Two Premium Bonds holders, one in Norwich and one in London, each won the £1 million jackpot in the September draw. The Norwich winner holds Bond 484QT130447, bought in January 2022, with £50,000 saved. The London winner holds Bond 659VC982054, bought in January this year, with £45,500. Norwich now counts seven jackpot winners. London has 25.
ERNIE, the machine that picks the numbers, drew 6,529,868 tax-free prizes for the month, worth £497,086,175 in total. The draw covered 137,127,223,215 eligible £1 Bonds. The prize fund rate for September is 4.35%, and the monthly odds of any single £1 Bond number winning are 21,000 to 1.
“ERNIE is bringing some autumnal joy to two Premium Bonds holders in Norwich and London who have won £1 million each this month,” said Andrew Westhead, retail director at National Savings and Investments.
Nearly 70 years of draws
Premium Bonds went on sale in November 1956, launched by the then Chancellor, Harold Macmillan, so the 70th anniversary falls this November. The first draw followed in June 1957. The top prize then was £1,000. It rose over time and reached £1 million with the April 1994 draw, and there are now two such prizes every month. According to Westhead, ERNIE has drawn 586 of them. Across all draws it has handed out 858 million prizes worth £42.8 billion.
Each £1 Bond goes into the monthly draw, with prizes running from £25 to £1 million. Savers can hold up to £50,000, including children under 16. New Bonds must sit for one full calendar month before they count. Prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax, and the money is backed by HM Treasury.
The prizes nobody collects
More than 99% of prizes have reached their winners, but some have not. NS&I says 2,851,753 unclaimed prizes worth £126,787,100 are waiting, usually because someone moved house or changed bank details and never updated their record. London alone has 485,060 of them, worth £21,235,875, including a £100,000 prize and nine of £25,000. Norwich has 13,756 worth £631,875, among them a £50,000 prize won in December 2023.
The fix is simple. Prizes paid straight to a bank account, or reinvested automatically up to the £50,000 limit, now make up nine in ten payouts. Holders who suspect they are owed something can type their holder’s number into the prize checker app or the NS&I website. Prizes from £25 to £100,000 could be checked from Wednesday 2 September.
Sources
- PR260901 – ERNIE draws two September jackpot millionaires as Premium Bonds approach 70th anniversary
