More than two million Premium Bond prizes worth a combined £79.4 million remain unclaimed, according to the latest figures from National Savings and Investments (NS&I). The Money Saving Expert (MSE) website says the unclaimed prizes include five worth £100,000 and nine worth £50,000.
MSE has a breakdown of where the 2,269,198 unclaimed prizes are by value and region. NS&I, which runs the Premium bonds, says it contacts every winner – by either text, email or post depending on the option they’ve selected – but sometimes prizes go unclaimed for a variety of reasons, such as the letter getting lost in the post or contact details not being updated.
Unclaimed prizes are those which haven't been claimed within 18 months of being won - which means the actual outstanding total could be much higher. As of November 2022, NS&I says there were 2,269,198 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, worth a total of £79,421,450.
This is an increase compared with the same time last year, when there were 2,079,568 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth £74,452,325. People living in London and the South East are most likely to be owed money - however there are unclaimed sums across the country.
Chris Newlands, news and investigations editor at MoneySavingExpert, said: “For those who suspect they might have let their Premium Bonds fall by the wayside, seeing these figures should be a wake-up call. Some of the eye-popping pots available could be potentially life-changing for people – especially right now.
“I hope our findings give people the impetus they need to check their numbers and see if they’re due what could be a very significant windfall. The time it takes to do so could be extremely well spent.
MSE's advice on how to check if you are a winner
If you can't find any notification that you are a winner but want to check you can:
- Log in (or register) for NS&I's website. You'll need your NS&I number, surname and account password.
- Use NS&I's Premium Bonds prize checker tool on desktop. You'll need your Premium Bond-holder's number to do so – this is separate from your NS&I number.
- Use NS&I's prize checker app. This is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play. To access your account, you'll need your Premium Bond-holder's number or your NS&I number.
- Write to NS&I. You'll need to include your name, address and NS&I number or Premium Bond-holder's number. Send letters to NS&I, Sunderland, SR43 2SB.
If you don't know your holder's number or account number, you can phone NS&I on 08085 007 007 or write to it and ask for a replacement bond record to be sent to you. You should give it as much detail as you can, for example, your full name, address, when and where you bought your Premium Bonds and how much they're worth.
Alternatively, you can use NS&I's tracing service or the My Lost Account website, both of which can track down your Premium Bond details. They ask you to fill in info about yourself, including your name, address, an estimate of how many Premium Bonds you hold and how long you've held them.
What if I've won - could I have missed the prize?
Fortunately there are no time limits on claiming for winning Premium Bonds. Those registered for NS&I's online and phone service can phone 08085 007 007 to start a claim. You cannot claim online.
If you are not registered for online and telephone services you need to write to NS&I at NS&I, Sunderland, SR43 2SB. Give as much information as you can, including:
- Bond-holder's number
- Current name
- Any previous names
- Current address
- Any previous addresses where bonds may have been registered
- Signature
Prizes will then be sent to your home address as a warrant, which is like a cheque.
What if the winner has died?
You can still make a claim if the bondholder has died. You must be legally entitled to the deceased person's savings then use NS&I's online form to inform it of the death and claim any Premium Bonds prizes or other NS&I savings. If you're not sure whether they had any NS&I savings or Premium Bonds, you can use the tracing service to check.
What happens if you win?
If you win a prize worth between £5,000 and £100,000, NS&I will send you a claims form in the post for you to complete and confirm how you would like to be paid. If you win the £1 million jackpot, you'll be visited in person – but always ask to see ID to ensure it's not a scam.
For prize wins of up to £1,000, you can:
- Choose to be notified by email or text and have prizes paid directly into your bank account. You can set this up in your online account (if you have one) or by using NS&I's prize options tool.
- Choose to be notified by email or text and have prizes automatically reinvested into more Premium Bonds. If, however, a prize win would take you over the maximum £50,000 Premium Bond limit, this will be paid to you by bank transfer or cheque. You can set this up in your online account (if you have one) or by calling NS&I.
- Choose to have prize wins sent to you by cheque. Here, you won't be separately notified as the cheque counts as notification. You can call NS&I to set this up.
See MSE’s Premium Bonds guide for how they work and if they’re worth considering.
