Premium bonds are a great way to save money and at the same time have a chance to winning up to a million pounds. Each one pond bond has a unique number on it that is put into an automatic number generator machine that produces numbers for a monthly lottery. If your number is picked you and a million and a half other investors have a chance to win a cash prize from fifty to a million pounds. If you have premium bonds you have twelve chances a year to receive a significant amount of money in lieu of the percentages from a regular savings account.
Some people have won a cash prize for the premium bonds and don’t even know that they have won. They could have moved and their new address wasn’t registered with the National Savings and Investments agency. A notice of their win would have gone out and the recipient would have never known. The National Savings and Investments agency will keep the money until someone claims it. You just have to step up to the plate and claim it. But like many investors, you don’t know how. There may be money out there you just have to ask.
There are online services that will search the National Savings and Investments unclaimed prize list and let you know that if you have a payment or prize pending. The great thing about this service is that it is free. You just give them the bond numbers and they will tell you if you have won. They cannot do anything with the bond numbers themselves. The bond itself is the proof that you won when you present it for the prize. The bond number itself is useless to anyone trying to scam the system.
The investor must remember that the bondholder number is a unique code given to each holder. The bondholder number will allow the finding service to search all premium bond numbers you have in your account. If you don’t know your number, it is the number tat was given to you when you bought your first premium bonds. The numbers are arranged in eight digits and a letter at the end. The premium bond numbers will have letters throughout the number sequences and will be distinct from any other sequence. This way you can discern between your bond holder number and your actual bond identification number.
With most online bondholder checking services, the list of prizes is updated on a regular basis. Again, just your book holder number is needed and not the individual numbers from your individual premium bonds. The service will match the numbers and give you the results, either positive or negative, by email. You don’t have to worry about moving and having the notice sent to the wrong address. You can even be out of the country and be able to be notified. Both recent and past numbers will be matched and you will have an answer within a few days.