National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has shared a top tip for Premium Bonds holders to receive their winnings faster. It comes as millions of prizes are yet to be paid – and some are worth thousands.

Premium Bonds savers can win sums worth anything between £25 and £1million every month through randomly generated prize draws. People are usually notified when they win a prize, but if they move or change their contact details without updating NS&I, prizes can go unclaimed. According to the savings institution, there are currently 2,547,426 Premium Bonds prizes worth £97,152,875 still waiting to be snapped up.

Explaining the quickest way to receive prices and avoid missing out, NS&I suggested savers opt to have winnings paid directly into their bank accounts.

A statement from NS&I reads: “Customers can choose to have their prizes paid directly to their bank account or reinvested into more Premium Bonds. Nine in 10 prizes are already paid this way as it is quicker than waiting for a cheque to then pay in.”

Customers can find instructions on how to change their prize payment preferences here.

How to check for unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes

People can check if they’ve won a prize through NS&I’s prize-checking tool. Customers will only need their Premium Bonds holder’s number or NS&I number to see the results.

People can also download the NS&I premium bonds prize checker app, which is available at the Apple Store or Google Play, where the same information will be readily available.

Not only will it show this month’s prizes, but it’ll also display any older prizes that haven’t been claimed.

April saw two winners in South Yorkshire and Hertfordshire snap up NS&I’s maximum £1million prizes. Taking just these two areas, there are currently 23,241 unclaimed prizes worth £867,850 in South Yorkshire, while 56,335 unclaimed prizes worth £2,083,850 are waiting to be claimed in Hertfordshire.

To prevent prizes from going unclaimed, customers are urged to ensure they constantly update NS&I with any changes to their details, such as their email address, phone number, name or address.