Millions of Premium Bonds prizes unclaimed

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.

[Biggest bank account bribe ever]

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 latest Premium Bonds big prize winners]

The biggest unclaimed prizes

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

Prize value	Location	Gender	Amount of Premium Bonds owned	Winning Bond number	Month and year of draw
£100,000	Greater Manchester	Female	£280	50PB780494	September 2010
£100,000	London	Female	£25	8LK522839	February 2007
£50,000	Kent	Female	£128	3VT019901	November 2007
£50,000	London	Male	£1,000	29FS902566	January 2013
£50,000	Suffolk	Female	£207	25LG431321	May 2012

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!

[Not won a prize with your Premium Bonds? Compare what you could earn from savings accounts]