Premium Bonds prize winners announced for March – check if you’ve won £1million | Personal Finance | Finance
Premium Bonds prize winners announced for March – check if you’ve won £1million (Image: NS&I)
The NS&I Premium Bonds prize winners for March have been announced, including two new lucky millionaires. Premium Bonds are a savings account offered by National Savings & Investments (NS&I), one of the largest savings institutions in the UK, backed by the Treasury.
The accounts don’t earn interest traditionally and consistently. Instead, each bond is entered into a monthly, randomly generated prize draw. Between £25 and £50,000 can be invested in the account, and prizes of up to £1million can be won every month. NS&I has revealed the full list of March’s high-value winners, with savers from Liverpool and Norfolk receiving the jackpot prizes.
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The first winning bond number for the million-pound prize is 496VT504601, awarded to a bondholder based in Liverpool. This winner purchased their winning Bond in April 2022 and holds £50,000 in Premium Bonds.
The second £1million jackpot winner is based in Norfolk. Their winning Bond number is 282NN327573, and it was purchased in September 2016. They also hold a total of £50,000 in Premium Bonds.
The full list of high value winners has been published on NS&I’s website.
The prize fund rate for this month’s prize draw is 3.6%, and the odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize are 22,000 to one.
The rate will drop to 3.3% in April, with the odds also dropping to one in 23,000.
Commenting on the upcoming changes, Andrew Westhead, NS&I retail director, said: “This change to the Premium Bonds prize fund rate and odds reflects changes in the wider savings market, and ensures we continue to balance the interests of savers, taxpayers and the wider financial services sector.
“Premium Bonds continue to be the most popular UK savings account. Having recently passed £40 billion in prizes drawn, the April draw is expected to have close to six million tax-free prizes worth around £375 million. Launched 70 years ago in November 1956, Premium Bonds maintain their unique appeal by offering 100% security, the flexibility to withdraw easily, and the excitement of potentially winning a tax-free prize each month.”
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How to check if you’ve won Premium Bonds prizes
Premium Bonds savers can check if they’ve won a prize through the NS&I website, the prize checker app, or by simply asking Alexa.
To check on the NS&I website, you’ll need your Premium Bonds holder’s number. For the prize checker app, you’ll need your NS&I number or holder’s number. You can also use these tools to check for any unclaimed prizes owed to you. The results this month will become available on March 3.
Premium Bonds prize winners will receive notifications of their winnings each month via their chosen method, such as email or text, if they have registered their contact details.
However, there are instances when customers relocate or change their contact or bank details and forget to update their NS&I account with the new details, leading to unclaimed prizes.
Currently, there are 2,713,707 unclaimed prizes worth £114,769,950 awaiting claim by bondholders. Although over 99% of prizes have been paid to winners since the draw began in 1957, NS&I said.
According to the savings institution, the “best way” to avoid prizes going unclaimed is to have them paid directly into the holder’s bank account or automatically reinvested into Premium Bonds up to the £50,000 holding limit.
Prizes automatically reinvested are immediately eligible for the next draw. These payment methods now account for 9 in 10 prizes.
