Premium Bonds savers reunited with £120m of lost cash and unclaimed prizes

Tens of thousands of Premium Bonds savers have been reunited with millions of pounds in unclaimed holdings and prizes in the last year. 

National Savings & Investments said it had reunited 52,693 Premium Bonds savers with over £120million of lost cash in the financial year 2024-25.

Savers finding accounts they had lost track of accounted for the bulk of the £120million sum. 

However, NS&I also paid out £6.2million from 192,071 previously unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes to 51,310 lucky savers.

They found the money through NS&I’s tracing services, or by updating their details or checking for unclaimed prizes. 

The Treasury-backed savings bank also paid out £11.4million from old Savings Certificates and £1.3million from old Children’s Bonus Bonds for a total of over £166million.  

But there are still currently around 2.6million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth over £103million, This is Money analysis has found.

Nice surprise: Tens of thousands of Premium Bonds savers have been reunited with £6million in old prizes this year – but our analysis showed there are still millions more waiting to be found

Millions of Premium Bonds holders are owed prizes worth up to £100,000 that they have yet to claim.

There are 2,598,139 unclaimed prizes ranging from £25 to £100,000 – totalling £103,270,175 as of this month. This includes 11 prizes of £100,000, 19 of £50,000, 38 of £25,000 and 75 of £10,000. 

This sum has ballooned 21.9 per cent compared with this time last year, with some unclaimed prizes dating back as far as November 1957.

The majority of prizes go unclaimed because they are received by cheque. 

Of the 32,289 unclaimed prizes in January 2024 – the most recent draw for which prizes are now being classed as unclaimed – the majority were sent to winners as cheques. 

How to find lost Premium Bonds 

If you suspect you have an unclaimed Premium Bonds prize, NS&I has a small team known as its tracing team that will help trace old bond numbers when contacted via this link.

They should be able to help, even if you have moved address and do not know where your bonds are registered or if you have lost old paper certificates.

NS&I also has a service called My Lost Account, which is associated with UK Finance and the Building Societies Association.

It can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as NS&I.

Andrew Westhead, NS&I’s retail director, said: ‘Every pound we reunite is money that rightly belongs to our customers or their families, whether it’s Premium Bonds savings, unclaimed prizes or forgotten accounts.

‘These figures are a timely reminder to update your details, talk to your loved ones about your savings and make sure your money stays firmly in your hands, both now and in the future.’

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