Over £30 million unclaimed premium bond prizes in UK

A major nationwide search has been launched by NS&I (National Savings and Investments) to track down the winners of over 550,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth over £30 million in total. This is the largest amount ever left unclaimed and includes one prize worth £100,000, two worth £25,000 and ten worth £10,000.

The prizes commonly become unclaimed because people fail to pass on new addresses when they move house, they have forgotten that Bonds had been bought for them when they were a child or executors are unaware the Bonds are held when someone dies. Over a third (37%) of people who have lost touch with their savings have moved home and failed to tell all their financial providers their new address . Half (50%) say they find it difficult to remember all of the accounts they have opened over the years.

The unclaimed prizes range all the way up to £100,000 from £25. NS&I gives away over one million tax-free Premium Bond prizes each month.

Sally Swait, Premium Bond manager at NS&I said: "Following the expense of Christmas, tracing unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes may prove to be a welcome source of extra money for some."

"We urge anyone who believes they could have unclaimed prizes to check with us. The easiest way is to use our website and there is no time limit on claiming the prizes."

How to check?

There are two ways to check for an unclaimed prize:

Online at nsandi.com

The Premium Bond prize checker is on the home page of the NS&I website at www.nsandi.com - customers simply need to enter their Premium Bond holder's number into the search facility.

In writing to NS&I

Alternatively people can write to

Premium Bonds
National Savings and Investments
Blackpool
FY3 9YP

No time limit

There is no time limit on claiming prizes and each unclaimed prize is held until the winner can be tracked down. The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to November 1957 for the sum of £25.