NS&I customers could be sitting on a Premium Bonds prize without knowing it.
There are more than 2.3million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes amounting to £80.5million, NS&I data reveals.
At the beginning of each month, Premium Bonds customers eagerly await the prize draw for the winners are announced. But with millions of prizes in each draw, inevitably some go unclaimed.
Of the high value prizes, there are six unclaimed £100,000 prizes and nine £50,000 prizes – adding up to more than £1million.
Unclaimed fortune: Six of the 2.3million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes are worth £100,000
One of the six £100,000 unclaimed prizes was draw as recently as February 2022 and the two oldest unclaimed £100,000 prizes were drawn in February 2007.
Meanwhile, there are 12 unclaimed £25,000 prizes, 39 unclaimed £10,000 prizes and 81 unclaimed £5,000 prizes.
NS&I revealed that five of the the six unclaimed £100,000 prize winners are located in the UK, with the remaining winner in Australia.
See our list of Premium Bonds prize draw dates for the rest of 2023 and 2024.
How to check if you’ve won a prize
Premium Bonds prize winners are notified by NS&I if they have won a prize by text, email or post. It’s worth checking your old emails, letters and texts in case you have missed one.
If you can’t find any notification but want other ways of checking if you have an unclaimed prize, you can do this by logging in on NS&I’s website. You will need your NS&I login details to do this.
You can also use NS&I’s Premium Bonds prize checker tool. You’ll need your Premium Bond-holder’s number to do so – this is separate from your NS&I number.
UNCLAIMED £100,000 PRIZES
Month of draw
Balance at draw
Reported area
February 2007
£6
Australia
February 2007
£25
Ealing
September 2010
£305
Stockport
June 2013
£10
Edinburgh
April 2014
£14
Hereford And Worcester
February 2022
£50,000
Cheshire East
Source: NS&I
NS&I also have a prize checker app. You can download this for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play. To access your account, you’ll need your Premium Bond holder’s number or your NS&I number.
You can write to NS&I to check if you have won a prize. You will need to include your name, address and NS&I number or Premium Bond holder’s number. Send letters to NS&I, Sunderland, SR43 2SB. NS&I will send you a list of any prizes you have won.
If you don’t know your Premium Bonds holder’s number or your NS&I number, you can call NS&I on 08085 007 007 or write to it and ask for a replacement bond record to be sent to you.
You can also use NS&I’s tracing service or the my lost account website, both of which can track down your Premium Bond details.
UNCLAIMED PREMIUM BONDS PRIZES BY VALUE
Prize value
No. unclaimed
£100,000
6
£50,000
9
£25,000
13
£10,000
39
£5,000
81
£1,000
1,578
£500
4,790
£250
14
£100
62,804
£50
486,510
£25
1,750,389
Total value: £80,512,125
Total no: 2,306,233
Source: NS&I *£250 prizes were issued from June 1957 to July 1974 and are no longer in the draw
How to retrieve an unclaimed prize
You might not have received news of a prize because you moved home and NS&I weren’t notified, or because you changed some of your details and a letter went astray in the post.
But the good news is that there is no no time limit to claims and NS&I will hold on to it until you get in touch with them.
Once you’ve found out you have an unclaimed prize, if you are registered for phone and online services you can call NS&I on 08085 007 007 to start your claim. You cannot claim online.
If you’re not registered for phone and online services you can write to NS&I. NS&I recommends that you give as much information as you can, including the bond-holder’s number, name or any previous names, address or any previous addresses where a bond could have been registered and a signature.
Prizes will then be sent to your home address as a warrant, which is like a cheque. NS&I cannot send unclaimed prizes directly to your bank account.
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
