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.

If you base what you do on inaccurate information, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the consequences. Make sure you get the whole Premium Bonds story from informed sources.

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 no where 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.

Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.

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By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Premium bonds have come under fire from various groups. This government plan to give a saving opportunity to the common man allows people to buy premium bonds for a chance to win a fifty to a million pound cash prize. Unlike American lotteries, the money that you invest to buy the bonds can be used again and again during the monthly drawings. The bonds you invest in, the more you have a chance to win. The can buy up to thirty thousand premium bonds in your lifetime and the cash winnings can add up nicely if you are consistent.

Some religious groups find this is a way to gamble. Most protestant worshippers think that lottery or any other money for chance activities is prohibited by the Bible. What they do not know that you can’t lose money in the premium bond market, you only invest. If you win a cash prize fine, otherwise you can take your money and cash in the bonds with no penalty. The cash prize just adds the element of gambling to savings with the chance that you will forfeit your original investment. The random picking of the bond numbers is just making the activity fairer to all investors.

Now that we’ve covered those aspects of Premium Bonds, let’s turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.

In the Bible there is no direct instruction not to gamble. In the Ten Commandments, thou shall not covet, is mentioned, but this could be interpreted as coveting another man’s wife or property. The idea that money is coveted could be listed with the seven deadly sins of greed, but is the hope for a brighter future a sin. Premium bonds offer the saver a safe place for their money and a hope for money. There is nothing malicious about it. Even some of the money used by the government who sponsors the premium bonds goes to charitable organizations.

Even if it is not religiously oriented, there is a strong moral objection to gambling. There are some people that go over board when they are at a casino or playing the lottery, but premium bonds do not let you do that. You are not going to lose money. The money you put in will be able to be collected back anytime you want. The winnings are an interest given out randomly with no chance of your losing the investment. It is not gambling. It is a different way to accrue your interest in a exciting way. Why get the meager interest rates offered by the traditional financial savings plan? You have the chance of making thousand percents on your original money.

If you are now swayed from your belief that premium bonds are a system of gambling, you can purchase the bonds at your local post office and start a savings account that could make you a rich person. Even if you don’t become another Bill Gates you might get a couple of cash prizes that will be more than the three to four percent interest you receive in the traditional savings programs.

Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of Premium Bonds. Share your new understanding about Premium Bonds with others. They’ll thank you for it.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

A premium bond is a savings plan developed by the British government to give the common man a chance to be able to save money and at the same time is able to win money in a lottery instead of interest. The program is very popular and almost a third of have bought premium bonds to add to their savings portfolio. There are several tiers to the prizes and the odds to figure out your chances of winning a certain prize is often difficult. It would take a person several hours to figure out their odds by doing the statistics and many people do not have the math skills to perform the operations. Now there are odds calculators that figure out the odds of winning in comparison to how many premium bonds purchased.

The odds calculator will allow you to put in the number of premium bonds that you have saved and through an online connection to the National Savings and Interest agency you can find out exactly the odds that you will win a big prize, the two million pounds, or a smaller prize, fifty pounds. You can even figure out the odds for the multitude of prizes between the higher and lower amount. The odds can change as more and more people buy bonds. They can go up if a lot of people suddenly purchase bonds, and they can go down if people cash in their bonds. Whenever you are in a gambling arrangement, especially with your savings, it is nice to know what kind of odds you have for winning.

You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about Premium Bonds. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.

The National Savings and Investments does offer your odds based on the average number of premium bonds that have been bought in the past. This table is a good way to figure around what you might earn off of one bond. If you have multiple bonds, again you would have to do the math to figure out the system. The more bonds you buy the more chances you will have to win and the odds will be closer in your favor. There is speculation that with the newfound interest in premium bonds, the odds will get so far out of reality that many people will opt for a traditional savings plan that will bear them interest. The ebb and flow of bond owners will dictate to changing of the odds and with the calculator you can see what month you will be more likely to win.

Remember that you can pull out of the premium bond program at any time. You will have the same amount of cash that you started with. Life changes and the way you invest also changes. You may decide to opt out of the program if you have a family emergency or have a dire need for cash. The government secures your money so you do not have to worry about it being there when you are ready to cash in. Three may even be a better investment down the road and your nest egg in premium bonds will give you the opportunity to reinvest.

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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

There have been many success stories about premium bonds, but there are some pretty amazing failure stories also. Premium bonds, the British way to save money for no interest and a chance to win cash prizes have made several people millionaires and have given cash prizes that will exceed the interest that is given in banks or other bond programs. The odds are better than the American lottery and you can cash in your bonds at any time for the exact amount you purchased them for. For as many successes there are failures that are sometimes considered the worst luck in premium bond history.

A gentleman bought one hundred pounds worth of premium bonds in 1967. That was a lot of money to invest back then and the hope of becoming a million pound winner lingered with the man until this day. He has not won one single cash prize since he purchased the bonds and that luck still runs with him today. The average amount of winnings for the average investor is about three to four percent of the investment put in. This man has not made a single pound, but he refuses to cash in his bonds and look for another type of investment.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Premium Bonds? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

He does have some animosity toward the program but he expresses in a civil manner. He states that every time he sees an advertisement for premium bonds on the television he wants to smash the set in anger. Stating that one hundred pounds was then his monthly salary, he feels the National Savings and Investment agency has let him down. He does refuse to quit completely and will not cash in, but he screams he will not put another pound into the system until he sees a return on his investment. He has since invested into regular savings bonds where he is earning a meager interest.

His has made several pleas to the National Savings and Investments agency for an explanation of why he hasn’t won, but he has received no answers to his questions and that infuriates him further. The National Savings and Investments post their statistics on earnings on a monthly basis but this gentleman refuses to listen to the math. He just wants an apology and information how he could not have won in almost fifty years. The man believes that the agency is responsible for his bad luck and wishes he never became part of the program.

His further irritation is that he would have made an eight hundred percent profit on those hundred pounds if he had invested in a building society fund. There is a possibility that the man had been slighted in the early days of the premium bond because the bond numbers had to be matched by real people and not a computer and the human element could have missed over his numbers. The man stated that he just wanted to win once so that his title of the unluckiest man in Great Britain would go away.

This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you’re fully informed about Premium Bonds, keep reading.

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 he was killed by his jealous grandmother because of the money. 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.

Now might be a good time to write down the main points covered above. The act of putting it down on paper will help you remember what’s important about Premium Bonds.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The interest accrued goes into a public fund in which is saved. The interest is divided and monthly cash prizes are awarded in a lottery style give away. So the more bonds you buy, the more chances you have to win the cash prize. The cash prize is nothing to laugh about. Translated to American money, the first prize on the bond lottery can be over a million dollars.

If your Premium Bonds facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important Premium Bonds information slip by you.

There are smaller prizes awarded, so if you are lucky you will receive a huge prize instead of the small percentage the American bond market gives you. Premium bonds add excitement to investing. You don’t have to worry about losing your money or waiting a long time to collect the interest. It’s like being involved in a lottery without going to the connivance store to buy your tickets each week. You bond is involved in each lottery and you can cash it in and pull it out of the lottery if you need the money or you do not want to be involved anymore.

Unlike the American government bond system where you will not get the interest if you pull out the money before the stated agreed upon time, the premium bond system allows you to have more freedom with your money. You can have a nice savings account and at the same participate in a lottery that can set you up for life. A machine generates the winners and like the American lottery, you can check online for the results. The results are even listed in British papers with the bond number, not the person’s name who wins it. It may not have the hype that the American lottery has, but it still is more fun than waiting ten to twenty years for an American bond to mature. When the lottery number is pulled the winner is notified within four days of the lottery.

There are even two prizes in the millions, so there is a chance of winning the big money twice a month. Even the smallest amount won is fifty ponds which is about a hundred and ten dollars. That right there is enough to triple the interest earned in the American bond market. The more premium bonds you buy, the more chances you have to winning the money. So if you have U.S. government bonds or an saving account that is pulling in less than three percent monthly, you might want to look at reinvesting the money into premium bonds and have so fun as well as having a chance to win over a million dollars.

Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Premium Bonds. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Premium bonds have been a great way to save money in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland. There is speculation amongst the Irish citizens that most of the prize money is allocated to the British Isle and they are shortchanged on the winning. The cash prizes given out to premium bond holders are based on the bond number. The more bonds you buy the more chances you have to win a cash prize. The population of Britain far exceeds the population of Northern Island so statistically the winnings would be less frequent. The salary range for the average citizen in Northern Ireland is less so there are not as many individuals able to invest the cap of thirty thousand bonds. It is just simple math not a conspiracy.

Over a million prizes are given out each month that range from fifty pounds to two one million pound prizes. The ERNIE random number generator puts out the winning numbers each month and the winners are notified about their winnings. This does not stop conspiracy theories though, either in Northern Ireland or in Great Britain. A lady in Northern Ireland reported that she had inherited premium bonds from her dead husband and the National Savings and Investments refused to acknowledge her rewards. She even claimed that it was because she was Irish.

If you base what you do on inaccurate information, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the consequences. Make sure you get the whole Premium Bonds story from informed sources.

A local radio station took up the woman’s problems and called the National Savings and Investment. They found out that only the original owner can claim the prizes and that nobody can inherit the premium bonds. This means if your spouse dies and has the maximum thirty thousand pound investment, the surviving spouse will not see a penny of it. There was no conspiracy against the Irish widow, but there was a loophole in the premium bond contract that let the money be kept by the government. The bonds cannot be transferred to another name after a death, but they can be cashed in for new bonds. There is more than three hundred thousand pounds unclaimed in Northern Ireland alone. So instead of looking at the conspiracies of the National Savings and Investments, they should be looking to see if they have a winning bond.

The Nations Savings and Investments agency has a free tracing service that can track down your numbers for you and see if you have a cash prize waiting for you. Even if the bond is forty years old the agency can track it down for you. If you have a claim you can fill out the payment order and about seven days you will receive your cash prize.

So next time you feel that the National Savings and Investments are trying to swindle you out of your money or that there is a huge conspiracy against you, contact the agency and ask. They are always willing to help you with your particular problem and will gladly provide the tracing service for you. You can contact the National Savings and Investments online or call their toll free number. You can find contractual information about premium bonds at your post office or you can get the contract information directly from the National Savings and Investments online.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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 money invested is used by the government to fund projects and at the same time give their citizens a chance to be millionaires.

What would happen if this system was 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.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Premium Bonds now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

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 less 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.

Now that wasn’t hard at all, was it? And you’ve earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert’s word on Premium Bonds.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Premium Bonds. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

There are many ways to save your money. Some people do not trust banks or the government to keep their money and keep it stored in a safe at home or even in a jar in the kitchen cabinet. The money just sits there with no interest and no chance of earning anything but a layer of dust. This is a sad way to save for a rainy day. The money could be in a savings account earning interest or it could be invested in the stock market where the money could earn a lot or maybe be lost if the market fluctuates negative. The smartest thing for the British investor to do with their money is to buy premium bonds.

With premium bonds the investor can save up to thirty thousand pounds. The investor buys premium bonds from their local post office or they can purchase them online from the National Savings and Investments agency. They will be issued a physical paper bond that has an distinct, individual number that identifies that particular one pound bond. The owner is also registered as the owner and no person can cash in the bond or collect a cash prize except the person registered to that bond. If that person dies, the bond numbers die with them. They can leave their premium bonds to their surviving spouse, but that spouse cannot cash them in or collect prizes those bond numbers have won. The spouse can turn the bonds in for new bonds with new numbers.

Now that we’ve covered those aspects of Premium Bonds, let’s turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.

Each month the premium bond numbers will be apart of a national lottery. Their numbers may be picked to win up to two million pound prizes or one of the one and half million lesser cash prizes. The investor has about a 27,000 to 1 chance to win one of the prizes. If they win they will receive their prize in about a week after filling out a claim application. The premium bond may be kept in the system and the bond may win more than once. If your bonds do win a prize, even the fifty pound minimum prize, it will be more than the interest than you earn in a savings account or playing the stock market. The bond never loses value and can be cashed in at anytime for use or reinvestment. It is a fun way to save and your money will earn more than sitting in a jar or in the back of a safe.

With over a third of Great Britain saving this way, you can be apart of a national financial phenomenon that has been apart of the British way of life for over fifty years. Almost every citizen has heard of premium bonds and the National Savings and Investment agency is promoting the savings program more now than they ever have before. So unscrew that jar and break open that safe and put your money where it is safe and earns you a profit. You are also helping the government fund public projects, contribute to society, and give British citizens a chance for a better life and a secure retirement.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO