How to check for Premium Bonds prizes
NS&I’s Premium Bonds prize draw makes two people millionaires overnight every month. We explain how to check to see if you’ve won any cash
Premium Bonds are one of the nation’s most popular savings products, with Brits holding more than £134.6 billion in them, as of December 2025.
Rather than earning guaranteed interest, money saved in Premium Bonds has the potential to grow by being entered into a monthly prize draw – although there’s no certainty you’ll win anything.
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The total amount handed out in the April 2026 prize draw was over £376 million, distributed through more than 5.9 million tax-free prizes.
How to check for Premium Bonds
NS&I website or app
The easiest way to check if you won any Premium Bonds prizes is through the online prize checker (accessible at nsandi.com) or the official prize checker app, available on either Android or iOS.
Both of these methods will show you the prizes on offer that month and any winnings you may have had over the past six draws, as well as any unclaimed prizes.
To find prizes, you will need your Premium Bonds holder’s number to use the website and your NS&I number or holder’s number to check via the prize checker app – it will either have nine or 10 digits, or eight digits followed by a letter.
If you don’t have your Premium Bonds number to hand, do not worry. You can use your NS&I number on the app to check for prizes – it is 11 digits long and starts with an 11, 21, 31 or 41.
Use your Amazon Alexa
You can also use your Alexa-enabled device to check if you’ve won, so long as you have a supported device and have successfully set it up.
Once given the command, Alexa will be able to tell you whether you have won a prize and how much it's worth, as well as details for any upcoming draws.
To get it set up, you’ll need to activate the NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker skill on your Alexa app and enter your NS&I number. After that, you can use your smart speaker to stay updated on prize winners.
How to check for unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes from years ago
As there is no time limit for savers to claim their Premium Bonds prizes, you may find that you have some long-forgotten rewards left from years ago.
Beyond using NS&I’s website, app or Alexa to check for prizes, there are some other ways of finding out whether you have any cash waiting to be claimed.
If you’re registered for online or phone services, you can call NS&I for free on 08085 007 007.
If you aren’t registered, you can write to NS&I and ask if you have any unclaimed prizes. To help them track any potential prizes down for you, your letter must include:
- Premium Bonds holder's number
- Your current name
- Any previous names
- Your current address
- Any previous addresses where Bonds may have been registered
- Your signature
Send your letter to: NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB.
Any prizes will then be sent to your home address. They cannot be sent directly to your bank account.
How will my prize be paid?
Your prizes will be paid according to the preference you opted for when you created your account.
For example, those who have opted for automatic payments will get their cash prizes paid into their nominated bank account. Alternatively, you might have set your winnings to be reinvested into Premium Bonds.
NS&I says more than nine in 10 prizes are paid directly into winners’ bank accounts or automatically reinvested into more Premium Bonds.
If you haven’t opted for either, you will receive a cheque – so it’s worth checking your address is updated. You can change your payment method on the NS&I website if you wish.
How many lost Premium Bonds prizes are there?
While NS&I has successfully paid out over 99% of all Premium Bonds prizes to winners since 1957, there are still millions of bonds that remain unclaimed.
As of April 2026, there are 2,754,285 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth £118,216,175.
Unclaimed Premium Bonds will never expire, meaning that if you think you may have some unclaimed prizes from years or even decades ago it is still worth tracking them down.
It is also worth doing this sooner rather than later as your winnings do not earn an interest rate while left unclaimed, meaning their value will be slowly eroded by inflation.
Thankfully, this process is quite straightforward provided you have the right documentation with you.
How to avoid losing your Premium Bonds prizes
NS&I notifies Premium Bonds prize winners via their chosen communication method, such as email or text, if they have registered their contact details.
However, prizes can end up unclaimed if someone relocates or changes contact or bank details and forgets to update NS&I with the new details.
NS&I says the best way to avoid prizes going unclaimed is to choose for them to be paid directly into your bank account or automatically reinvested into Premium Bonds.
You can reinvest Premium Bonds up to the £50,000 holding limit, and automatically reinvested prizes are immediately eligible for the next draw.
How to find lost Premium Bonds
You can check for lost Premium Bonds by going to NS&I’s website and finding the ‘Form to track down lost savings’. It will be included on this page: nsandi.com/forms.
Customers can complete the form online or they can download it and print out a physical copy to complete by hand.
If doing the latter, send your completed form to: Tracing service, NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB
Once completed, NS&I will be in contact and tell you whether you have any lost Premium Bonds.
Alternatively, you can use mylostaccount.org.uk. This is a free service from UK Finance and the Building Societies Association that helps you track down lost accounts or savings. The service is not only for NS&I products, so it may be worth a visit if you have other lost accounts.
If you’re trying to track down Premium Bonds on behalf of someone else, then make sure you are legally entitled to act on their behalf, for example under a Power of Attorney or as an Executor. NS&I suggests calling them for advice on how to trace someone else’s accounts or investments.
Premium Bonds can be owned by people who live abroad so it is still worth checking whether you have any unclaimed prizes or lost Premium Bonds even if you have left the UK.
If you need more help or guidance, NS&I has a helpful list of contacts who may be able to steer you in the right direction.
You can rest assured that your Premium Bonds are safe with NS&I as the money is 100% backed by the Treasury.
