Friday, November 22, 2024

September’s premium bond winners – plus how to claim missing prizes – Which? News

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Two premium bond holders have struck gold, each winning £1m in September’s National Savings & Investments (NS&I) draw. 

The £1m winners are from West Sussex and Manchester. Meanwhile, 88 other winners were picked for the next-best prize of £100,000 – one of which has a holding of just £525. 

Yet, with £87m in unclaimed winnings across 2.5m prizes, many might be missing out on their own windfall.

Here, Which? reveals the winning premium bond numbers, and how to find out if you have a prize waiting for you.

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September 2024 premium bond winners

The first winning bond (388VE682612) was bought by a lucky winner living in West Sussex, and is part of a total holding of £18,101. The winning bond was purchased in April 2020. 

The second winner, based in Manchester, bought their bond (569RS008033) back in February this year. They have a total holding of £21,700.

How many winners were drawn in September?

There were 5,961,610 premium bond prizes paid out in the September draw. Of these, 5,884,915 were worth £100 or less.

In total, this month’s prizes were worth £459,043,775.

Could you have an unclaimed prize waiting for you?

A prize is recorded as unclaimed if you haven’t come forward after 18 months. 

There are currently 2,448,758 prizes uncollected worth £87,318,950 according to NS&I data. 

The oldest unclaimed prize is from November 1957, the prize is £25 and belongs to a bond holder from the east of the UK.

Even if you’ve withdrawn your premium bonds, it’s worth checking for potential winnings as NS&I confirmed winners have between £0 and £50,000 invested. 

Although most unclaimed prizes are small, £25 being the most common, there are still six £100,000 prizes waiting to be claimed.

The table shows the amount of unclaimed prizes worth £5,000 or more.

How to check for unclaimed prizes

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.

There are a few ways to check if you think you might be missing a prize:

  • Call or seek help online Anyone registered for online and telephone banking with NS&I can call or use its online chat service to request someone to look for unclaimed prizes.
  • Use the online prize checker tool This is available via the NS&I website and mobile app. Use it to find out if you’ve been lucky the day after the draw and, at any time, check for any unclaimed prizes owed. You’ll need to enter your holder’s number, which will be quoted on previous correspondence you’ve received about your premium bonds. 
  • Write to NS&I You can post a letter asking NS&I if you are due a 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.

The best way to avoid a prize going unclaimed is to opt to automatically receive your winnings via bank transfer or reinvestment.

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