It’s the dream for all of us that one day your carefully stashed savings will turn into a jackpot £1M Premium Bonds win from NS&I.
Premium Bonds are a great way to save money tax-free if you’ve already maxed out your regular Personal Savings Allowance and cash ISA allowance.
Every Premium Bond owned gives you the chance to win money each month, from £25 up to the top £1million prize.
According to Martin Lewis’ calculations, Premium Bonds’ average annual return on £50,000 of savings is 4 percent, although a few lucky people can win considerably more – and a few unlucky ones win less.
But every month when the winners of the top prizes are announced, one or two Premium Bonds holders call into question why people living in some areas of England seem to win more often than others.
One person asked NS&I on Twitter: “I’m a bit confused on how every month there’s a selection of areas that are always on the top winner list I.e Essex, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Stockport, Hereford, Devon etc… Surely that can’t be a coincidence? Or is it favoured towards… #bonds”
The truth is not some grand conspiracy against the north but in fact is rather more mundane. There are simply more Premium Bonds holders in the affluent south of England.
@NSandi replied: “Good morning, If it seems that more prizes are won by holders in the South East, that’s because there are more Bonds held there compared with the rest of the UK. May I take this opportunity to wish you luck in future prize draws. Isabella.”
On its website, NS&I goes into further detail about its prize draws and locations.
It says: “Seeing where the luckiest prize winning areas are each month is part of the fun of Premium Bonds. But to protect winners’ anonymity and help keep their personal details private, we set some rules around revealing prize winning locations.
“Each customer is assigned to a town, local authority, county or Government Standard Region and country. When a winner is assigned to a town with less than 100,000 holders assigned to it, then we use the following hierarchy until we find a level where that area has at least 100,000 Premium Bonds holders:
“Level 1 Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) Town (like Blackpool)
Level 2 County or Local Authority (like Lancashire)
Level 3 Government Standard Region (like North West)
Level 4 Country (like England).
“For large towns and cities that are divided into local authorities or boroughs, we quote the area with the fewest customers over the 100,000 reporting limit. This may mean the list quotes a local authority area or borough instead of the town or city.”
