Over £41 million of Premium Bonds prizes unclaimed

Are you missing out on a big Premium Bonds prize?

National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has urged Premium Bonds holders to register for its online services so that prizes are paid straight into their bank account and ensure they don't join the thousands of savers missing out on over £41 million of unclaimed prizes.

There are some huge prizes which so far nobody has come forward to claim. For example, there is a woman in London with just £25  Premium Bonds who is yet to claim her £100,000 prize from the February 2007 draw. Similarly there is a woman in Greater Manchester who won £100,000 in the September 2010 draw but has failed to collect the money. She has £280 invested in Premium Bonds.

Why prizes go uncollected

According to NS&I, the Government-backed provider of Premium Bonds, there are a number of reasons prizes go unclaimed. For example you may change address without informing NS&I, so you miss out on its letters informing you that you’ve won.

Or a relative may have bought the bonds for you as a child, and you’ve subsequently lost track of them.

London is the area with the most unclaimed prizes – over 200,000 prizes worth a whopping £9 million remain unclaimed.

The biggest unclaimed prizes

The table below highlights the five biggest unclaimed prizes in the UK.

How to ensure you never miss a prize

You can register with NS&I’s online service, which means that any future prizes will go directly into your current account. As a result, even if you move house and forget to update NS&I, you’ll never miss out on a prize!

For the latest big prize-winning numbers, take a look at November 2014's Premium Bonds winners.

More on savings:

This month’s Premium Bonds winners

The best fixed rate savings accounts

Where to earn most interest on your cash