Check premium savings bond serial numbers

Almost one million savers are owed money in forgotten Premium Bonds, with a prize fund of £41m left unclaimed.

Check your premium bonds! More than £44m in prize money is still unclaimed - including £100,000 prize won in 2007. Bond prizes have not been claimed since the popular savings product was.

Check the latest prizes: Premium Bond prizes. Premium Bond 'numbers' are formed of a string of characters with two letters and 6, 7, 8 or 9 numbers. Savings rates are up and inflation is.
Check your premium bonds! More than £44m in prize money is still unclaimed - including £100,000 prize won in 2007. Bond prizes have not been claimed since the popular savings product was.

Some accounts date back fifty years, says Government savings arm National Savings & Investments (NS&I). There is no time limit on claiming - so winnings from the first-ever draw in 1957 are up for the taking.

NS&I only has the last-known location of each lost winner, and details of the value of their bonds.

The oldest unclaimed prize, £25, is owed to a man from South Yorkshire who purchased the bond in November 1957.

A man in London who won £100 in June 1960 from bonds worth £7, has been left unclaimed as well as a £25 prize from June 1960 owed to a man in Staffordshire who invested just £1.

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The largest sum is £100,000 owed to a woman in Greater Manchester, who had bonds worth £280. She was picked in the September 2010 prize draw. Another £100,000 is owed to a woman in London who had £25 invested and won in February 2007.

Despite this, however, unclaimed winnings costs savers millions each year in lost interest.

In recent years NS&I has chiselled away the value of prize money paid to the 22 million Premium Bond investors, with the equivalent interest now worth 1.35pc instead of 1.5pc.

However, despite falling returns almost a third of the population have invested in the popular funds.

Currently £51bn is held in Premium Bonds, which offer monthly tax-free prizes instead of interest. Savers' cash can be withdrawn at any time without a charge.

Millions 'lost' by dormant accounts

Dormant accounts - whether bond or bank accounts - cost savers millions in lost interest each year.

According to Rachel Springall of Moneyfacts.co.uk, a comparison service, people should be meticulous in keeping financial documents together.

'It’s so easy to take out a Premium Bond and forget about it, that's why its so important to keep all your documents together, especially if you are about to move home.

>> How to earn £520 a year from premium bonds

'Sadly these bonds can be left behind, especially as people can invest so little and a long time ago, but people can miss out on thousands of pounds if they don’t stay up to date.'

Jill Waters of NS&I said that some winners may have died without their family knowing that they held Premium Bonds. 'Prizes also become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that bonds have been bought for them as a child,' she said.

To prevent losing a prize, savers can opt to have any winnings paid directly to their bank.

To check if you have won a Premium Bond prize, go to nsandi.com or call 0500 007 007.

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Check your premium bonds! More than £44m in prize money is still unclaimed - including £100,000 prize won in 2007

898,000 prizes - worth an average amount of £50 - have not been claimed
Unlike National Lottery, no time limit imposed on when you can claim a prize

Published: 01:41 BST, 5 June 2013 | Updated: 07:36 BST, 5 June 2013

One of the women who won £100,000 in February 2007, last known to be living in London, had just £25 invested in Premium Bonds

More than £44million in Premium Bond prizes have not been claimed since the popular savings product was introduced nearly 60 years ago.

National Savings & Investments is urging anybody who have Premium Bonds to check whether or not they have won a prize - but never claimed it.

A record 898,000 prizes have not been claimed, with an average amount of £50 although two women have failed to claim an eye-watering £100,000 each.

Several other prizes worth £25,000 and £50,000 have also been left abandoned.

Unlike the National Lottery, there is no time limit imposed on when you can claim a prize. The National Lottery imposes a 180-day deadline from the day of the draw.

NS&I, the Government’s savings arm, said it will hold onto people’s prize money until they step forward to claim it.

A spokesman said: ‘Each unclaimed prize is held until the rightful winner can be tracked down.’ The oldest unclaimed prize involves a man, last known to be living in South Yorkshire, who won a prize of £25 in November 1957.

One of the women who won £100,000 in February 2007, last known to be living in London, had just £25 invested in Premium Bonds.

Many winners are likely to be people who were bought Premium Bonds as children but have completely forgotten about them.

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Others have moved house but never told NS&I about their new address.

Jill Waters, operations manager at NS&I, said: ‘Prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that Bonds have been bought for them as a child, or executors are unaware the Bonds are held when someone dies.’

Many winners are likely to be people who were bought Premium Bonds as children but have completely forgotten about them

If you think you may be one of the winners, you have two options. The easiest option - if you have your Premium Bond holder’s number - is to use the search facility on the NS&I website.

Alternatively, you can write a letter to NS&I to ask whether or not you have any unclaimed prizes.

The address to write to is: ‘Premium Bonds, National Savings and Investments, Glasgow, G58 1SB.’ If possible, you should include your Premium Bond numbers, your name, any former names, such as your maiden name, your current address and any previous addresses.

If the Premium Bonds were bought for you as a child, NS&I said it would be a good idea to include the address of your childhood home.

Premium Bonds, which are tax-free, pay out prize money every month, rather than paying interest. The maximum prize is £1million a month, although all these prizes have been claimed.

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The largest National Lottery prize which has not been claimed was a Euromillions prize of £63million last year. The amount was donated to good causes.

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Premium Bonds were launched by the Chancellor Harold Macmillan in his 1956 Budget.

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