TWO new Premium Bond holders have scooped the top prize of £1million in this month’s prize draw.
One of the winners is a woman from Cumbria, who has a total of £5,900 in Premium Bonds, and bought the winning bond – 174SW095381 – back in November 2010.
Two Premium Bond holders scooped the top £1million prize this month
The second person to win the top prize was a man from outer London, who purchased the winning bond back in June 2018.
He holds £20,300 in Premium Bonds and the victorious bond number is 332BQ973008.
In the August prize draw, a total of 3,782,170 prizes worth £108,107,000 were paid out.
In total, there were 92,663,149,308 eligible bonds for the draw.
More than 3million Premium Bond prizes were drawn in August
Premium Bonds are drawn at random by a machine dubbed ERNIE, which has picked the 491million prizes worth a total of £20.9billion since the lottery scheme launched back in June 1957.
Savers have suffered falling rates recently due to coronavirus, with the Bank of England cutting the base interest rate twice in two weeks.
Many have turned to the government scheme to try and make the most of their money, with a record £1.5billion-worth of bonds bought in April this year, according to MoneySavingExpert.
Unlike a traditional bank account, Premium Bond holders are entered into a monthly draw where they can win cash prizes rather than earn interest on their savings.
The prizes range from £25 up to £1million and are picked at random, but it also means that you run the risk of earning nothing on your nest egg.
Plus, the more people that pay in reduces the chances of you winning as long as the number of prizes on offer stays the same.
Each bond is bought with £1 although there’s a minimum investment of £25, which has recently been lowered from £50.
HM Treasury has recently hiked the amount it wants National Savings and Investments (NS&I) to raise this financial year from £6billion to £35billion.
It hopes that the funds will help pay for the huge government spending to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus, such as the furlough scheme and the Eat Out to Help Out incentive.
It’s potentially good news for savers as NS&I will be looking for ways to attract investors, which could see a boost in the number of prizes up for grabs every month.
Alternatively, it could see the minimum buy-in drop.
It would be a massive u-turn on plans to cut interest rates and Premium Bond prizes outlined in February this year.
In April, it said it would scrap the drop in rates and prizes to help savers through the pandemic crisis.
If you haven’t already, it’s worth checking your NS&I account to see if you’ve won money that you don’t know about.
Last year, it warned that more than £63million Premium Bond prizes had been left unclaimed.
To see if you’re a winner, use the prize checker on NS&I.com, the prize check app or Amazon’s Alexa.
There’s no time limit to claim, so you can go back to the first Bond you purchased.
Most prizes that have gone unclaimed is usually down to winners not keeping personal information, such as a change of address, up to date on the NS&I record.
To avoid missing out on winnings, you can choose to have any future prizes paid directly to your bank account.
In order to do this, register your Premium Bonds and NS&I accounts online.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/money/how-to-freshen-up-your-home-on-the-cheap-after-months-of-lockdown/
