premium bonds.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Probability has no memory. But equally, God does not play dice with the universe.

...and the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

And the sound of freedom is General Electric J79s

[MyLittleStudPony]

Oh please do. I'm not quite asleep yet

Think of it as random time dilation in an incredibly compressed space.

Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this “soul” does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.

[Screwdriver]

Oh please do. I'm not quite asleep yet

LOL. Nah better not though the random and probabilistic nature of Premium Bonds is bang on topic for such a discussion....

I don't know enough about the deep science to make any interesting comment except that if we do live in a multiverse, I hope it's the one where I get to win big on Premium Bonds.

If only probability would remember how much fucking bad luck it's already dropped on me....

[Taipan]

Unlucky is the bloke who was walking to work and a helicopter fell on him and killed him. Every day above ground is a good one...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Every day above ground is a good one...

Except for the helicopter pilot that day.

[Count Steer]

Oh please do. I'm not quite asleep yet

LOL. Nah better not though the random and probabilistic nature of Premium Bonds is bang on topic for such a discussion....

On a similar note...I wrote to the R4 programme about stats, More or Less, to see if they'd look into the widespread perception that your chances are higher when you first buy bonds. It seems to be such a common belief I thought they might set their number crunchers on it.

[Jody]

Nothing this month

Maybe they are sulking after I took most of it out, paid off the mortgage and bought a new kitchen ??

[Count Steer]

Yorkshire Building Society has offered existing members a 1 year 6% deal. (No closure, no withdrawals).

1 year isn't long to tie up some cash and they're a well established outfit. Might stick a few £ in.

[MyLittleStudPony]

NS&I have changed their interest rates on fixed savers to match the base rate, you can get up to 6% elsewhere but as I keep saying it's only guaranteed up to £85k, plus some of these online banks look a bit sketchy to me.

5% guaranteed in an NS&I fixed bond or income bond is a decent bet IMHO, it also shows that the analysts don't expect interest to drop below 5% for at least another year.

I'm not always right, I'm wishing I'd have held my nerve and waited, I tied a big chunk of my money up at 4% with the view that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but I should have waited.

I put a chunk in for 1 year at 6% in June, as soon as 6% was available. I've got two or three more chunks to go and am holding on to see what happens at the next BOE rate rise in early August.

I'd told myself I'd commit the lot at 6% but it looks like it's going higher now, yesterday there were one year bonds offering 6.15.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Today's news is that inflation is less than expected...

Start of a trend? Who knows! Certainly not the banks by the sounds of it But anyway, perhaps it means rates won't climb as quick as expected and these deals will start to fade away.

Or maybe it doesn't. How the fuck should I know?

[MyLittleStudPony]

I put a chunk in for 1 year at 6% in June, as soon as 6% was available. I've got two or three more chunks to go and am holding on to see what happens at the next BOE rate rise in early August.

I'd told myself I'd commit the lot at 6% but it looks like it's going higher now, yesterday there were one year bonds offering 6.15.

When you say "chunks" it depends what you're talking about, if you talking about half a million plus then 1% matters, but if you're talking about <£85k and you're waiting on changes of <1% then it's not worth fannying about at.

I'm struggling to call a cap on it, I don't see base rates over 6% given the current situation, I'd like to see it on my savings, but it would be bad for a lot of people.

It's somewhere in between those amounts. And I'm dead tight and scrottagy so am happy to fanny about for a bit of dosh.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Today's news is that inflation is less than expected...

Start of a trend? Who knows! Certainly not the banks by the sounds of it But anyway, perhaps it means rates won't climb as quick as expected and these deals will start to fade away.

Or maybe it doesn't. How the fuck should I know?

That is a surprise. I think I'll get another 1 year fixed bond today at 6.15.

edit - done. Or applied for at least. If they let me have he account, in I'll stick in the dosh.

[MyLittleStudPony]

I've done all my fixing for the next year. All a little over 6%.

Will better be available later in the year? Maybe.

[Yorick]

I've done all my fixing for the next year. All a little over 6%.

Will better be available later in the year? Maybe.

Maybe. Got most of our ISAs at over 5% for 5 years to make sure.

[MyLittleStudPony]

I've done all my fixing for the next year. All a little over 6%.

Will better be available later in the year? Maybe.

Maybe. Got most of our ISAs at over 5% for 5 years to make sure.

5%? [Retches uncontrollably].

[MyLittleStudPony]

I've done all my fixing for the next year. All a little over 6%.

Will better be available later in the year? Maybe.

Where did you get over 6%?
I haven't had a proper look because I'm building up another nest egg and I'm not ready to deposit anything yet, but I can only see these online banks like Atom that are offering over 6% and I don't know if I want to bother, I've read too many complaints about online only banks and the hassle of administering them, especially at the end of the term.

MSE lists high rates for FSCS certified banks. It was up to 6.25 for one year bonds a little while back. Some are online banks. I haven't had problems with any of them in the past. Chip is really good for example and a friend has an Atom account and says the app is excellent and really east to use. Maybe I'll run into problems at the end, but I can't see them not giving my my money back.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Just had a look, I (and presumably, plenty of others) can get >6% at the moment with Investec, Close Brothers and Aldermore.

Gotta be honest, not heard of any of them! The Bank fact sheets say they've all got many billions in deposits. UK and South African based. All covered by the FSCS.

From my POV I deal with them all through a common single platform which is run by a financial services company (had to look it up, they're not a Bank per se but you've heard of them). IME when the bonds or fixed rate period ends the money just comes back into my common platform hub almost instantly (one or two days) where it sits earnign precisely zero interest until I decide what to do with it.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Maybe I'll run into problems at the end, but I can't see them not giving my my money back.

I'm just going on what a couple of people told me, there are probably lots of satisfied customers.

Apparently the issue was at the end of the term, when the online bank credits the interest and then moves the money into a basic saver with low interest whilst awaiting further instructions. The people I spoke to said it took a long time to eventually get through to them and move the money or put it back into another bond, they said it took weeks even just for them to reply.

I've had delays of up to ten days with some and when it's a decent chunk of money it starts to get a bit worrying, so that's why I threw bigger amounts into NS&I because it's guaranteed and even though they can sometimes take a week to administer something, you at least know it's safe - although as I said I wish I'd held my nerve rather than wrap it up earlier this year at 4%.

I'll keep an eye on them when they end. I think all of mine had the final provisions pretty well defined in the Ts and Cs. I hope so anyway!

[Dodgy69]

Zilch...

[MingtheMerciless]

£50