The hunt is on to track down 900,000 Premium Bond prize winners, some of whom are owed tens of thousands in unclaimed prize money.
National Savings & Investments (NS&I), the government’s savings facility, is trying to track down almost 900,000 bond holders who are owed a collective total of £44 million in past prizes.
There are two jackpots of £100,000 among the unclaimed prizes, which belong to female bondholders from the London and Manchester areas. Further unclaimed stashes are worth £50,000 and £25,000.
In a quaint look to the past, NS&I revealed that the oldest unclaimed prize dates back over 55 years, shortly after the bonds were first introduced in 1956.
There are also four unclaimed prizes worth between £25 and £100 dating back to the summer of 1960.
The average unclaimed prize is worth around £50. But with over half a million unclaimed prizes, it is certainly worth a quick check for bondholders who do not follow the progress of their bonds.
Bondholders wishing to check whether they are a prize-winner can do so by entering their bond numbers into the search engine at NSandI.com.
Not as flash as EuroMillions, but there are 898,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, worth up to £100,000.
Jill Walters, NS&I’s operations manager, said that people rarely remember to keep the service informed of any change of address, and that they often lose track of their bonds.
"Prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house, or forgetting that bonds have been bought for them as a child, or executors are unaware the bonds are held when someone dies," she said.
Bond holders can avoid missing out on future prizes, she added, by registering to manage bonds online, which would see future prizes being paid directly into a bank account.
Keith McDonald
Which4U Editor
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