Over £44 million unclaimed Premium Bond prizes
- NS&I conducts a search for winners of over 898,000 unclaimed prizes
- The largest unclaimed prize is £100,000
- Manage Premium Bonds online to receive prizes paid directly into your bank account
NS&I is undertaking a nationwide search to help track down the winners of over 898,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, worth over £44 million in total.
Premium Bond prizes may go unclaimed as a result of NS&I not being informed of changes to your personal circumstances, such as a change in contact details or if Premium Bonds were bought for you as a child and you have subsequently lost track of them. It is important therefore, to keep NS&I up to date if anything changes.
Over a third of the UK population have invested over £45 billion in Premium Bonds, and every eligible Bond is entered into the monthly prize draw. Investors forgo interest to have the chance to win tax-free prizes. Premium Bonds holders can reduce the chances of their prizes becoming unclaimed by managing their Premium Bonds online or opting to have any prizes paid directly into their bank accounts by BACS, with notification of the win by email. To sign up holders should visit: http://www.nsandi.com/register-our-online-service.
Nationwide, there are over 898,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth over £44 million. There is a woman from London who is still due to receive £100,000 after failing to claim her prize in a previous draw. She has £25 invested in Premium Bonds and the prize was won in February 2007.
Top five highest unclaimed prizes in the UK
| Winning Bond number | Prize value | Gender | Last known location | Present Premium Bonds holding | Month and year of draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8LK522839 | £100,000 | Female | London | £25 | Feb-07 |
| 50PB780494 | £100,000 | Female | Greater Manchester | £280 | Sep-10 |
| 3VT019901 | £50,000 | Female | Kent | £128 | Nov-07 |
| 1JK051177 | £25,000 | Male | London | £50 | Oct-91 |
| 38HZ060777 | £25,000 | Male | West Midlands | £2,000 | Mar-03 |
* Prizes have not been included where the holder is based overseas or NS&I has incomplete address details about the prize recipient
There is no time limit for claiming prizes and each unclaimed prize is held until the rightful winner can be tracked down. The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to November 1957 where a male in South Yorkshire has a prize to the sum of £25 waiting to be claimed.
Top five oldest unclaimed prizes in the UK
| Winning Bond number | Prize value | Gender | Last known location | Present Premium Bonds holding | Month and year of draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VN199709 | £25 | Male | South Yorkshire | £100 | Nov-57 |
| AK956009 | £100 | Male | London | £7 | Jun-60 |
| BN124135 | £25 | Female | London | £2 | Jul-60 |
| 1EB770826 | £25 | Male | Oxfordshire | £10 | Jul-60 |
| AK864669 | £25 | Male | Staffordshire | £1 | Jul-60 |
* Prizes have not been included where the holder is based overseas;or NS&I has incomplete address details about the prize recipient
Jill Waters, NS&I’s Operations Manager, said:
“It is likely that the winner of the £100,000 prize is unaware or she has forgotten that she has Premium Bonds – the lucky winner has just £25 invested. Prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that Bonds have been bought for them as a child, or executors are unaware the Bond s are held when someone dies.
“By opting to manage your Premium Bonds online you could reduce the risk of missing out on prizes as they can be paid directly into your bank account.”
Ways to check if you have a prize owing to you
- Online at nsandi.com
The Premium Bonds prize checker is on the home page of the NS&I web site at nsandi.com – customers simply need to enter their Premium Bond holder’s number into the search facility.
- In writing to NS&I
Alternatively people can write to NS&I, quoting their name and address, any former names and addresses, date of birth and, if known, their Premium Bond holder’s number.
Premium Bonds
National Saving s and Investments
Glasgow
G58 1SB
Notes to Editors
- For data protection reasons the regions identified are where there are over 100,000 Premium Bond customers, this is to protect the winners’ anonymity
- For this campaign NS&I has classified unclaimed Premium Bond prizes as those that have not been claimed for 18 months after the prize draw in which they were won. When reporting total unclaimed assets held by NS&I (including accounts, Certificates, Bonds, unclaimed Premium Bond prizes and other products), NS&I defines unclaimed holdings as those with no customer contact for a period of 15 years or more
- Unclaimed Premium Bond prizes shown are those where a postcode is part of the holder’s address as held by NS&I