Tag Archives: premium bond prizes

Banks, Bonds, CDs, Checking & Savings, Financial, Financial Services, Interest Rate

NS&I Changes Premium Bonds Prize Structure And Variable Rates On Savings

NS&I has announced that f r o m the April prize draw onwards one of the two monthly Premium Bond jackpot prizes of £1 million will be replaced by a wider mix of prizes in the monthly draws, allowing more people to win but still retaining the chance of winning the £1 million jackpot prize. Similarly, a new £25 Premium Bond prize will be introduced and used alongside the existing prizes (ranging f r o m £50 to£1 million). These changes have been introduced because Premium Bond holders say that maintaining the chances of winning tax-free prizes on a regular basis is particularly important to them.

In addition to these changes, NS&I is reducing the Premium Bond prize fund rate f r o m 1.8% to 1%. This rate will be held at least until the June 2009 draw even if there are further changes to the base rate. This is the first change NS&I has made to the prize fund rate since December last year – during which time the Bank of England base rate has fallen f r o m 3.0% to 0.5%. The revised prize fund rate will come into effect f r o m 1 April 2009.

The current odds of each £1 Premium Bond number winning any prize will remain unchanged at 36,000 to 1, so with average luck an investor with £30,000 in Premium Bonds could win 10 tax-free prizes a year. The unclaimed premium bond prizes range all the way f r o m £25 up to £100,000. NS&I gives away over one million tax-free* Premium Bond prizes each month.

NS&I is also reducing the interest rates on its other variable rate savings by up to 0.50%, following movements in the Bank of England base rate. The revised interest rates will come into effect f r o m 18 March 2009.

Peter Cornish, Director of Customer Offer, NS&I, said: “Premium Bonds are unique and are hugely popular with our customers. Replacing one of the £1 million jackpot prizes with a wider mix of prizes and introducing the new £25 prize category will help us maintain the frequency of tax-free prizes – something that we know is particularly important to Premium Bond holders. “

He continued, “We always aim to reward as many of our customers as possible f r o m the prize fund available, together with having the right mix of prizes. We continue to pay out hundreds of thousands of tax-free prizes each month and customers also benefit f r o m a 100% guarantee on their investment because we are backed by HM Treasury.”

As always, NS&I will communicate all of these changes to customers via a range of outlets, including press advertisements and NS&I’s website, as well as putting an updated Premium Bonds prize draw details leaflets in all Post Offices and updated interest rates leaflets in most branches of WH Smith throughout the UK.

* Tax-free means that interest and prizes are exempt of f r o m UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax Gross means the taxable rate of interest without deduction of UK Income Tax.

 

When interest rates are s e t on tax-free products, NS&I takes into account the amount of tax the Exchequer would have received if the product had been taxable.

About NS&I
NS&I is one of the UK’s largest financial providers with 27 million customers and over £94 billion invested. It is best known for Premium Bonds, but also offers inflation-beating savings account guaranteed equity bonds, savings bonds easy access accounts and children’s bonus bonds in its range. All products offer 100% security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

Out of hours above number diverted to staff mobile phone ISDN line for interviews: 020 7602 4522.

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Bonds, Financial, Financial Services, Investment, ISAs, Money, Personal Finance

Over £30 Million Of Unclaimed Premium Bond Prizes Exist In UK Says NS&I

A major nationwide search has been launched by National Savings and Investments (NS&I) to track down the winners of over 550,000 unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth over £30 million in total. This is the largest amount ever left unclaimed and includes one prize worth £100,000, two worth £25,000 and ten worth £10,000.

The prizes commonly become unclaimed because people fail to pass on new addresses when they move house, they have forgotten that Bonds had been bought for them when they were a child or executors are unaware the Bonds are held when someone dies. Over a third (37%) of people who have lost touch with their savings have moved home and failed to tell all their financial providers their new address. Half (50%) say they find it difficult to remember all of the accounts they have opened over the years.

The unclaimed premium bond prizes range all the way from £25 up to £100,000. NS&I gives away over one million tax-free* Premium Bond prizes each month.

Sally Swait, Premium Bond manager at NS&I said: “Following the expense of Christmas, tracing lost Premium Bonds prizes may prove to be a welcome source of extra money for some.”

She continued, “We urge anyone who believes they could have unclaimed prizes to check with us. The easiest way is to use our website and there is no time limit on claiming the prizes.”

There are two ways to check for an unclaimed prize: The Premium Bond prize checker is on the home page of the NS&I website at www.nsandi.com – customers simply need to enter their Premium Bond holder’s number into the search facility.

Alternatively customers can write to
Premium Bonds
National Savings and Investments
Blackpool
FY3 9YP

There is no time limit on claiming prizes and each unclaimed prize is held until the winner can be tracked down. The oldest unclaimed prize dates back to November 1957 for the sum of £25.

* All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK income Tax and Capital Gains tax.

About NS&I:
NS&I is one of the largest financial providers in the UK with 28 million customers and over £83 billion invested. It is best known for Premium Bonds, but also offers High Income Bonds, ISA accounts, Guaranteed Equity Bonds and Children’s Bonus Bonds in its range. All products offer 100% security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

NS&I products are available over the telephone, internet, post and by standing order. They are also available through a network of 14,000 UK Post Office branches.

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