Are you sitting on a Premium Bonds fortune you don't know about? (2024)

Thousands of NS&I customers could be sitting on a Premium Bonds fortune without knowing it, This is Money can reveal.

There are more than 2.4million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes amounting to £86million, exclusive data from NS&I reveals.

At the beginning of each month, Premium Bonds customers eagerly await the prize draw for the winners are announced. But with millions of prizes in each, inevitably some go unclaimed.

There are six unclaimed £100,000 prizes and ten of £50,000 – adding up to more than £1million.

NS&I revealed that four of the the six unclaimed £100,000 winners are located in the UK, with another two overseas or in areas with unknown postcodes.

One of the six £100,000 unclaimed prizes was drawn as recently as January 2023, This is Money can reveal.

This winner is based in Gwent Valleys in Wales and had a holding of £40,525 at the time of the draw.

Another unclaimed £100,000 prize was drawn in February 2022 and belongs to a winner based in Gloucestershire. They had a holding of the maximum £50,000 at the time of the draw.

The two oldest unclaimed £100,000 prizes were drawn in February 2007. One of these winners, based overseas, had a holding balance of just £6 at the time their winning bond was drawn.

Meanwhile, there are 18 unclaimed £25,000 prizes, 50 unclaimed £10,000 prizes and 107 unclaimed £5,000 prizes.

Most of the unclaimed prizes are located overseas or in areas with no known postcode.

NS&I data shows that 346,713 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes belong to winners who live overseas, making up 14 per cent of all unclaimed prizes.

This is followed by the South East, which has 318,807 unclaimed prizes amounting to £11,286,925.

How to check if you've won a Premium Bonds prize?

Premium Bonds prize winners are notified by NS&I if they have won a prize by text, email or post.

It's worth checking your old emails, letters and texts in case you have missed one.

If you can't find any notification but want other ways of checking, you can do this by logging in on NS&I's website. You will need your NS&I login details to do this.

You can also use NS&I's Premium Bonds prize checker tool.

You'll need your Premium Bond-holder's number to do so – this is separate from your NS&I number.

NS&I also have a prize checker app. You can download this for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

To access your account, you'll need your Premium Bond holder's number or your NS&I number.

You can write to NS&I to check if you have won a prize.

You will need to include your name, address and NS&I number or Premium Bond holder's number.

Send letters to NS&I, Sunderland, SR43 2SB. NS&I will send you a list of any prizes you have won.

If you don't know your Premium Bonds holder's number or your NS&I number, you can call NS&I on 08085 007 007 or write to it and ask for a replacement bond record to be sent to you.

You can also use NS&I's tracing service or the my lost account website, both of which can track down your Premium Bond details.

How to retrieve an unclaimed prize

You might not have received news of a prize because you moved home and NS&I weren't notified, or because you changed some of your details and a letter went astray in the post.

But the good news is that there is no no time limit to claims and NS&I will hold on to it until you get in touch with them.

Once you've found out you have an unclaimed prize, if you are registered for phone and online services you can call NS&I on 08085 007 007. You cannot claim online.

If you're not registered for phone and online services you can write to NS&I. NS&I recommends that you give as much information as you can, including the bond-holder's number, name or any previous names, address or any previous addresses where a bond could have been registered and a signature.

Prizes will then be sent to your home address as a warrant, which is like a cheque. NS&I cannot send unclaimed prizes directly to your bank account.

A spokesman from NS&I said: 'To stop Premium Bonds prizes going unclaimed, customers can have them paid directly to their bank account.

'Premium Bonds customers should also ensure that they update us with any changes to their personal details, such as their name or address or bank details.'