of pounds into the government coffers. The funds generated could help Britain pay its war debt and at the same time finance British troops occupying Islamic countries. The Cleric might have made the decision to degree premium bonds unlawful for this very reason. It might be a good idea for the National Savings and Investments or the government to issue a statement that the funds will not be used for military or war funding.

The government is working on a way for the Islamic citizens to be able to participate in the premium bond programs. The Islamic financial systems work on investing on a fixed asset and even Pakistan has Islamic bonds issues to finance its roadways. If the British government figures out a way to do this then they will be able to be the first Europeans ever who are able to allow the Islamic world to participate in the premium bond market. This will boost sales and allow the British Islamic citizen to have fun and save their money in a secure way.

The National Savings and Investments are running against other investing firms that are trying to secure financial relationships with the Muslim communities. Lloyds TSB, one of the largest banks in the country, announced that they have structured Islamic accounts that will be offered to Muslim investors. The account will remain respectful to the Islamic law and at the same time give the investor a secure way to keep their money in a bank and earn money without the idea of interest.  Premium bonds may not be the allowed in the Islamic world, but new plans are on the way.