Premium Prize Bonds vs Regular Prize Bonds: What’s the Difference?

Pakistan’s National Savings offers two families of prize bonds — regular, and Premium — and they work differently in a few important ways.

Regular prize bonds

• Bearer instrument — whoever physically holds the bond can encash it; ownership isn’t registered to a specific person.
• No periodic profit — the only return is the chance of a prize in the periodic draw.
• Available in denominations from Rs. 100 up to Rs. 40,000.

Premium prize bonds

• Registered, not bearer — held in your name, which also makes them harder to misuse if lost, and generally requires a CNIC and registered account to purchase.
• Pays periodic profit in addition to prize eligibility, on top of the draw prizes.
• Typically issued in higher denominations aimed at larger savers.

Which one is “better”?

It depends what you want from it. A regular prize bond is simple, transferable and liquid, with the appeal of periodic prize draws. A Premium bond suits someone who wants a registered instrument with a steadier periodic return, plus the draws on top. Compare current prize amounts and draw frequency for both on our Compare Prize Bonds page.