February 2018 Premium Bonds winning numbers – have you won £1 million cash prize?
Two lucky savers took the top £1 million prize — with a total of over £85 million paid out for February
TWO premium bond holders in Durham and Bristol have won the top £1million prize in this month's draw.
Their winning numbers were just two of a total of almost 3 million drawn — with over £85 million paid out in prizes.
The male winner from Durham is just the third from the city to win the top prize, with the last coming in April 2014.
He bought his winning Bond (number: 297XK491568) less than a year ago in March 2017, and has £50,000 invested in total.
The woman who scooped the jackpot in Bristol has £10,000 of Premium Bonds, and purchased her winning Bond (number: 040YG716639) in March 2003.
Her victory means the city has had a holder take the top prize each year in the previous four.
Jill Waters, Retail Director at organisers NS&I, said: "It is great that two people from opposite ends of England have been able to celebrate February in style, with an unexpected surprise just in time for Valentine’s Day."
In the February 2018 draw, a total of 2,2974,944 prizes worth a massive £85,016,375 will be paid out.
There were 72,871,198,173 eligible bonds for the draw.
Since the first draw in June 1957, ERNIE – the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment that generates the winning numbers each month – has created 392 million winning numbers, paying out £18 billion.
How many people won in February's Premium Bonds draw?
- The other prizes included...
- Five lucky savers who won £100,000
- Eight people who won £50,000
- 18 who won £25,000
- 45 who won £10,000
- 90 who won £5,000
- 1,700 who won £1,000
- 5,100 who won £500
- 23,322 who won £100 or £50
- And 2,920,723 people who won £25
Could I be owed money in Premium Bonds?
There are now more than 1.4 million unclaimed prizes in total, worth in excess of £58 million.
In Bristol, there are more than 8,000 such prizes, totalling in excess of £300,000, while in Durham there are over 6,000 worth more than £200,000.
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.