More than 2.7m Premium Bond prizes have not been claimed (Image: NS&I)
NS&I savers have been urged to check their Premium Bonds numbers to make sure they aren’t missing out on winnings worth thousands of pounds. As of March, more than 2.7million Premium Bonds prizes worth more than £116million are left to be claimed, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has said.
This includes 10 prizes worth £100,000, 23 prizes worth £50,000, 59 prizes worth £25,000, and 94 prizes of £10,000. NS&I said: “You never need to worry about an unclaimed prize. We’ll hold on to it until you get in touch with us. And there’s no time limit to make your claim. Just log in to view your prize history, or use our prize checker to see if you have any prizes you don’t know about yet.”
Read more: Premium Bonds prize winners announced for March – check if you’ve won £1million
Premium Bonds savers can win sums of anything between £25 and £1million every month through randomly generated prize draws.
Winners are usually notified about their prizes, but if they move or change their contact details without informing NS&I, they may not receive their winnings, resulting in unclaimed prizes.
There are currently 2,733,973 prizes, totalling £116,463,400, awaiting claim. Despite this, NS&I reports that more than 99% of prizes have been paid to winners since the draw began in 1957.
By region, London has the highest number of bondholders who are missing out on prizes, with 469,833 unclaimed prizes worth a total of £19,903,175. This is closely followed by the South-east, which has 410,324 unclaimed prizes valued at £17,156,750.
An NS&I spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “There are more Premium Bonds held in London and South-east England compared to the rest of the UK, which means there will be more unclaimed prizes compared to the rest of the UK.
“These areas have historically had some of the highest volumes of Premium Bonds holdings, which naturally leads to higher numbers of prizes overall – including unclaimed ones.
“The best way to ensure that people receive all their prizes is to ensure that your details have been updated with NS&I, including your name, phone number,
How to check for unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes
You can check if you’ve won a prize through NS&I’s prize-checking tool. Customers will only need their Premium Bonds holder’s number or NS&I number to see the results.
You can also download the NS&I premium bonds prize checker app from Apple’s App Store or Google Play, where the same information will be readily available. Not only will it show this month’s prizes, but it’ll also display any older unclaimed prizes.
Those who believe they may have Premium Bonds but have lost their details, or suspect that a relative might have had an NS&I account before passing away, are encouraged to use NS&I’s tracing service to locate any funds due to them.
According to the savings institution, the “best way” to avoid prizes going unclaimed is for customers to opt to have them paid directly into their bank account or automatically reinvested into Premium Bonds up to the £50,000 holding limit.
Prizes automatically reinvested are immediately eligible for the next draw. These payment methods now account for nine in 10 prizes.
What are Premium Bonds?
Premium Bonds are a savings account offered by NS&I, one of the largest savings institutions in the UK, backed by the Treasury.
The accounts don’t earn interest traditionally and consistently. Instead, each bond is entered into a monthly, randomly generated prize draw.
Between £25 and £50,000 can be invested in the account, and prizes of up to £1million can be won at the start of every month. NS&I says the more bonds a person has, the higher their chance of winning a prize.
Newly purchased Premium Bonds need to be held for one full calendar month after purchase before being eligible for the prize draw.
In March, the prize fund rate for the prize draw was 3.6%, with the odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize set at 22,000 to 1.
A total of £410,607,175 was paid out to winners, resulting in 6,221,321 tax-free prizes. This month, a staggering 136,869,061,418 Bonds were eligible for the draw.
In April, the prize fund rate will drop to 3.3%, and the odds will change to 23,000 to one.
Commenting on the upcoming changes, Andrew Westhead, NS&I retail director, said: “This change to the Premium Bonds prize fund rate and odds reflects changes in the wider savings market, and ensures we continue to balance the interests of savers, taxpayers and the wider financial services sector.”
Are Premium Bonds worth it?
Money experts argue that traditional interest-earning savings accounts are more lucrative, as the likelihood of winning a prize is low.
Speaking previously on his BBC 5Live podcast, the Martin Lewis Podcast, Martin Lewis said: “Most people should be looking at putting money in Cash ISAs first because, with typical luck, you will win substantially more in a top one-year fix than you would in Premium Bonds, and you’d see them win more in an easy-access cash ISA.
“The thing about Premium Bonds is people live the dream in the hope that they’re going to be the person who wins the £1million and virtually nobody will – but that’s why it’s appealing.
“People always say things like ‘I win £25 every month’, and in my cynical head I go ‘yeah, but if you put the same amount of money in the top cash ISA, you get a guaranteed win of £40 every month’.”
Mr Lewis added: “They’re not awful, I’m just about ‘what’s the best?’, and for me, they’re not the best.”
According to a Freedom of Information request from Vanguard, about 14.3million holders (62%) have never won a prize.
James Norton, head of retirement and investments at Vanguard Europe, said: “This is because 15.1million people have between £0 to £100 saved, where the probability of winning is extremely low. Even if you’re saving significant amounts, the dream of winning big is still very slim.”
He added: “Premium Bonds can play a useful role as part of a wider savings strategy, particularly for people who value security and accessibility.
“But when money is being set aside for the long-term, it’s important to consider whether it could be working harder through investment, particularly for those hoping to profit from the luck of the draw.”
