Premium bonds can be held by savers and they allow the holders to enter a monthly draw where prizes of between £25 and £1million can be won. The winning numbers are revealed online and there are three ways to manage the prizes.
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Premium Bonds: How to check whether you’ve won a prize – have you won?
NS&I can pay the money directly into the holder’s bank account or they can pay them by posting a cheque.
If the holder does not want to withdraw the winnings, they can also automatically have them reinvested into more bonds.
Winners of £1million (the jackpot prize) are able to check online but they will also be informed of their luck by the “Agent Million”.
This individual will usually travel to the winner’s home to provide them with the good news in person.
However, just like many things at the moment, this element has had to be changed due to coronavirus.
NS&I have confirmed that visits from Agent Million will not happen for the foreseeable future.
Their website provides the following details: “Normally Agent Million visits the jackpot winners in person to let them know.
“But in the current circumstances Agent Million won’t be knocking on their doors.
“Instead Agent Million will be in touch with the lucky winners to let them know the good news.”
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This is an unprecedented move as the Agent Million has been a big part of premium bond winnings for decades now.
According to NS&I, the Agent Million has been informing people of their new millionaire status since 1994.
These trips weren’t confined to the UK either as the Agent Million has had to travel to over 60 countries in order to update lucky winners.
The Agent Million themselves revealed just how far they’ve travelled some a few years ago: “I go to great lengths to notify the Jackpot Prize winner, travelling all over the UK, by planes, trains and automobiles, to inform them that they’ve won £1 million on the Premium Bonds.
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“The furthest I have travelled in the UK is 420 miles there and 420 miles back and it was to a lovely place in Cornwall.”
While millionaire winners may miss the thrill of being visited by the Agent Million they still have a number of options for checking on their holdings.
NS&I have a prize checker on their website which simply requires the person’s holder number.
This prize checker is also available as an app.
It’s even possible to check and receive any unclaimed prizes.
NS&I attempt to contact everyone but sometimes it isn’t possible to reach someone, which could occur because the person has moved and hasn’t updated their details.
Thankfully, NS&I will hold onto the prize until the winner gets in touch.
There is no time limit for claims and people can log into their online account to view their prize history.
The chances of someone missing out on their winnings could be quite high as the prize fund is quite broad in scope.
For May, the prize fund was valued at over £102million and there was more than 3.5 million prizes in total.
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