Premium Bond holder wins £1 million jackpot in first draw ERNIE makes two millionaires in West Yorkshire
Premium Bonds are eligible in the draw after they have been held for a full calendar month; therefore Bonds that were bought in September are eligible for the first time in the November draw. Although this is not the first time that a jackpot has been won by a person in their first eligible draw, the last time that this happened was over seven years ago.
Both jackpot winners live in the county of West Yorkshire which is the first time both £1 million jackpot winners have lived in the same county.
The two jackpot prizes were reintroduced in the August 2014 draw. NS&I previously paid two £1 million prizes from August 2005 to March 2009.
The winner from Leeds
- A female living in Leeds
- Bond number: 232NA028817
- Winning Bond bought in September 2014
- Total holdings: £10,000
The winner from Kirklees
- A male living in Kirklees
- Bond number: 199RB470700
- Winning Bond bought in November 2012
- Total holdings: £30,000
For the November 2014 draw, ERNIE paid out almost two million prizes, together amounting to almost £58 million in value. There were 51,412,662,885 eligible Bond numbers in the draw.
This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957, to 304 million and the value of those prizes to £15.4 billion.
Prize and value breakdown in November 2014
| Value of prizes | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1,000,000 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 4 |
| £50,000 | 8 |
| £25,000 | 17 |
| £10,000 | 41 |
| £5,000 | 83 |
| £1,000 | 1,156 |
| £500 | 3,468 |
| £100 | 15,834 |
| £50 | 15,834 |
| £25 | 1,940,966 |
| Total prize fund value £57,839,250 |
Total number of prizes 1,977,413 |
November’s prize fund rate and odds
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. The chances of all Bonds winning are the same, regardless of when or where they were bought.
ERNIE
- The Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment, or ERNIE, generates numbers completely at random for the prize draw and it is impossible for anyone to predict ERNIE’s numbers or to influence the results of the draw
- The first ERNIE was invented by one of the original Bletchley Park code breakers
- ERNIE is now in his fourth generation
Keeping track of Premium Bonds
- The NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker app is free to download, quick and easy to use and lets customers check if they’ve won a prize in the past six months
- Customers can also check if they have won by using the Premium Bonds prize checker on nsandi.com
Unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes
- Across the UK there are over one million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth more than £48 million
- Premium Bonds holders can reduce the chances of their prizes becoming unclaimed by registering to have any prizes paid directly into their bank accounts (with notification by email): http://www.nsandi.com/register
- There is no time limit for claiming prizes
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 301st and 302nd 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 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.
- NS&I have a number of spokespeople available for interviews and our experienced media team is available via our ISDN line: 020 7828 5288.