From the August draw you’re likely to win less money.
After some massive base rate increases from the Bank of England that saw the Premium Bond prize rate hit the highest level since 1999, for the last few years they’ve been on the way down.
Here’s what this means for your chance of winning, and how it compares to the latest best buy savings accounts.
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What are Premium Bonds?
Premium Bonds are effectively savings accounts held with the government. Rather than getting interest back on your savings, you are entered into a draw with a top prize each month of £1 million.
Other prizes vary between £25 and £100,000 and if you do win it’s all tax-free. You can read more about how they work here.
The new Premium Bond prize rate
From the April 2026 draw, the Premium Bond prize rate will be 3.3%. It’ll drop from the current rate of 3.6%, and is the first change since last August.
The odds of winning will reduce to 23,000 to 1, and the number of prizes available will go down by 24,000.
At the same time, the total prize fund is decreasing, this time by around £22 million. It’s now worth around £375 million. The number of £25 prizes will increase, up by 163,000, but that’s at the expense of cuts at the other levels. There are still just two £1 million prizes, but there are fewer prizes at all the other amounts.
How much could you win?
Here’s how the new prize rate in April compares to the one in February 2026. Not only are you less likely to get a prize, those that do are more likely to win a smaller amount.
| Value of prizes | Number and total value of prizes in February 2026 | Expected number and total value of prizes in April 2026 (estimate) |
| £1,000,000 | 2 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 78 | 71 |
| £50,000 | 154 | 143 |
| £25,000 | 311 | 284 |
| £10,000 | 777 | 712 |
| £5,000 | 1,553 | 1,424 |
| £1,000 | 16,322 | 15,035 |
| £500 | 48,966 | 45,105 |
| £100 | 1,735,948 | 1,537,125 |
| £50 | 1,735,948 | 1,537,125 |
| £25 | 2,643,007 | 2,806,003 |
| Total: | 6,183,066 | 5,943,029 |
Previous Premium Bond prize rates
- April 2026 – 3.3%
- August 2025 – 3.6%
- April 2025 – 3.8%
- January 2025 – 4%
- December 2024 – 4.15%
- March 2024 – 4.4%
- September 2023 – 4.65%
- July 2023 – 4%
- June 2023 – 3.75%
- March 2023 – 3%
- February 2023 – 3.15%
- January 2023 – 3%
- September 2022 – December 2022: 2.2%
- May 2022 – August 2022: 1.4%
- December 2020 – April 2022: 1%
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What you’ll probably win
It’s hard to give an exact figure on your likely winnings as 3.3% on Premium Bonds doesn’t mean you get £3.30 back for every £100. That’s the average return if you have average luck.
So there’s a good chance you’ll get nothing. Since the smallest prize is £25, you’d think you’d need around £758 saved to get the lowest prize (£758 + 3.3% = an extra £25). But the higher value prizes massively distort this.
With this rate, the odds of a bond (not a person) winning something are 23,000:1. That means for every 23,000 bonds, only one bond will win a prize and 22,999 bonds won’t.
In reality, it’s only those with close to the maximum £50,000 who are likely to get close to the headline rate (on average – it could be more or less). While those with less than a grand are likely to win nothing at all. So they’re going to be better options for those with more cash, and less good for those with smaller amounts.
The MoneySavingExpert Premium Bonds calculator usually gives a good indication of the wins over a year. However it’s not yet been updated to the new prize draw rate.
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How the Premium Bond prize rate compares to savings accounts
The highest paying easy-access savings account right now with no limit on the balance is from Chase, paying 4.5%, though that’s limited to new customers. Or Manchester Building Society offers one to everyone at 4.15%. If you’ve got up to £20,000 to save in a Cash ISA, then Trading 212 is offering 4.4% for up to 12 months. All are better than the new PB rate, plus it’s a guaranteed return on all balances.
And there are even higher paying options with some restrictions. Santander pays 6% on up to £4,000 on its Edge Saver (though it requires a current account) while the regular saver from Principality offers 7.5% (though only on £200 a month for six months).
I’d personally go for the 7% regular saver from First Direct or 7.1% from Zopa, which pay the rate for a year with First Direct having the slight edge as the rate is fixed. But any of these are likely better bets for your initial deposits.
However it’s worth noting that any prizes won via Premium Bonds are tax free. With interest rates increasing it could be you’re closer to going over your personal savings allowance, so money in Premium Bonds could help you avoid tax.
Or if you’re an additional rate taxpayer then it’s an option instead or as well as ISAs.
What about future interest cuts?
There’s yet to be an interest rate cut from the Bank of England this year, though it did fall from 4% to 3.75% in December 2025. Markets and analysts are expecting there to be at least one more this year, if not more, potentially as soon as next month.
If that happens, it will mean most, if not all, easy access savings accounts will react and move their rates down.
This could mean that the some easy access rates from the banks will drop below this new Premium Bonds prize rate. But I think the market leading ones will still be higher. And of course, NS&I could also then drop the prize rate for Premium Bonds again.
Should you ditch Premium Bonds?
The new rate isn’t great, and since you can get a much higher rate elsewhere that’s guaranteed it could well be better to put your cash in a normal account.
But don’t sell your bonds straight away. Wait until the next draw takes place at the start of March, as at least you’ll (hopefully) get some kind of return for having the money stashed in bonds during February.
Of course, if you are likely to pay tax on your savings, then it might be worth keeping your money in them for now.
Buying Premium Bonds
When to buy Premium Bonds
There’s one very important rule you need to know about Premium Bonds. Your money needs to have been held in Premium Bonds for a full month before it’s entered into a draw.
That means this April draw will only be for anyone who saves prior to the end of February 2026. It also means it makes sense to deposit money right at the end of a month than at any other time.
How to buy Premium Bonds
You buy Premium Bonds from the NS&I website or over the phone at a cost of £1 each, but you have to buy at least £25 worth. You have to be over 16 years old to buy Premium Bonds for yourself. If you are buying them for children, the account will be held by the parents/legal guardians until the child reaches 16.
I was given premium bonds as a baby in the 1970’s. Never won anything. I think the small amounts brought for children pre 1980 have an almost nil chance of winning anything but sadly often so ch small amounts of investment often around £1 ;which was a decent amount when originally brought) not worth taking out
Really disappointed they are adding more £25 prizes. Who wants to win £25? They should ditch smaller prizes and put that money into more chances of winning £100 and above. I bought £100 worth in January. I will not be entered until the March draw.
Given that you are a high rate tax payer, or worse still, an additional rate tax payer, what does the interest rate on a standard bank savings account have to be, for Premium Bonds to be paying the equivalent rate? (Assuming average luck and fully invested with £50,000)
If the “winnings” rate is 4% tax free and you are paying 40% tax on other savings as a high rate taxpayer, then:
4%÷(1−0.4)=6.67%
For an additional-rate taxpayer (45% tax):
4%÷(1-0.45)=7.27%
Therefore, a standard savings account would need to offer at least 6.67% (for higher-rate taxpayers) or 7.27% (for additional-rate taxpayers) to match the effective return of Premium Bonds, assuming average luck.
Same here, full amount for around 9 months and only ever had a couple of £25 wins.
I was thinking the same thing about there being an error.
Absolutely correct, Nick, thank goodness 1Alan
I have the full £50K which were eligible for both the July and August draws and won nothing. Are there any instances of NS&I having system errors that cause Bonds to be excluded from the draw? Can I query this in any way?
It’s all based on luck. Even with the full 50k it’s not certain you will win anything for months. It’s just more likely you’ll win compared to someone with just 1k invested.
I have a premium bond that was given to me at birth it’s only a £1 one but was wandering if it was worth anything
I have a few bonds from years ago how can I check if they have ever won a prize. I have changed addresses since they were first purchased and I thought that they had been lost in the moving, they have just been discovered again and I was just wondering about them.
Inform NS and I of your latest address. You can check online if your PB’s have won anything.
But Al-Rayan’s 2.1% is not actually guaranteed, nor more importantly is it tax free (although the recent “mini-budget” has made this less important now.
It is actually tax free and always has been.