Christmas came early for some Premium Bonds holders who won big prizes in December’s draw.
The two coveted £1million jackpot prizes were won by Premium Bonds customers in Essex and York – but three others with small holdings were especially lucky in their wins.
A Premium Bonds holder has snagged £50,000, the third biggest prize tier on offer with a holding of just £5 bought in July 1983 in a sign that good things come to those who wait.
This lucky winner, based in Norwich, has made a 999,900 per cent return on their initial investment.
One of the top Premium Bonds prizes of £50,000 was snagged by a customer with a £5 holding bought in 1983
Beginners’ luck was on the side of another Premium Bonds holder from Fife whose £675 holding won £25,000 in its first draw.
Their winning bond was purchased in October so this was the first draw that it was eligible for. Their return is 3,603 per cent on their original investment in Premium Bonds.
A Premium Bonds customer from Berkshire won a £100,000 prize with a holding of just £340 which they purchased in September 2008.
That’s a 29,311 per cent return on what they originally invested in Premium Bonds.
Premium Bonds Winners
| Prize | Area | Value of bond |
| £1,000,000 | York | £20,000 |
| £1,000,000 | Essex | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Highlands And Islands | £7,000 |
| £100,000 | Barnet | £35,000 |
| £100,000 | Birmingham | £450 |
| £100,000 | Outer London | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Devon | £5,000 |
| £100,000 | Kent | £11,000 |
More December 2023 winners
These three winners all had small holdings of under £1,000. The maximum holding for Premium Bonds is £50,000 and This is Money analysis revealed that half of the top Premium Bonds prizes in the October prize draw were won by customers with the maximum holding.
Andrew Westhead, NS&I retail director, says: ‘It’s been a bumper year for Premium Bonds and we end 2023 with more than 63million prizes drawn, worth over £4.6 billion.’
There are 5,817,845 prizes worth £473,427,175 will be paid out in the December 2023 prize draw.
Recently, expert warned that Premium Bonds customers could see Premium Bonds prizes cut after NS&I announced that it hit its fundraising target for the year with an excess of £2.3billion, raking in £9.8billion from savers over the past six months.
NS&I has wiggle-room of £3billion either side of that target, so it can only raise another £700million in the next six months before it breaches its extended target.
This means it will not need to raise rates or add more prizes to raise money to meet its fundraising target.
