The winners of May’s NS&I Premium Bond prize draw will be announced in the coming days, which will see a staggering total of £330million up for grabs.
After the prize fund rate was raised from 3.15 percent to 3.3 percent in February, over five million prizes were paid out to Premium Bond savers last month, ranging from values from £25 up to two £1million prizes.
The odds of winning, however, sit at 24,500 to one for every £1 bond, but there are ways for savers to increase their chances.
How to boost chances of winning Premium Bond prizes
While winners are chosen at random, there are ways to boost the chances of winning, and this involves topping up and buying more bonds.
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Bonds can be bought for £25 each and up to £50,000 can be invested overall. According to NS&I, each £1 bond number has an equal chance of winning, regardless of when or where it was bought.
Winning bond numbers are generated by NS&I’s Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment (ERNIE), which has had several upgrades since it was first used in 1957.
An NS&I statement reads: “Using light, ERNIE 5 generates random numbers that are matched against eligible Bond numbers to determine the lucky winners. And because it’s random, every Bond number, whether it has eight, nine, 10 or 11 digits, has a separate and equal chance of winning a prize.”
Following the announcement of April’s million-pound winners, Jill Waters, NS&I retail director, said: “One of this month’s winners has won £1million with Premium Bonds after just 10 months, whilst the other waited nearly ten years to hit the jackpot.
“This just goes to show that, whether it is months or years, customers up and down the country can win big and feel the magic of Premium Bonds.”
Ms Waters added: “Buying Premium Bonds is a fun way to save as customers have the chance to win one of over five million prizes.
“With just £25, people can begin their Premium Bonds journey and can start saving today for a better tomorrow. Don’t forget to keep your contact details up to date so that Agent Million can find you.”
How to check if you’ve won a Premium Bond prize
People can check if they’ve won a prize by using NS&I’s official prize-checking tool, which can be accessed here. They’ll just need 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 show the bondholder if they’ve won in any of the previous six draws, as well as any older prizes that haven’t been claimed.
Currently, it’s thought that around £88.8million worth of bond winnings are going unclaimed. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as missing current address details, which makes it key for people to check their information is up to date.
According to NS&I, the best way to ensure prizes don’t go unclaimed is for savers to opt to have them paid directly into their bank account or automatically reinvested into more Premium Bonds. Savers can find out how to do this here.
The next NS&I prize draw results will be available on May 3.
