With the weather turning, two lucky premium bond holders will see yet more luck with an influx of cash making for an unforgettable summer.
With recent rainy day activities breaking the bank, and a stretch of warmer weather putting yet more pressure on our piggy banks, a win with premium bonds could change your summer forecast.
Fortunately, National Savings and Investment (NS&I) has announced its high-value winners for August 2024 and two owners have scooped £1m each, with a healthy handful of others winning £100,000 and £50,000.
Who has the winning numbers for August 2024?
The two winners clinching the top prize of £1m each for August 2024 have been announced as one from Outer London with the number 516FV135553 with a bond purchased in October two years ago. They have £600 in total bonds.
The other had to wait a little longer for their big win, buying their bond in May 2015, with a total holding of £20,000. The winner is from Devon with the number 245FP902498.
The remaining high-value prize winners receive cash bonuses ranging from £100,000 to £5,000.
There are also winners in the medium and lower value bands, ranging from £1,000 to £25.
How do premium bonds work?
Premium bonds are one of the UK’s most popular ways to save, and can be a fun option as long as you’re happy to accept that there’s no guarantee they will offer a consistent income.
The form of investment is offered by NS&I, a savings bank owned by the government.
Instead of earning regular interest on their money in the usual way, holders of the bonds are entered into a random draw at the start of every month, with tax-free prizes worth between £25 and £1m.
The prize fund rate has increased significantly in the past year, reflecting the UK’s rising interest rates and currently stands at its highest point in almost a quarter of a century.
How can I check if my premium bond numbers have won?
If you hold premium bonds and want to check if you’ve won a prize in the latest monthly draw, you can use the NS&I online prize checker here.
Alternatively, you can download the free app from iOS or Android, while Amazon Alexa devices can also check for you, “remembering” back across the past six prize draws.
To check on your bonds, you will need your unique holder’s number, which can be found on your bond record or by logging into your account on the NS&I website. It will have either nine of 10 digits or be an eight-digit number with a letter at the end.
Prizes don’t carry a time limit, so you can claim as far back as the original 1957 draw.
To reduce the potential for leaving prizes unclaimed, premium bonds holders can opt to have them paid directly in their bank account or automatically reinvested into more bonds.
NS&I says almost nine out of 10 prizes are now paid this way and you can find out more details here.
What are the chances of winning?
The prize fund rate for premium bonds is 4.40 per cent in July. The odds of any £1 bond number winning a prize are 21,000 to 1.
Previously, NS&I raised the prize fund interest rate for September to 4.65 per cent from 4 per cent, the highest since March 1999.
As of November 2023, NS&I said there were 2,324,683 unclaimed premium bond prizes, worth a total of £81,025,600.