Cheer about 53AP and good old ernie

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:43 pm

We had this topic on the old board. And now it's back.

Ernie is the premium bonds winning ticket choosing computer. In lockdown when it was really difficult to pay cheques in Ernie sent me a few prizes of 25 pounds. But recently had forsaken me. However this month he sent me 50 pounds. 50 pounds is a new prize I think always been 25 for so long now.

Interest rates are returning to normal now so it won't be as important to rely on premium bonds for extra money but they are outside the tax system so just for easy paperwork reasons I think I will keep them for now.

I have 86 pounds I will keep forever they are reminders of where my parents where when I was a child. My mum believed no one won where we then lived so made my dad buy me a one pound bond when he went places for work. They used to be stamped in post offices with a post make thing. It changed to all being souless and these days have to buy online I think. I havent done any since could send off by post because i can't get into their website it asks stupid questions about my favourite brothers school teacher and nonsense like that.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:50 pm

Well done on your win Furby. £50 is not to be sneezed at. Hopefully you won't be sneezing anyway.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Thu Nov 17, 2022 8:05 am

Yay to Furbs!

Does that mean you will win 2 other things in the next couple of months?

Or that another 2 people on this board will have Premium bonds wins shortly?

Post by **merry** » Thu Nov 17, 2022 6:53 pm

Ohhh £50!

I used to have a reasonable holding, but over the years I've plundered them for USA holidays etc. So I only have £1001 now and of course I never win. I used to win three times a year.

Like Furby the £1 is a legacy one from an aged aunt as a Christmas present many years ago.

i can't get into their website it asks stupid questions about my favourite brothers school teacher and nonsense like that.

It is the absolute worst. I signed up for it years ago and nearly gave up. Pages of questions of things you could change your mind about, like 'favourite food.' Ten years on looking at the log-in and trying to think if you put cheese or chocolate.

Post by **Panikos** » Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:15 pm

Furby, I hardly go there as I worked out I can buy bonds via my bank. I hated that Refresh or Back broke it.

I Just went there to see if it was better/worse and I had to create a new pin number to verify my browser so it would know me next time. Also had to have a different number sent to my phone twice.

I know what you mean about questions and I'm so fuzzy on these things I write them down at the time. There's not a hope I can get them right. Even things I ought to know like "which school did you go to" are tricky as I'll go to answer and realise I've forgotten the name for the moment. Under pressure I'll forget my own name.

You should see if you can get them to let you back in. Even if it means writing to them. If you won a big prize would they just send it or would you have to login to confirm details?

Merry, I hardly win anything at all, but the money in there is my emergency money. For the day the washing machine overflows and floods the place shorting out the TV, fridge and Freezer. I have enough to replace the lot on the same day which is very reassuring. When I was young a broken appliance meant you started saving up now to replace it.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Fri Nov 18, 2022 5:02 am

If I win they send a cheque. They were going to discontinue cheques but because of covid they kept them on. That never made sense to me but i was glad of it and I suppose it's on the list of things to do once they recover from covid and get their staff back in the offices. I think if you win a million there is someone whose job it is to knock on your door to check it's really you. Don't know what happened to that in covid maybe they just asked people to zoom them.

Do they sell premium bonds in banks now? Post offices stopped selling them a long time since. I don't know why post offices stopped because they seem to mop up all sorts of jobs banks don't want these days like dealing with money and cheques. On the other hand they want to stop delivering letters on 5 days a week but already it's only one day a week here anyway. If I have any stamps leftover at Xmas I will send myself 5 cards one week and see when they turn up. (Stamps are being discontinued in January 2023)

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Fri Nov 18, 2022 8:24 am

I’m sure I read somewhere that there has been an extension for the old stamps. I must look that up.

Edit, there is a 6 month grace period.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:19 pm

I got a letter from the post office with a form to fill out and include old stamps for replacement. I had ten first class stamps so I applied to replace them. It cost me the price of an envelope which was sent by "Freepost". A couple of weeks later I received bar-coded replacements. I can't see the point myself. Who wants to add media content to a stamp?

Having said that, it could be fun if you send an indignant complaint to a retail company, accompanied by a short video telling them exactly what you think of them. With appropriate beeps.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 7:44 am

My old stamps without the bar codes will be used up on my Christmas cards.

Post by **Panikos** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 6:28 pm

I hadn't been paying this enough attention. I had assumed the bar code was for reading the value of the stamp more easily. The idea of using it to send messages seems ludicrous.

So do you write in your letter "oh and I set up a video for you to access by waving your phone over the stamp... and in case you've torn it opening the letter here is the link"

Will people be waving their phones over every stamp only to find that one in a thousand links to a message?

Will friends say "what do you mean you never saw the wedding photos. I sent you the link in the stamp on that letter I sent you about how to make really nice gravy."

I suppose letters sent abroad will have to be scanned at customs for links to videos of top secret documents, but wait. We already had ways to send links. They were called email, texts, whatsapp etc.

They won't even be private will they. And maybe that explains why we only get one or at most two letter deliveries a week in my area. After the postman has sifted through opening all the birthday cards looking for cash they now have to scan them all for interesting or profitable messages.

Post by **Panikos** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 6:32 pm

Furby they don't sell premium bonds in banks, but if i make a bank transfer to them with my account number on it they treat that as an order for that many bonds. So it's just a couple of clicks for me.

Winnings (on the rare occasion there are any) go into my bank account directly.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 11:26 pm

I have a regular standing order for premium bonds every month. Not the most effective way is saving, but it keeps a dream alive

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:20 am

I don't know if it counts as my second luck because I was expecting it but the taxman has sent me 26 pounds. This is because they guess I might owe tax and take some anyway. In previous years I rang up and said hello hello hello and paid godknows how much in call charges and then they just say oh we can't tell you our workings so you know where we are going wrong guessing you owe us hundreds but we will set you back to defaults. Because it was the pandemic and we were not supposed to bother people except in emergencies I decided it wasn't really for two pounds a month that year so they sent me all the money back for last year after they had 6 months so do their sums.

I don't do lotteries now and Ernie pays out once a month so someone else can have my third luck.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:33 pm

Yay! Furbs. £26 is £26!

It’ll buy more now that it will in February.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 2:55 am

The premium bond prizes are changing and there will be more big prizes but fewer 25 pounds prizes. This will mean less chance of winning regular 25 pound prizes which I don't prefer as I like getting a cheque and thinking hooray i won but what I prefer rarely is the chosen way. Winning 100k is obviously very nice but it will be one person instead of 4000.

Post by **Panikos** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 7:43 am

I'm with you on that, Furby. Winning a little prize makes me feel good out of proportion to the amount and I bet most people feel that way. I'd like that to happen more often not less.

Post by **merry** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:41 pm

Well nothing from ERNIE for a while.

But... in the middle of the night.... my phone pinged and... I had

GOOD NEWS ABOUT MY TICKET

I don't often buy a lottery ticket these days. But thought I would have one for NYE.

And......

.... anyone want to guess the amount?

I'll say up front it wasn't a three (or more) digit sum......

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:48 pm

As it was a rolldown draw last night your prize was either £5 or whatever the inflated rolldown prize was for 3 numbers - normally £30 but higher last night. I'll guess £5 but hope it was more!

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:52 pm

They shouldn't be allowed to ping messages in the middle of nights for less than a million.

Post by **merry** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:15 pm

I normally have my phone on silent but forgot this time.

It was £70!! well pleased with that!

It will help offset the £1000 I now owe the garage for Fixing Fizzy