ERNIE celebrates his 55th birthday
- Over £13.9 billion worth of Premium Bond prizes paid out since first draw in 1957
- Over 750,000 people have now registered for a new service enabling holders to manage their Premium Bonds online or by phone
- Savers can now choose to have Premium Bond prizes paid directly into their bank account
ERNIE, the Premium Bonds winning numbers generator, celebrates his 55th anniversary today. Since he drew the first Premium Bonds prize on 1 June 1957, ERNIE has created 269 millionaires and paid out over £13.9 billion worth of prizes. Over the years, ERNIE has received birthday and Valentines cards as well as lucky gifts such as holy water and poems!
A woman from Hereford and Worcester became ERNIE’s latest millionaire in the June 2012 draw. Her winning Bond number was 122GE922626 bought in January 2007. The customer holds £30,000 in Premium Bonds.
ERNIE has seen plenty of change in his 55 years: the top prize has changed from £1,000 to the current £1million jackpot, and while the first version of ERNIE, ERNIE 1 took up to 50 hours to complete a draw, today the latest model, ERNIE 4, takes around five hours.
The latest change to Premium Bonds was the launch of a service that enables Premium Bond holders to manage their Bonds online and by phone. Holders can sign up for these services at nsandi.com or by calling 0500 007 007. Savers can also opt to have any Premium Bond prizes they win paid directly into their UK bank account with notification of prize wins coming to them by email.
John Prout, Retail Customer Director, NS&I, said:
“Over the years ERNIE has become a part of the fabric of British life with millions of Britons now holding Premium Bonds. He’s certainly moved with the times. We’re delighted that so many of our customers are now taking advantage of the new Premium Bond services , including having their prizes paid directly and immediately to their designated account.”
The history of Premium Bonds
Premium Bonds were officially launched in the 1956 budget by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan.The first Premium Bond was bought on 1 November 1956 by Alderman Sir Cuthbert Ackroyd who later became Lord Mayor of London. The investment immediately caught the imagination of the British public, so much so that by the end of their first day on sale, £5 million worth of Premium Bonds had been sold.
The first draw, 55 years ago today at the Premium Bonds headquarters in Lytham St. Anne’s in Lancashire, generated 23,000 prizes with a top prize of £1,000.
June 2012 Premium Bonds prize draw breakdown
In the June 2012 draw ERNIE paid out over 1.8 million prizes, together amounting to over £54 million in value. There were 43,590,254,483 eligible Bond numbers in the draw.
| Value of prizes | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1,000,000 | 1 |
| £100,000 | 5 |
| £50,000 | 8 |
| £25,000 | 18 |
| £10,000 | 47 |
| £5,000 | 90 |
| £1,000 | 1,089 |
| £500 | 3,267 |
| £100 | 32,019 |
| £50 | 32,019 |
| £25 | 1,047,699 |
| Total prize fund value £54,487,825 |
Total number of prizes 1,816,262 |
Notes to Editors
- All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
- As at May 2012, customers have over 22 million holdings in Premium Bonds totalling more than £42 billion. Prizes range from £25 to £1 million.
- The Premium Bonds prize fund rate is 1.5% and the odds of each individual Bond number winning a prize are 24,000 to 1.
- Premium Bonds can be bought online at nsandi.com, by telephone on 0500 500 000, by post and over the counter at Post Office® branches. This is a free phone number – calls from mobiles and some landline providers may be chargeable. Telephone calls may be recorded.
- Pictures of ERNIE (including the latest ERNIE 4 machine), Agent Million and people buying Premium Bonds are available in high-resolution jpeg format from the NS&I media team.