Two lucky Premium Bonds holders from Nottingham and Wales win the February £1 million jackpots
February, which also celebrates Random Acts of Kindness Week, has seen ERNIE put that into practice, by generating jackpot-winning Bond numbers from Nottingham and Wales.
A female winner living in Nottingham, who has £30,000 invested in Premium Bonds bought her winning Bond in January 2000 (Bond number: 98DC258404), while the other female winner from Wales, has £12,002 invested in Premium Bonds and bought the winning Bond in March 2015 (Bond number: 241QQ814726).
This month’s jackpot winners become ERNIE’S 331st and 332nd Premium Bonds millionaires.
Since the £1 million prize was introduced back in 1994, Wales has now had 16 jackpot winners; while there have been five Nottingham-based winners in total.
This month’s winner in Wales only had her winning Bond invested for 11 months before winning the jackpot. The last time the jackpot was won in either Wales or Nottingham; both winning Bonds were less than five years old at the time of the prize draws.
Jill Waters, NS&I Retail Director said:
“February hosts Random Acts of Kindness Week, and ERNIE is known all year round for being both random and especially kind to two lucky Premium Bonds holders each month. While visiting Wales is a reasonably well-trodden path for Agent Million, it has been well over 8 years since they have set foot in the City of Nottingham. Every month, Premium Bonds gives the opportunity for two people to celebrate jackpot wins and with over 2.2 million other prizes given out each month, it shows it is a fun way to save, and a chance to win a tax-free prize of £25 and upwards.”
If you haven’t won this month, don’t feel flat, in fact you may own one of the 8,900 unclaimed prizes, totalling over £360,000 in the City of Nottingham. There are six £1,000 prizes waiting to be claimed, and a £25 prize dating back to June 1964. In Wales, however, there are almost five times as many unclaimed prizes: almost 45,000 totalling over £1.8 million, including one of £25,000.
Premium Bonds 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 Bonds prize checker on nsandi.com
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). Importantly, there is no time limit for claiming prizes.
Overall, for the February prize draw ERNIE paid out over 2.2 million prizes of more than £66 million in value. There were 59,437,985,283 eligible Bond numbers in the draw.
This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957 to 336 million and the value of those prizes to £16.4 billion.
| Value of prizes | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1,000,000 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 5 |
| £50,000 | 11 |
| £25,000 | 22 |
| £10,000 | 54 |
| £5,000 | 108 |
| £1,000 | 1,337 |
| £500 | 4,011 |
| £100 | 18,320 |
| £50 | 18,320 |
| £25 | 2,243,889 |
| Total prize fund value £66,867,725 |
Total number of prizes 2,286,079 |
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 331st and 332nd Premium Bonds millionaires.
- The annual Premium Bonds prize fund rate is currently 1.35% and the odds of each individual Bond number winning a prize are 26,000 to 1
- 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 or join the conversation on Facebook: Premium Bonds made by ERNIE