Premium Bonds savers are being warned it can take more than three years to win their first prize. The Government-backed savings product from National Savings and Investments (NS&I) offers £1 bonds which are entered into a monthly prize draw to win tax-free prizes ranging from £25 to £1million.

Figures obtained by wealth manager Quilter via a freedom of information request show first time winners had waited on average 3.1 years before receiving their first prize in 2025. Ian Futcher, financial adviser at Quilter, said people are putting an “inordinate amount” of money into Premium Bonds when they would perhaps be better off parking their cash elsewhere.

He said: “Last year’s first-time winners had to wait over three years on average before they received that prize, while the average holding for prize winners in 2025 stands close to a staggering £40,000.

“In that time, and provided their financial situation allows, significant gains could be made by investing and offers a much greater potential to grow wealth than Premium Bonds can.”

Quilter said the data it obtained also showed one in three (29%) Premium Bond holders who won their first prize last year had to wait more than two years.

For all those who won a prize last year, the average holding was £39,500.

The wealth management company said this highlighted the sheer amount of money needed to give bondholders the best chance possible to win a prize.

Under the rules, you can hold no more that £50,000 in Premium Bonds.

Those who won the minimum amount of £25 last year had an average holding of £39,817, according to Quilter.

It said prize winners who pocketed £25,000 had the largest average holding of over £40,000 while the £1m jackpot prize saw the lowest average holding, which still stood at £37,135.

NS&I offers a range of savings and investments to more than 24 million customers, including more than 22 million Premium Bonds holders.

The Premium Bond prize rate will be cut from 3.6% to 3.3% from April. This is just above inflation, which at the time of writing stands at 3%.