Leicester celebrates the New Year with two ERNIE millionaires
In an unprecedented occurrence, ERNIE has drawn jackpot-winning Bond numbers from a male winner living in Leicester who has £30,000 invested in Premium Bonds and bought the winning Bond in January 2013 (Bond number: 200WX818076), and a female, also living in the city, who has £14,000 invested in Premium Bonds and bought the winning Bond in October 2012 (Bond number: 198JT390484).
There have never been two Premium Bonds’ jackpot winners from the same city or county in a single month’s draw – and while the county of Leicestershire has been the home of four previous Premium Bond millionaire winners (see note 1), this month is also the first time anyone from the city of Leicester has won the jackpot.
In Leicester, there are 181,050 Premium Bond holdings worth £371 million. However it is not just the two Leicestrian millionaires that benefit from a New Year windfall, as there are 7,591 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes in Leicester worth more than £309,000. There are four prizes of £1,000 that remain unclaimed while the oldest unclaimed prize dates back to May 1966, where a man from the area has a £25 prize outstanding.
For the New Year’s (January) draw ERNIE paid out over 2.2 million prizes of more than £66 million in value. There were 59 billion eligible Bond numbers in the draw.
This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957 to 333 million and the value of those prizes to £16.3 billion.
Premium Bond holders can keep track of their prizes by using the NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker app, which is free to download, and lets customers check if they’ve won a prize in the past six months. Customers can also check if they have won a prize by using the Premium Bond prize checker on nsandi.com
Sign up to have prizes paid directly to your bank account
Premium Bonds holders can also reduce the chance of their prizes becoming unclaimed by registering to have any prizes paid directly into their bank account (with notification by email) nsandi.com/register
Register for online services at nsandi.com
There is no time limit for claiming prizes.
Jill Waters, NS&I Retail Director said;
“ERNIE is known for spreading joy and creating surprises for thousands all over the country each month – it is fantastic for Leicester that, despite the odds, he has made two millionaires in one swoop and given the city its first jackpot winners. Premium Bonds are a great way to save and every Bond number has the same chance of winning a prize so we hope to see the next generation of Leicestrian Premium Bond holders inspired by this very special start to 2016.”
Prize and value breakdown in January 2016
| Value of prizes | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1,000,000 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 5 |
| £50,000 | 11 |
| £25,000 | 22 |
| £10,000 | 52 |
| £5,000 | 107 |
| £1,000 | 1,330 |
| £500 | 3,990 |
| £100 | 18,209 |
| £50 | 18,209 |
| £25 | 2,231,691 |
| Total prize fund value £66,503,625 |
Total number of prizes 2,273,628 |
Notes to Editors
- All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax
- This month’s jackpot winners become ERNIE’S 329th and 330th Premium Bonds millionaires.
- Unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes are defined as prizes over 18 months that have not been paid out (cashed). Addresses held for customers with unclaimed prizes might not be the current residential address of the customer.
- Pictures of ERNIE (including the new ERNIE 4 machine), NS&I’s Agent Millions and people buying Premium Bonds are available in high-resolution jpeg format from the NS&I media team.
- Customers can buy Premium Bonds online at nsandi.com and over the phone by calling 0500 500 000. This is a free phone number but calls from mobiles and some landline providers may be chargeable. Telephone calls may be recorded.
- Further information on NS&I (National Savings and Investments), including press releases and product information, is available on the website at nsandi.com. Follow us on Twitter: @nsandi Find us on Facebook: Premium Bonds made by ERNIE