Premium Bonds: How to check if you’ve won in February as £97million in prizes paid out | Personal Finance | Finance
The first £1million winner was bought nearly 10 years ago in June 2012. The winner was from Leeds, and they held £20,002 in Premium Bonds, with their winning number 193NH145072.
The second millionaire comes from Essex with the number 446WL848124.
The bond was purchased in March 2021 and this person has £50,000 invested in Premium Bonds.
This is the maximum possible amount to invest into Premium Bonds.
A total of 3,363,088 prizes were paid out in the February draw, with a combined value of £96,688,825, out of 116,026,566,248 eligible numbers.
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As well as the two £1million bonds, there are six winners of £100,000, 11 of £50,000, 22 of £25,000, 57 worth £10,000 and 113 valued at £5,000.
Every month people have the chance to win cash prizes of between £25 and £1million through Premium Bonds.
These Premium Bonds are issued by the Government-backed savings provider National Savings and Investments (NS&I), which offers saving and investment products to the public.
The minimum amount people can have invested in Premium Bonds is £25, and the maximum is £50,000.
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To win the jackpot with a single bond, people will have to beat odds of one in 56 million.
However, there are millions of smaller prizes to be won, so many could end up clinching a prize.
If someone holds Bonds and they want to check if they are a winner, they can use the NS&I prize checker.
Britons can download the free app from iOS or Android, with the results usually accessible from the second day of the month.
People will need to have their holder’s number to hand. People can find your holder’s number on their Bond record or by logging in to their account.
Holder’s number have either 10 or nine digits, or eight digits followed by a letter.
Alternatively, if people have a compatible smart speaker, they can ask Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ assistant to read out the winning numbers.
If people don’t manually check to see whether you’ve won, it’s worth knowing that NS&I also informs winners by email or text message.
However, according to MoneySavingExpert.com, as of November 2021 there were more than two million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes, with a total value of almost £75 million.
These Bonds may have been forgotten about as they were bought for a child or they can also be missed if NS&I don’t have the correct address for claimants.
Bond holders can ensure their details remain up to date, and register to have prizes paid directly into their bank account by managing their account online on the NS&I website.
People can choose to have their prizes paid directly to their bank account or reinvested into more Bonds.
