NS&I Premium Bonds holder scoops £100,000 off £505 savings – check if you’ve won | Personal Finance | Finance
A Premium Bonds holder scooped a staggering £100,000 prize from a small £505 investment in December’s prize draw.
Another winner also managed to secure a £50,000 prize from NS&I Bonds worth £370 purchased in 1977.
Drawing attention to the impressive gains in a recent post on X, NS&I wrote: “Small savings, BIG wins!
“In this month’s Premium Bonds prize draw, one Essex winner scooped £100,000 with a holding of £505.
“Another bond holder from Barnet won £50,000 from a £370 investment made in 1977.”
National Savings & Investments (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. All products offer 100% security as NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.
To win prizes, savers must buy Premium Bonds and each investment must be at least £25. Up to £50,000 can be invested and winners are generated during a random prize draw at the start of every month.
NS&I says the more Bonds a person has, the higher their chance of winning a prize.
Prizes are tax-free and split into three value bands: higher, medium, and lower.
Each band receives a percentage share of the monthly prize fund.
In December, a total of 5,806,049 prizes worth £441,743,525 were drawn. The prize fund rate was 4.15% and the odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize were 22,000 to 1.
Prizes in the higher band range from £5,000 to £1million (only two of these can be won), while the medium and lower bands offer people the chance to win between £1,000 and £500, and £100 and £25, respectively.
Premium Bonds holders can easily see if they’ve won a prize by checking the NS&I website, the prize checker app, or simply asking Alexa.
To check on the NS&I website, customers will need their Premium Bonds holder’s number, while for the prize checker app, they’ll need their NS&I number or holder’s number. People can also check for any unclaimed prizes owed to them.
Commenting on the product, Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell said: “There’s a decent amount going for Premium Bonds: you can save as little as £25; they are government-backed, so couldn’t be safer; and you have the added bonus that they might make your child or grandchild a millionaire.”
However, she warned: “But the expected prize fund rate has dropped recently, you’ll earn less than a cash savings account, and the bonds you buy could win nothing at all.
“Once you factor in inflation it means the spending power of your gift will be eroded year on year, particularly if the recipient doesn’t cash the money in for a long time.”
The prize fund rate is set to reduce to 4% from January 2025, down from the current rate of 4.15%. However, NS&I has reassured that the odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize will remain the same.
