National Savings & Investments is today launching a nationwide search to track down the winners of 898,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, worth a grand total of £44million. So are you sitting on a Premium Bond fortune?
According to NS&I, there are three prizes worth £100,000, two worth £50,000 and three worth £25,000 up for grabs among the unclaimed prizes. You can check the full list of unclaimed prizes here.
Among the 898,000 unclaimed sums are more than 500,000 prizes of £50 valued at a total of £27.4million.
Check your Bonds: Could you have a Premium Bond worth thousands laying around in drawers?The most common reasons for Premium Bond prizes remaining unclaimed include NS&I not being informed of changes in contact details or people losing track of them after being gifted them in childhood.
NS&I says it is imperative to keep them up to date if anything changes, including addresses and phone numbers.
More... Premium Bonds Calculator: Have I won? Do Premium Bonds favour the South East and are old bonds left out? We track down NS&I's secret star who travels the country to deliver £1m worth of good news
Premium Bonds holders can reduce the chances of their prizes becoming unclaimed by managing their Premium Bonds online or opting to have any prizes paid directly into their bank accounts by BACS, with notification of the win by email.
UNCLAIMED PRIZE TOTALSPrize valueNo of prizesTotal prize value£25
290,609
£7,265,225
£50
548,087
£27,404,350
£100
57,773
£5,777,300
£250
14
£3,500
£500
3,394
£1,697,000
£1,000
1,089
£1,089,000
£5,000
40
£200,000
£10,000
18
£180,000
£25,000
3
£75,000
£50,000
2
£100,000
£100,000
3
£300,000
TOTAL:
901,032
£44,091,375
Holders can do this by registering here.
Over a third of the UK population have invested roughly £45billion in Premium Bonds, and every eligible Bond is entered into the monthly prize draw.
Investors forgo interest to have the chance to win tax-free prizes.
One of the £100,000 prizes still unclaimed is from a woman in London - and she had just £25 invested in Premium Binds. The prize was won in February 2007.
There is no time limit for claiming prizes and each unclaimed prize is held until the rightful winner can be tracked down.
The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to November 1957 where a male in South Yorkshire has a prize to the sum of £25 waiting to be claimed.
Each draw has a £1million jackpot - but there are no unclaimed prizes for this full amount.
Jill Waters, operations manager at NS&I, said: ‘It is likely that the winner of the £100,000 prize is unaware or she has forgotten that she has Premium Bonds – the lucky winner has just £25 invested.
‘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.
This is Money interviewed Agent Million in October last year – she is responsible for delivering the winning news to those who win the Premium Bond jackpot. You can read our exclusive interview with her here.
TOP FIVE HIGHEST UNCLAIMED PRIZES IN THE UKWinning Bond NumberPrize ValueGenderLast Known LocationPresent Premium Bond HoldingMonth and Year of Draw8LK522839
£100,000
Female
London
£25
February 2007
50PB780494
£100,000
Female
Greater Manchester
£280
September 2010
3VT019901
£50,000
Female
Kent
£128
November 2007
1JK051177
£25,000
Male
London
£50
October 1991
38HZ060777
£25,000
Male
West Midlands
£2,000
March 2003
TOP FIVE OLDEST UNCLAIMED PRIZES IN THE UKWinning Bond NumberPrize ValueGenderCountyPresent Premium Bond HoldingMonth and Year of Draw
VN199709
£25
Male
South Yorkshire
£100
November 1957
AK956009
£100
Male
London
£7
June 1960
BN124135
£25
Female
London
£2
July 1960
1EB770826
£25
Male
Oxfordshire
£10
July 1960
AK864669
£25
Male
Staffordshire
£1
July 1960
*Prizes in both tables have not been included where the holder is based overseas or NS&I has incomplete address details about the prize recipient, so differ slightly from the totals in the separate 'Unclaimed Prize Totals' box above.