Springing into March with two new Premium Bonds £1 million jackpot winners from Liverpool and Norfolk

• March’s £1 million jackpot winners come from Liverpool and Norfolk
• ERNIE has drawn over six million prizes this month, worth more than £410 million
• 78 Premium Bonds holders won a £100,000 prize

Two Premium Bonds holders from Liverpool and Norfolk are celebrating an unforgettable start to spring after each winning the £1 million Premium Bonds jackpot.

The first Premium Bonds £1 million winning Bond number this month is 496VT504601 and is held by someone from Liverpool. They purchased the winning Bond in April 2022 and hold £50,000. They are the fifth jackpot winner from Liverpool.

The second Premium Bonds £1 million jackpot Bond number is 282NN327573 and is held by someone in Norfolk. They purchased their winning bond in September 2016 and hold £50,000. They are the third person to win the £1 million jackpot in Norfolk.

Andrew Westhead, NS&I Retail Director, said: "Spring has well and truly arrived for two Premium Bonds holders in Liverpool and Norfolk, who are each celebrating a £1 million win this March.

"The jackpot winners aren't the only ones celebrating. This month, ERNIE drew more than six million tax-free prizes worth over £410 million.

"To find out if you're stepping into spring as a Premium Bonds winner, you can check on our NS&I prize checker app from Tuesday 3 March."

March 2026 prize draw breakdown

In the March draw, £410,607,175 will be paid to Premium Bonds prize draw winners totalling 6,221,321 tax-free prizes. This month there were 136,869,061,418 £1 Bonds eligible for the draw. This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957 to 821 million and the total value to over £40.3 billion.

What are Premium Bonds?

Since they originally went on sale in November 1956, Premium Bonds have offered savers an accessible way to invest with the chance to win tax-free prizes. The first prize draw by ERNIE was held in June 1957.

Individuals can hold up to £50,000 in Premium Bonds, including those aged under 16. Premium Bonds offer the security of being backed by HM Treasury alongside the excitement of potentially winning tax-free prizes.

Newly purchased Premium Bonds need to be held for one full calendar month after purchase before being eligible for the prize draw. 

Prizes are funded based upon a prize fund rate applied across the total of all eligible Premium Bonds held.

Each £1 Bond purchased is entered into a monthly prize draw, where prizes range from £25 to £1 million, making it a different and engaging way to save. The jackpot prize was increased to £1 million from the April 1994 draw. There are now two £1 million prizes each month.

Checking prizes

The Bond numbers for the two £1 million jackpot prize winners are announced on the first working day of each month having been contacted directly by Agent Million. Bond holders can check if they have won prizes ranging from £25 to £100,000 the day after the first working day of each month by using the Premium Bonds prize checker app, visiting the NS&I website, or by asking Alexa. For March 2026, this is Tuesday 3 March.

To check prizes on the NS&I website, Bond holders will need their Premium Bonds holder’s number. For those using the Premium Bonds app, they can use their holder’s number, or their NS&I number.

Premium Bonds prizes notifications and unclaimed prizes

Premium Bonds prize winners will receive notifications of their winnings each month via their chosen method such as email or text if they have registered their contact details.

There are instances where customers relocate or change contact or bank details and forget to update NS&I with the new details, which can lead to unclaimed prizes. Currently there are 2,733,973 unclaimed prizes worth £116,463,400 waiting to be claimed by Bond holders. Over 99% of prizes have been paid to winners since the draw began in 1957.

The best way to avoid prizes going unclaimed is to have them paid directly into the holder’s bank account or automatically reinvested into Premium Bonds up to the £50,000 holding limit. Prizes automatically reinvested are immediately eligible for the next draw. These payment methods now account for nine in ten prizes being paid in these ways.

Customers who think they may have an unclaimed prize (prizes over 18 months old) can check by entering their holder’s number into NS&I’s online prize checker or the prize checker app.

In Liverpool, there are currently around 13,832 unclaimed prizes worth £565,750 dating back to 1965. The largest unclaimed prize in Liverpool is worth £5,000 and was won in May 2023. Liverpool has six prizes worth £1,000 dating back to February 1993 waiting to be claimed.

There is a £50,000 prize from December 2023 yet to be claimed in Norfolk. Other high value prizes include one £25,000 prize, one £10,000 prize and two £5,000 prizes from between May 2022 and July 2024.  

Notes to Editors

1. The variable annual prize fund rate for the March 2026 Premium Bonds prize draw is 3.60%. The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize are 22,000 to 1.
2. The variable annual prize fund rate for the April 2026 Premium Bonds prize draw is 3.30%. The odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize are 23,000 to 1.
3. Details of previous prize fund rates and odds for Premium Bonds can be found here.
4. Spokespeople including Agent Million are available for interview, along with historical, national and regional facts and figures about Premium Bonds by contacting the Media Team (information below).
5. All Premium Bonds are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
6. ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment). The story of ERNIE is available here.
7. NS&I is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, offering a range of savings and investments to more than 24 million customers including over 22 million Premium Bonds holders. All products offer 100% security as NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.
8. Further information on NS&I including past press releases is available at nsandi-corporate.com.
9. NS&I photography and logos are available to download here.