To win, how much must I save in Premium Bonds?

The majority of savers have never won a single penny, despite the fact that NSandamp;I's Premium Bonds pay out hundreds of millions every month

Do you really need a certain amount to have a chance of winning, or is it just bad luck?

For savers, NS&Is Premium Bonds present a fantastic opportunity to dream of becoming a millionaire one day.

With over 24 million bondholders vying for the two £1 million prizes that are given out each month, most people are aware that this is extremely unlikely. However, many smaller prizes are given out every month.

Over 6.2 million prizes totaling more than 410.6 million were given to savers in the March Premium Bonds prize draw alone. 19,318 of these prizes were worth at least £1,000, but the great majority (2.6 million) were only worth £25.

Below, the article continues.

Try six BFIA free issues right now.

Get unmatched financial analysis, insight, and professional advice that will help you.

Launch your trial. The best part is that all winnings are tax-free.

When presented in this manner, premium bonds seem like a good way to increase your wealth, but the statistics show a far more bleak picture.

According to research by AJ Bell, nearly two-thirds of those who own Premium Bondsroughly 62%have never won a single penny in any of NS&I's monthly prize draws.

Because money held in Premium Bonds does not earn interest, that equates to 14,298,580 individual account holders seeing their cash remain unchanged.

This is because individuals who have a large amount of money saved in Premium Bonds are much more likely to win prizes.

"The potential for holders to win a prize up to a maximum of £1 million is what makes Premium Bonds so alluring, but many people with money in the accounts will never win or see a return on their money at all," stated Laura Suter, head of personal finance at AJ Bell. A "

We examine the minimum amount of Premium Bonds required to boost your chances of winning the monthly prize draw.

How much must you save in NS&I Premium Bonds in order to have a good chance of winning?

In other words, your chances of winning the monthly prize draw increase with the amount of Premium Bonds you own. This is a result of how premium bonds operate.

You receive one entry into the prize draw for each £1 you have saved in Premium Bonds.

For instance, a person with a minimum holding of 25 will only have 25 chances to win, whereas someone with a holding of 1,000 will receive 1,000 entries in the prize draw.

You therefore have a greater chance of winning some of the prizes if you have saved more money.

But according to recent data, you need a much larger holding than you might anticipate in order to win anything.

According to a Freedom of Information request (FOI) filed with NS&I by AJ Bell, less than 1% of all Premium Bond prizes awarded between February 2025 and January 2026 went to accounts with a holding value of less than £1,000.

Furthermore, account holders with 10,000 or less saved in Premium Bonds received only 6% of the prizes awarded during that time.

On the other hand, individuals with the highest account value of 50,000 received 53% of all prizes.

This indicates that Brits with more than 10,000 saved in Premium Bonds receive more than 90% of all prizes, making it impossible to win anything from Premium Bonds if you don't invest a sizable sum of money.

The average Premium Bond account value among the nearly 14.3 million holders who have never won a single penny in prizes is 128.91, up 21 percent since April 2025, according to data from NS&I.

How can I improve my chances of winning the prize draw for Premium Bonds?

Increasing the amount of money you possess is the only way to improve your chances of winning the Premium Bonds prize draw.

Investing the maximum of £50,000 is the best way to increase your chances of winning, as data indicates that savers with accounts this size receive more than half of all prizes.

If, however, you are not yet able to reach that 50,000 threshold, the statistics indicate that your chances of winning increase with the amount of money you invest.

This can be accomplished by progressively increasing the size of your pot by investing a portion of your savings in Premium Bonds each month. As an alternative, you can choose to automatically reinvest your winnings from Premium Bonds, which could be a good way to increase your pot.

Where else could you invest your money to ensure growth?

The question of whether this is a prudent decision is raised by the fact that over half of all Premium Bonds winners have 50,000 in the savings vehicle.

On the one hand, having the maximum holding will increase your chances of seeing a return on your investment each month and even increase your chances of winning £1 million.

However, none of this is assured. Even if you hold the maximum number of Premium Bonds, there is still a chance that you won't receive a prize. Those who are particularly unlucky might even see their money remain stagnant for extended periods of time as they don't receive any prizes.

If you put £50,000 into the best savings account available right now, the Chase Saver with boosted rate, you can be sure that your money will increase by 4.5% to £52,250 in a year.

Although the statistics show that it is highly unlikely that your 50,000 will remain unchanged over the course of a year and that you may win prizes worth more than £2,250, none of this is assured.

Would investing be a better option than premium bonds?

In the long run, investing your money in premium bonds rather than keeping it in a savings account might be a better financial choice.

Money assistance in Premium Bonds is completely static when no prizes are won. Inflation causes it to stagnate and begin to diminish in actual terms.

In contrast, long-term investments in a well-diversified portfolio typically increase in value, though the value of your investments can, of course, fluctuate.

"Investing has proven to outperform cash returns over the longer term, and short of winning one of the maximum prizes will undoubtedly stand a better chance than Premium Bonds at helping someone amass wealth," stated Suter at AJ Bell. A "

According to calculations by AJ Bell, you would have received a return of 252.3 percent if you had invested in a global tracker fund like the Fidelity Index World ten years ago.

A person with the average Premium Bonds holding for those who lose (128.91) would have seen their money increase to 454.19 if they had invested it in a global tracker fund rather than keeping it dormant in Premium Bonds.

In contrast, a person's money would have increased to 3,523.32 if they had invested their £1,000 in Premium Bonds in the same fund.

"Suffice to say, the vast majority of Premium Bond holders will not have been anywhere near those levels, and would probably stand to gain significantly if they had put their money in investments rather than letting it gather dust in a Premium Bonds account during that time," Suter continued.

"These numbers once again demonstrate that, even though you have to be in it to win when it comes to premium bonds, you would be better off switching from ERNIE to FTSE unless you're willing to stuff the accounts with tens of thousands of pounds. A "

For more information on how the two approaches differ, see our article on investing versus saving.