Are you due a £100,000 Premium Bonds payout as prizes worth millions still unclaimed?
There are more than two million unclaimed prizes from Premium Bond draws worth a whopping £80 million, as customers are urged to check their ticket numbers.
For the winners, it could be just the ticket in the cost of living crisis.
Premium Bonds are essentially a government-backed savings account which doesn’t pay interest but, instead, enters you in a monthly draw for tax-free cash prizes.
Prizes range from £25 up to £5,000, £10,000 and even a cool £1 million jackpot.
Known to many as ERNIE’s Premium Bonds (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) when they were launched back in 1957, some people still hold bonds from that date. Some unclaimed prizes date back to the 1960s.
Premium Bonds prize winners are notified when they win a prize, but if people move or change their contact details without notifying organisers National Savings & Investments, this can lead to unclaimed prizes if they have opted to receive their prize by cheque.
So how much money is left unclaimed, where do some of the big prize winners live and how do you check your Premium Bonds numbers?
Let’s find out.
Which Premium Bonds payouts are unclaimed?
There are five unclaimed £100,000 jackpots, with bond owners’ addresses registered in Greater Manchester, Hereford and Worcester, overseas, and Lothian, according to The Sun.
Meanwhile, five bond holders registered in outer London, Kent, Surrey, North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester are due a whopping £50,000 each.
Top unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, numbers and date of win, according to The Sun
- 005ET395766 – February 2007, overseas, £100,000
- 008LK522839 – February 2007, Lothian, £100,000
- 050PB780494 – September 2010, Greater Manchester, £100,000
- 010KZ370147 – June 2013, Hereford and Worcester, £100,000
- 005FZ109702 – August 2014, Hereford and Worcester, £100,000
- 003VT019901 – November 2007, Outer London, £50,000
- 054XY208864- February 2016, North Yorkshire, £50,000
- 008ML875177 – June 2019, Greater Manchester, £50,000
- 101YG933491 – February 2020, Surrey, £50,000
- 207BE715948 – March 2021, Kent, £50,000
How to check your numbers
It’s easy to check your numbers on the NS&I prize checker.
This is updated on the first working day at the start of each month.
You’ll need is your holder’s number, which you can find on your Premium Bond record or by logging in to your account. It has either 9 or 10 digits, or 8 digits followed by a letter.
You can also check on Amazon Alexa, if you enable the Premium Bonds prize checker skill.
There is also advice on what to do if you’re left Premium Bonds by someone who has died, or find some in their paperwork.
How to buy Premium Bonds
You can buy Premium Bonds online, by phone on 08085 007 007 or by post – you’ll need to download an application form – and you can also buy them as a gift for someone under 16.
The minimum payment is £25, and you’ll need a UK bank account.
The first ERNIE was developed by a Bletchley Park code breaker back in 1956, and today’s version is powered by quantum technology to ensure that every bond – whether it has 8, 9, 10 or 11 digits – has equal chance of winning.
Since the first draw in June 1957, ERNIE has drawn 637 million prizes with a total value of £26.8 billion.
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