Press Release

OCTOBER'S £1 MILLION JACKPOT WINNING NUMBERS

Number 1   A man living in Cheshire   Bond number: 62ZQ702633   Bought in March 2005   Bond Value: £2,000   Total holdings: £21,555

Number 2   A woman living in Edinburgh   Bond number: 112DB550898   Bought in July 2006   Bond Value: £5,000   Total holdings: £30,000

 

One million other tax-free* prizes worth almost £82m also awarded

Celebrating Premium Bond holders

The winner from Cheshire, who is keeping his identity a closely-guarded secret, exclaimed: "Its a big shock, I'm gob smacked, it will take a lot of thinking about what I'm going to do with it!"

The winner from Edinburgh, who has also chosen to remain anonymous, exclaimed "I put my money into Premium Bonds as I've always heard good stories about them, the actual bond that won I purchased just a couple of months ago, I can't believe my luck!  The moment I heard I reached for the champagne!  Winning the jackpot will certainly help with the Christmas shopping!

The winners were told in person by NS&I's Agent Millions - M1 and M2 - the mystery people who pay a personal visit to the jackpot winners to give them the good news.

Regional facts

In Cheshire, over 602,000 people own Premium Bonds worth over £813 million.  There are 3,857 unclaimed prizes in the area, worth over £219,000.  This is the third time a jackpot winner has emerged in Cheshire. 

This is the second time the £1 million Premium Bond jackpot has been won in the county of Lothian since the top prize was introduced in 1994. In Edinburgh itself over 247,000 people own Premium Bonds worth over £271 million.  There are 4,463 unclaimed prizes in Edinburgh, worth over £252,000. 

In October's draw ERNIE gave away over one million prizes worth almost £84 million.
 
Number and value of prizes awarded in October 2006

£1 million         2         

£100,000           8

£50,000            15

£25,000            31

£10,000            78

£5,000             155

£1,000             2,015

£500                6,045

£100                136,627

£50                  1,188,210

 

Prize value                  Number of prizes

£ 83,990,700                 1,333,186

 

Premium Bond Facts

The Premium Bond prize fund rate is 3.15% tax-free*, equivalent to 5.25% for a higher rate taxpayer and 3.93% for a basic rate taxpayer.  The odds of winning are 24,000 to 1 and, with average luck, an investor with £30,000 in Premium Bonds can expect to win 15 tax-free* prizes a year - more than one a month.

23 million people have more than £32 billion invested in Premium Bonds.

Premium Bonds can be bought online at www.nsandi.com, by telephone on 0500 007 007, by post and over the counter at Post Office® branches. Customers can pick up leaflets at over 700 Tesco stores.

Like all NS&I products, Premium Bonds offer investors 100% security, backed by HM Treasury, as well as the sense of fun that comes from winning tax-free* prizes.

Since the first Premium Bonds prize draw in 1957, over 142 million tax-free* prizes worth almost £9 billion have been given away.  Prizes range from £50 to £1 million.

There is currently £30 million in unclaimed prizes.  There is no time limit on claiming prizes.  Premium Bond investors can check to see if they have won by logging on to www.nsandi.com and using the Premium Bond prize checker.