A warning has been issued to Brits who have Premium Bonds, as the majority of bondholders will never win a single prize. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request obtained by AJ Bell’s Dodl investing app revealed that nearly two-thirds of Premium Bond holders – which is equivalent to just under 14.4 million people – have never won a prize.
Premium Bonds are a type of savings product run by NS&I – but instead of earning interest and getting a guaranteed return on your money, you’re entered into a prize draw each month. The prizes range from £25 to £1million.
You get a unique bond number for every £1 invested, and you can invest from £25 up to £50,000 in total in Premium Bonds. The more Premium Bonds you buy, the more unique numbers you have entered into the draw.
Around 22.7million people hold a bond, which makes them one of the UK’s most popular savings products. Overall, around £127.7billion sat in Premium Bonds accounts at the end of 2024.
NS&I quote a current variable prize fund rate of 3.8%, but there is no guarantee of any return on your cash. The data revealed that millions more £50 and £100 prizes have been dished out since 2022, and they now make up a larger proportion of winning prizes than the lowest £25 prize.
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Although the number of higher-value prizes has also jumped, most Premium Bond prizes were worth £100 or less in 2024 – meaning the chance of winning the top prizes is still very small. Between March 2024, and February 2025, there were 5.1million winners – 80% of those winners won more than once over those 12 months.
However, the average holding for those prize winners during this period was £23,397, which AJ Bell notes is far higher than the average £5,406 holding across all customers.
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Charlene Young, senior pensions and savings expert at AJ Bell, said that Premium Bonds have “long been a popular place” for savers to stick their cash and try their luck at winning a prize in the monthly draws.
They said: “The chance of winning any of the top prizes, from £5,000 all the way up to £1 million, remains minuscule. The market is still flush with cash accounts including tax-free ISAs paying rates higher than the Premium Bond estimated prize fund rate of 3.8%, meaning holders might benefit from shopping around to make their cash work harder.
“There’s a chance even the average holding won’t win a prize, meaning savers might be better off considering other options with their cash rather than leaving it to chance in a Premium Bonds account, particularly over the long term.”
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