Devon woman wins £1m on Premium Bonds

ERNIE is definitely testing Agent Million this month, who will be travelling from Scotland to the South West to deliver good news to two new Premium Bond millionaires. Two lucky women - one in Devon and one in Mid Scotland and Fife – are this month’s Premium Bonds jackpot prize winners.

In Devon, the winner has £21,008 invested in Premium Bonds and bought the winning Bond in June 2009 (Bond number: 156TA530227), while the lucky jackpot winner from Mid Scotland and Fife, has £29,998 invested and purchased the winning Bond back in December 2008 (Bond number: 148NB758264).

This is ‘eleventh heaven’ for Devon but it is only the second time that Ernie has made a Mid Scotland and Fife Bond holder a millionaire - the last jackpot winner from the area coming just over a decade ago, in March 2006.

Jill Waters, NS&I’s Retail Director, said: “Visiting Devon is a reasonably well-trodden path for Agent Million, with this their eleventh visit in total, however the familiarity is always worth it when making someone’s day, week, month or year. Every month, Premium Bonds give the opportunity for two people to celebrate £1 million jackpot wins and with over 2.3 million prizes given out each month, each £1 Bond and has the same chance of winning a prize regardless of when or where it was purchased. All Premium Bond prizes are tax-free, and all money invested in NS&I is 100% backed by HM Treasury.”

Devon is home to another big winner but they may be unaware. A man from the region has an unclaimed prize of £25,000 from just a £20 Premium Bonds holding. The prize was won in the May 2014 draw and the Bond number was 5EP562961.

Premium Bond prizes may become unclaimed as a result of NS&I not being informed of changes to your personal circumstances, such as a change in contact details or if Premium Bonds were bought for you as a child and you have subsequently lost track of them. It is important therefore, to keep NS&I up to date if anything changes.

Premium Bonds holders can also reduce the chance of their prizes becoming unclaimed by registering to have any prizes paid directly into their bank account (with notification by email). Importantly, there is no time limit for claiming prizes, with the oldest prize that remains unclaimed being drawn in November 1957 to the value of £25.

In fact, there are many 1.2 million unclaimed Premium Bond prizes across the country worth more than £51.9 million. In Devon, there are a total of 18,798 unclaimed prizes, worth over £778,000. The oldest prize is due to a woman in the county, and dates back to February 1965, worth £25. In Mid Scotland and Fife, a total of 4,208 prizes remain unclaimed, totalling over £182,000. The top unclaimed prize is £1,000, while the oldest - owed to man in the area – was won in April 1966 and worth £25.

Jill Waters, NS&I’s Retail Director, continued: “As we often see, there are a number of prizes owed to Premium Bonds holders, including those with very little money invested, that have become unclaimed over the years. We are encouraging Premium Bond holders to opt to manage their Premium Bonds online and sign up to have their prizes to be paid directly into their bank account to avoid missing out on prizes in the future.”

Premium Bonds holders can keep track of their prizes by using the NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker app, which is free to download, and lets customers check if they’ve won a prize in the past six months. Customers can also check if they have won a prize by using the Premium Bonds prize checker on nsandi.com

This month’s millionaires are ERNIE’s 335th and 336th Premium Bonds jackpot winners.

For the April 2016 prize draw ERNIE paid out over 2.3 million prizes of more than £68 million in value. There were 60,498,443,619 eligible Bond numbers in the draw.

This brings the grand total of prizes since the first draw in June 1957 to 340 million and the value of those prizes to £16.5 billion.

From 1 June 2016, the prize fund rate on Premium Bonds is being reduced from 1.35% to 1.25%. See more information here.