If you haven’t checked your premium bonds in a while, today may be your lucky day

Almost 900,000 premium bond prizes worth more than £43m have been left unclaimed, according to National Savings and Investments (NS&I).

Prizes fall through the gap
NS&I say they are currently endeavouring to locate winners, two of which are worth
£100,000 and a prize of £25 dating back to 1957. There are several other prizes ranging from
£25 to £100 dating back to 1960.

The two six-figure sums were both won by women, one in London and one in the Greater Manchester area. It also includes a man from Yorkshire who won £25 back in 1957.
It seems that these prizes fall through the gap when people either forget about bonds or move house without notifying NS&I. The good news is there’s no time limit for claiming your bonds.

How does it work?
Premium bonds are run by NS&I and backed by the Government. They don’t earn interest as other savings products do. Investors forgo interest to have the chance to win tax-free cash. The monthly prize pot is generated from interest paid on the total amount invested in premium bonds. This is divided up among winners who are selected randomly by a machine nicknamed Ernie (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment). The scheme was set up in 1956 and the top prize then was £1,000.

Currently, there is one monthly £1 million prize, five £100,000 prizes and more than 1.75 million
£25 prizes. And you don’t need to have thousands of pounds of bonds to win a decent sum: the missing £100,000 winner from London invested just £25.

Although the likelihood of winning the top £1m prize is one in 441.65 million if you only hold £100 worth of premium bonds, you still have a 1 in 240 chance of winning any prize.

How do I know if I’ve won?
You can reduce the chances of a prize being unclaimed by managing your bonds online or opting to have any winnings paid directly into your bank account with a notification email – not a bad start to the day.