March 2017 Premium Bonds winning numbers – have you become an overnight millionaire?
Two lucky people will start Spring with a massive million pound windfall each
TWO lucky winners are celebrating the start of spring after both scooping the top £1 million prize in March’s Premium Bonds draw.
The pair - from Devon and Outer London - are the 357th and 358th millionaires to be made by ERNIE since the bigger jackpot prize was introduced in 1994.
Premium Bonds are the UK's biggest savings product, with more than 22 million people saving over £66 BILLION in them.
Jill Waters, Retail Director at NS&I, said: “Agent Million will make another trip down to the capital this month to share the great news with a Premium Bonds millionaire.
"He is the 47th person to win the jackpot prize from the London area, but each winning experience is special and can change the lives of the lucky people whose numbers are drawn.”
Yet with newly announced lower Premium Bond rates – which are to drop from 1.25% to 1.15% – and the fact for most people all savings are now tax-free – have they lost their appeal?
We take a look.
So have I won this time around?
The winner from Devon is a woman with the maximum holding of £50,000, whose winning Bond was purchased in January 2016 (winning Bond number: 264BD750537).
She becomes the 12th person from the county to win the top prize, and the first since last April.
The successful millionaire from Outer London follows on from a winner who bagged a huge prize last month.
The lucky man holds £35,012 in Premium Bonds, with the winning Bond purchased in July 2014, and the winning Bond number: 227QD676218.
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.
- 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 them?
A good way to find out is to use the the unique Premium Bond Probability Calculator (courtesy of ).
This allows you to plug in how many bonds you have, and it will predict your likely winnings and compare them with savings.
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 (1 in 30,000) on its website.
You can apply to buy premium bonds at your local post office or over the phone, online or by post.
Once you own some you can buy more via direct debit on the .
There were a total of over 2.2 million prizes paid out this month, worth more than £70 million.
There were 67,605,370,043 eligible Bond numbers in March’s draw, and since the first draw in June 1957, there have been 364 million prizes paid out worth £17.2 billion.
How do I know if I have won?
Premium Bonds holders can check to see if they have won a prize in this month’s draw, draws in the last six months or if they have any unclaimed prizes for free online via the .
Alternatively, you can download the new and improved Prize Checker app, free from Google Play or the Apple Store.
What size return will I get?
On average, premium bonds pay out an investment return equivalent to about 1.3%.
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.
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.
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