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NS&I says payment direct to bank accounts will be quicker and safer
If you have Premium Bonds and receive prizes as a cheque in the post, prepare for a big change. National Savings & Investments (NS&I), which runs the scheme, is phasing out paper payments from the December 2020 draw onwards, and will stop issuing paper warrants completely by March 2021.
Instead of a cheque, winners will receive a letter telling them how to arrange for direct payments for that and for future wins.
NS&I says paying prizes directly into bondholders’ bank accounts is quicker, easier and more secure than using Royal Mail. It also cites the environmental benefits of moving away from paper communications.
Over a quarter of Premium Bond prizes are currently paid with a cheque (or ‘warrant’) sent through the post. Bondholders who receive prizes this way will need to give NS&I their bank details to receive their prizes. Customers will in future be notified of any prize win via their choice of email or text message.
An estimated 22 million people have Premium Bond holdings, meaning up to six million people currently receive their prizes through the post.
You can give NS&I your bank details (along with an email address and mobile phone number for notification purposes) once you have registered on its website.
Customers without internet access can call NS&I on 08085 007 007 to provide NS&I with their bank details and discuss their options.
Did you see that? 007 in the phone number? Bond – James Bond? Clever!
‘Don’t give details over the phone’
NS&I stresses that it will never call customers to ask for their bank details, so if you receive a call purporting to be from them saying you need to provide your details in order to get your prize, it will be a scam and you should hang up immediately.
In addition to receiving a prize payment, bondholders can also reinvest their winnings into more Premium Bonds, up to the maximum holding of £50,000.
NS&I started paying prizes directly into UK bank accounts in 2011. In the September 2020 prize draw, almost three quarters (74%) of the 3,856,040 prizes were paid this way or reinvested into more bonds.
There are currently more than 1.8 million unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes, worth over £67 million. NS&I says payment by BACS will help prevent prizes from going unclaimed.
You can check whether you have an unclaimed prize by using the online prize checker on the NS&I website. There is also a prize checker app.
Ian Ackerley, NS&I chief executive, said there is an understandable affection for getting a prize in the post, but increasing numbers of people are opting for direct payment to their bank: “Paying Premium Bonds prizes directly into customers’ bank accounts means we can reduce the number of prizes that go unclaimed where we don’t have a current address for the winner.
Premium Bonds are valued at £1 each and the minimum holding is £25 (maximum £50,000). Around 22 million people in the UK hold Premium Bonds, with over 84 billion bonds in existence. Prizes are drawn monthly and range from £25 to £1 million – all paid free of tax.
Each bond has an equal chance of success in each draw, with the current chance of winning is estimated at 24,500 to 1.
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