NS&I has shared a top tip for Premium Bond savers to increase the chance of securing a prize in the monthly draw.
Prizes range from £5 to the life-changing £1million jackpot, with a number of high-value prizes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in between.
Savers find out at the start of every month if one of their Bonds has been randomly chosen to win, and this month, 5.8 million numbers were drawn.
The minimum amount people can pay into the account is £25 and the odds of any £1 Bond number winning a prize are 21,000 to one.
However, there are ways people can increase the odds for themselves, according to NS&I.
When congratulating May’s £1million jackpot winners, Andrew Westhead, NS&I retail director, said: “This year we celebrate thirty years since ERNIE drew our first ever millionaire. The total prize pot for May was more than £453 million with over 5.8 million prizes being drawn.”
He then added: “Each £1 Bond has an equal chance of winning so the more you save the more chances you have to win a tax-free prize.”
This month, the two winners from Hampshire and Outer London scooped the big prizes with £45,000 and £10,575 investments, respectively.
Although, there have been instances where winners have won with much less than this. One lucky saver managed to snap up £50,000 in February’s prize draw despite only having £10 in Bonds.
How to check if you’ve won a Premium Bonds prize
People can check if they’ve won a prize through NS&I’s prize-checking tool. All the person needs is their bond 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.
According to NS&I, there are 2,399,977 prizes currently going unclaimed worth £83,367,525.
This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as missing current address details, or if an account holder had Bonds bought as a child but has since forgotten about them.
NS&I said the best way to ensure prizes are claimed is for savers to opt to have them paid directly into their bank account or automatically reinvested into more Premium Bonds.
