Two Premium Bonds holders from have received a welcome summer windfall by winning the £1m jackpot in the July 2023 prize draw.
The first winning bond, 493HK711899, was bought in March 2022 by someone from Staffordshire, who holds £48,750 in Premium Bonds. It makes them the fifth winner from the county.
July’s second top prize winner comes from Norfolk, and holds £20,000 in bonds.
Their winner carries the number 246DR645231, and was purchased in May 2015 – they are just the second winner from the county.
This marked the first draw since the Premium Bonds prize fund rate rose to its highest rate in the past 15 years.
How many Premium Bonds prizes were there in July 2023?
A total of 5,061,349 prizes were paid out in the July draw, which carry a combined value of £374,539,700 – more than £40m than in June.
These were drawn from a total of 121,472,335,344 eligible numbers.
As well as the two £1m bonds, there are 71 winners of £100,000, 142 of £50,000, 283 of £25,000, 709 worth £10,000 and 1,418 valued at £5,000.
The total paid out by NS&I in the 65 years since the very first draw in June 1957 now stands at £26.4bn, from 631 million prizes.
How to check if you’ve won
If you hold bonds and want to check if you’re in line for a prize, you can use the NS&I online prize checker here, or can download the free app from iOS or Android, with the results usually accessible from the second day of the month.
Amazon Alexa devices can also check for you, “remembering” back across the past six prize draws.
Prizes don’t carry a time limit, so you can claim as far back as the original 1957 draw. However, according to MoneySavingExpert, as of November 2021, there were more than two million unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, with a total value of almost £75m.
The bonds are often bought for a child, who subsequently forgets about them, while prizes can also be missed if NS&I don’t have the correct address for claimants.
Bond holders can ensure their details remain up to date, and also register to have prizes paid directly into their bank account by managing their account online on the NS&I website.
Registering online can also prevent prizes going missing in the post, with a report last year revealing the scale of such problems.
A Freedom of Information request from MoneySavingExpert in April 2019 found that more than 180,000 prizes had not been delivered, with a combined value of £8m – including £66,900 in the previous year.
How likely am I to win the Premium Bonds?
At the start of this year, the interest rate of its prize fund rose from 2.2 per cent to 3 per cent, before increasing further to 3.3 per cent.
But now, after a further hike, it stands at 3.7 per cent – with yet another jump to 4 per cent from August.
A holder’s odds of winning remain at 24,000 to 1 in July, though there are now more £100,000, £50,000, £25,000, £10,000 and £5,000 prizes available.
However, from August the odds of winning will increase to 22,000 to 1. NS&I estimates that the August changes will see an extra £30m added to the prize fund, with 460,000 extra prizes up for grabs.
It estimates that the number of £5,000 prizes won by customers in August will go from 1,417 to 1,539, while the number of £10,000 prizes will increase from 707 to 769.
NS&I chief executive Dax Harkins said: “I’m delighted that we’re able to improve the odds to the best they have been in almost 15 years, with more prizes, more excitement and more life-changing wins for savers up and down the country.
“These changes will benefit millions of NS&I’s savers who have money in Premium Bonds, Direct Saver and Income Bonds.”
