Two lucky premium bond holders have become millionaires after winning the two jackpot prizes in the National Savings & Investments (NS&I) November draw.
The £1m winners are from Hertfordshire and Essex. Meanwhile, 18 other winners were picked for the next-best prize of £100,000.
Despite the huge payout, not everyone checks to see if they have won. There are currently more than 2m premium bonds prizes waiting to be claimed by their winners, totalling almost £69m.
Here, Which? reveals the winning premium bond numbers, and how to find out if you have a prize waiting for you.
November 2022 premium bond winners
The first winning bond (460WE462342) was bought by a lucky winner living in Hertfordshire as part of a total holding of £15,000. The winning bond was bought in June 2021.
The second winner from Essex bought their bond (245PK699534) in Essex back in May 2015, and also has a total holding of £25,253.
- Find out more: premium bonds – are they worth it?
How many winners were drawn in November?
There were 4,976,066 premium bond prizes paid out in the November draw. Of these, 4,957,887 were worth £100 or less.
In total, this month's prizes were worth £218,946,775.
| Value of prize | Number of prizes |
|---|---|
| £1m | 2 |
| £100,000 | 18 |
| £50,000 | 36 |
| £25,000 | 71 |
| £10,000 | 178 |
| £5,000 | 358 |
| £1,000 | 4,379 |
| £500 | 13,137 |
| £100 | 731,071 |
| £50 | 731,071 |
| £25 | 3,495,745 |
Source: NS&I
How can you avoid missing out on a prize?
NS&I will write to you by letter or email every time you win a premium bonds prize. These alerts, however, can get lost if you move home or change your email address without updating your NS&I account.
A prize is recorded as unclaimed if you haven't come forward after 18 months. The best way to avoid that happening is to opt to automatically receive your prizes via bank transfer or reinvestment.
Where are the most unclaimed prizes, and how much are they worth?
According to the latest NS&I data, there are more than 2m unclaimed premium bonds prizes worth a total of £68,670,200.
Premium bond holders who live or once lived in London seem to be most likely to have an unclaimed premium bonds prize, accounting for 20% of all unclaimed prizes. This is probably due to the fact that people in the city are more likely to rent and move home more often, therefore making it more likely that they haven't kept NS&I up-to-date with their current address.
Some premium bond holders are missing out on huge sums of money. There are five who would be £100,000 richer if they checked for an unclaimed prize. Nine people have prizes worth £50,000 waiting for them.
Of these 14 prize winners, six have less than £100 invested. Someone in Lothian, for example, put in just £10 and won £100,000 in February 2007, while another £100,000 winner from overseas invested just £6 (it's no longer possible to invest such a small amount, as the current minimum investment is £25).
Some prizes date back many years - the oldest unclaimed prize of £25 was won in November 1957 to someone in South Yorkshire.
How to check for unclaimed premium bonds prizes
If you think you might have missed out on a premium bonds prize, there are a few ways to check.
- If you're registered for online and telephone banking with NS&I, you can call or use its online chat service to request someone to look for unclaimed prizes.
- Use the online prize checker tool on the NS&I website and mobile app. You'll need enter your holder's number, which will be quoted on previous correspondence you've received about your premium bonds.
- Write to NS&I to ask about a missing prize. You'll need to include your name, holder's number and current address, as well as any previous names or addresses your premium bonds might have been registered to. You should also include your signature. Send this letter to: NS&I, Sunderland, SR43 2SB.
What are your chances of winning?
Anyone aged 16 or over can buy premium bonds, and it's also possible to invest on behalf of children under 16.
The minimum investment is £25, with a maximum holding of £50,000.
As every £1 bond entered into the prize draw each month has the same chance of winning, you don't have to invest a huge sum to win big - but even with average luck, someone investing £1,000 will likely win nothing over the course of a year.
Even with last month's prize fund rate increase from 1.4% to 2.2%, the odds of each £1 premium bond number winning a prize is 24,000 to 1.
- Find out more: what is National Savings & Investments?
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/novembers-premium-bond-winners-could-you-have-an-unclaimed-prize-aUZTQ7v9DL0J