May 2018 Premium Bonds winning numbers – have you won £1million cash prize?
Two lucky savers took the top £1million prize — with a total of almost £87million paid out for May
TWO lucky Premium Bond holders have received a May Day windfall this year by scooping the top £1million prize in this month's prize draw.
Here's what we know.
Who were the May 2018 Premium Bonds winners?
The winning numbers, drawn in Wiltshire and Barnet, were just two of more than 3million drawn — with almost £87million paid out in prizes.
The female winner from Wiltshire is the third winner of the top prize from the county this year.
She has currently has £50,000 invested in Premium Bonds after upgrading her initial £1,100 investment to the maximum amount in 2016 – her winning bond is number 269AV661906.
A woman also took the top prize in Barnet, making her the first jackpot winner based in the London borough in almost eight years.
Her winning bond, 177KW885582, comes from an overall investment of £20,000, the majority of which was purchased in February 2011.
Jill Waters, Retail Director at organisers NS&I, said: "Both winners this month had around £1,000 in Premium Bonds before investing the lump sums that have won them each £1million, however Barnet’s winner did not need to invest to the full £50,000 to hit the jackpot.
"While investing to the maximum increases your chances of winning, Barnet’s winner shows that you don’t need the maximum invested in Premium Bonds in order to strike lucky."
Indeed, only 10 from a possible 68 jackpot winners have had the maximum amount invested since the limit was pushed up to £50,000 back in August 2015.
In the May 2018 draw, a total of 3,043,434 prizes worth a massive £86,991,450 are being paid out.
There were 74,564,104,519 eligible bonds for the draw.
Since the first draw in June 1957, "ERNIE" has drawn over 400million winning numbers, paying out around £18.3 billion.
How many people won in May's Premium Bonds draw?
The other prizes included...
- Five lucky savers who won £100,000
- Nine people who won £50,000
- 18 who won £25,000
- 48 who won £10,000
- 94 who won £5,000
- 1,739 who won £1,000
- 5,217 who won £500
- 23,864 who won £100 or £50
- And 2,988,574 people who won £25
Could I be owed money in Premium Bonds?
There are now around 1.4 million unclaimed prizes in total, worth in excess of £58.6million.
To check whether you have any unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes, customers can visit the NS&I website at , or write to NS&I, Glasgow, G58 1SB.
Jill Waters explains: "Premium Bond prizes often become unclaimed as a result of people moving house and not telling NS&I, or not keeping their details held with us up to date.
"Agent Million would not be able to deliver the good news if you were lucky enough to win the £1 million jackpot.
"Last month one of our jackpot winners not only received £1 million but also received outstanding prizes won prior to notifying us of their change of address."
How do Premium Bonds work?
Premium Bonds are a savings account you can put money into (and take out when you want), where the interest paid is decided by a monthly prize draw.
You buy £1 bonds and each has an equal chance of winning, so the more you buy, the more your chances improve.
Premium Bonds can be bought via standing order for as little as £50 per month once an account has been opened.
- Minimum purchase amount: £100 (or £50 for monthly standing orders).
- Maximum amount you can hold: £50,000.
- Age limit: Over 16 to buy them; under that age they may be held in the name of under-16s by parents or guardians. Grandparents or great-grandparents can buy then nominate the child’s parent or guardian to hold them.
The winners are picked by a random number generating computer called Ernie (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment).
Will I be a winner and where can I buy Premium Bonds?
A good way to find out if you will win is to use the the unique Premium Bond Probability Calculator (courtesy of ).
It proves that at every value someone with typical luck will earn less than the quoted prize rate.
NS&I lists the chance of one bond winning a prize in a month (one in 30,000) on its website.
You can apply to buy premium bonds over the phone, online or by post.
Once you own some you can buy more via direct debit on the .
What size return will I get?
On average, premium bonds pay out an investment return equivalent to about 1.4 per cent.
In theory this means you would win just over a penny a year for each pound of bonds owned.
But because of the randomness of the process, you may win less – or you may win a great deal more.
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Where does the prize money come from?
The prize money is not funded by the sale of new bonds.
Instead, the money represents the amount that would be paid in interest if premium bonds were regular government bonds.
The prize fund interest rate, prize values and odds of winning are all subject to change.