ERNIE lights up lives making September’s Premium Bonds millionaires in Lancashire and Suffolk
Agent Million has been dispatched to give the good news to the pair, who will celebrate the start of the month in the best possible style.
A man from Lancashire (Bond number: 79KW011670), with a relatively small Bond holding of £6,735 and a woman from Suffolk (Bond number: 199BJ584357), with a Bond holding of £20,675, bought in November 2012, make up September’s jackpot winners.
The old adage of ‘good things come to those who wait’ can certainly be applied to the winner from Lancashire, who purchased his winning Bond back in July 1999, proving that old Bonds have an equal chance of winning regardless of when and where they were purchased.
Accompanying the switch on of Blackpool’s famous illuminations at the start of September, the Lancashire win makes it twelfth time lucky for the county, however the last jackpot winner was as long ago as July 2009. The county of Suffolk notches up its seventh millionaire winner, the last being more recent in April 2015. This month’s millionaires are ERNIE’s 345th and 346th jackpot winners.
Alun Williams, NS&I’s Assistant Retail Director, said:
“This month ERNIE has showered luck up and down the country, making millionaires in Lancashire and Suffolk. Once again, one of the winners proves that all Bonds, no matter when or where purchased, have an equal chance of winning.
“Each month, ERNIE makes people’s dreams come true, as their numbers are randomly selected to win tax-free prizes. For the other lucky winners this month, the money won may mean that they save for their financial future, or put some of it towards something that they have always wanted.”
For the September 2016 prize draw, ERNIE paid out over 2 million prizes of more than £65 million in value. There were 62,601,604,944 eligible Bond numbers in the draw.
This brings the grand total of prizes won since the first draw in June 1957 to 351 million and the value of those prizes to £16.8 billion.
Although September’s lucky Premium Bonds winners might be celebrating their good fortune, there are still a number of Premium Bonds holders who have won in previous draws but are unaware that they have tax-free prizes waiting to be claimed. In total, there are over 1.2 million unclaimed prizes, worth over £53 million. A portion of these unclaimed prizes has filtered down into the counties of Lancashire and Suffolk.
There is a £1,000 unclaimed prize in Lancashire, won by a man with a holding of just £100, with the prize being won back in April 1985. Similarly, there are also several £1,000 prizes to be claimed in Suffolk, including a prize won in May 1986 by a woman with just £3 invested. There is no time limit for claiming prizes, with some unclaimed prizes dating back over 50 years.
Premium Bonds prizes may become unclaimed as a result of NS&I not being informed of changes to your personal circumstances, such as a change in contact or address details or if Premium Bonds were bought for you as a child and you have subsequently lost track of them. So it’s important to keep NS&I up to date if anything changes.
Alun Williams, NS&I’s Assistant Retail Director, continued:
“NS&I is urging Premium Bonds holders to check if they may have won any cash prizes. There are a number of ways that people can check if they have any unclaimed prizes, either by using our prize checker on nsandi.com or by downloading our Premium Bonds Prize Checker App for free. Make sure you check as soon as possible to see if you are a Premium Bonds winner.”
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).
There are many ways that Premium Bonds holders can check if they have won a prize. Customers can keep a track of their Premium Bonds by using the prize checker on nsandi.com or they can use our Premium Bonds Prize Checker App to find out instantly if their bonds have won a prize in the latest draw, or a prize in the past six months, as well as any prizes older than 18 months you haven’t claimed since your Bonds first entered the draw. The Premium Bonds app is available from the Apple Store or Google Play, and is free to download.
September 2016 Premium Bonds prize draw breakdown
| Value of prizes | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1,000,000 | 2 |
| £100,000 | 3 |
| £50,000 | 4 |
| £25,000 | 10 |
| £10,000 | 26 |
| £5,000 | 50 |
| £1,000 | 1,304 |
| £500 | 3,912 |
| £100 | 66,547 |
| £50 | 66,547 |
| £25 | 1,948,318 |
| Total prize fund value £65,210,000 |
Total number of prizes 2,086,723 |
Notes to Editors
- To protect winners’ anonymity and help keep their personal details confidential, NS&I only lists an area where there are at least 100,000 Premium Bonds holders resident.
- There are over 25,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes in Lancashire, worth more than £988,000. In Suffolk, there are also over 11,000 unclaimed prizes, worth more than £437,000.
- All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
- This month’s jackpot winners become ERNIE’S 345th and 346th Premium Bonds millionaires.
- The annual Premium Bonds prize fund rate is currently 1.25% and the odds of each individual Bond number winning a prize are 30,000 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.