Brits urged to check if they’re owed money from forgotten’£111million savings pot | Personal Finance | Finance
A UK savings bank is encouraging customers to claim their slice of an £111 million pot. The pot is made up of 2.7 million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes, which are tax-free and range from £25 to £1 million. Premium Bonds savings accounts are offered by National Savings and Investments (NS&I), a government-backed savings bank. Customers can purchase £1 Bonds, with a minimum deposit of £25, which are then entered into a monthly draw.
NS&I say that 99% of the prizes from the draw, which began in 1957, have been received by customers. This leaves 2,677,306 unclaimed premium bonds – the 1% that remains is worth £111 million. Winners are usually notified via email, phone, or post if they have registered their contact details with NS&I. But if a customer has moved house or changed their details, then they might not be aware of a cash prize in their name.
11 unclaimed prizes are worth an incredible £100,000, and 22 are worth £50,000.
You can check if you have unclaimed prizes by entering your Premium Bond holder’s number into NS&I’s online prize checker website or app.
Customers can save up to £50,000 in the account. Between £25 and £1million can be won in every draw. More than six million prizes were handed out in December.
The odds of winning a prize are 22,000 to 1 for every £1 Bond. However, NS&I states that holding more bonds will increase your chances of winning.
London boasts the biggest unclaimed premium bond pot of £19.21 million. Households in the South East of England are missing out on £16.40million, and the East of England has left £9.66million unclaimed.
This is followed by the North West, with £9.27million and £8.75million from the South West .
NS&I says that the best way to avoid prizes going unclaimed is to setup your account so that the cash are paid directly into the holder’s bank account, or automatically reinvested as Premium Bonds.
