Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Who won the £1 million jackpot in the May Premium Bonds prize draw?
NS&I has announced the winners of May’s Premium Bonds prize draw. Who won the £1 million jackpot and how can you find out if you scooped a prize this month?
Two savers have become millionaires overnight thanks to the May Premium Bonds prize draw, while millions more have won smaller prizes.
This month’s new Premium Bonds millionaires come from Derbyshire and Suffolk.
The winner from Derbyshire is the lucky holder of bond 462DR240519 and has a total of £25,361 held in Premium Bonds. The winning bond was bought in July 2021.
Try 6 free issues of MoneyWeek today
Get unparalleled financial insight, analysis and expert opinion you can profit from.
Sign up for MoneyWeek’s free twice-daily newsletter.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Meanwhile, the winner from Suffolk holds bond number 300ZZ346515 and holds £35,000 in Premium Bonds. This winner bought their millionaire bond in April 2017.
The jackpot winners will have received a visit from Agent Million, an anonymous NS&I employee who travels up and down the country to tell Premium Bonds winners of their newfound fortunes.
The prize draw hasn’t just made new millionaires. There were more than 5.9 million prizes in this month’s draw. As well as the jackpot, other prize values ranged from £25 to £100,000.
The prize fund rate is the benchmark used by NS&I to determine how many prizes should be given away every month and represents the average rate of returns for someone with average luck.
The chances of winning in May’s prize draw remained at 22,000 to 1 for every £1 bond.
May 2025 Premium Bonds winners
The total number of Premium Bonds prizes in May was 5,941,150, worth £413,900,125.
This includes the two jackpot winners, as well as the 2,915 who won between £5,000 and £100,000 from NS&I this month.
Meanwhile, a total of 5,938,233 smaller prizes were up for grabs – ranging between £25 and £1,000.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Value of prize
Number of prizes
£1,000,000
2
£100,000
79
£50,000
157
£25,000
315
£10,000
789
£5,000
1,575
£1,000
16,556
£500
49,668
£100
1,843,199
£50
1,843,199
£25
2,185,611
Total value of prizes
£413,900,125
Total number of prizes
5,941,150
Source: NS&I
How to check if you’re a May NS&I Premium Bonds winner
To do this, you can use the online NS&I prize checker tool or the NS&I app (downloadable on iOS and Android) – just make sure you have your Premium Bonds number to hand. The tool also allows you to check winnings from previous draws.
You can also use an Amazon Alexa to check winnings going as far back as 1986.
Alternatively, you can write to NS&I at: NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB.
It is important to include:
Your name
Current address
Premium Bonds number
Any previous addresses where you might have registered bonds
Your signature
You can also call NS&I for free on 08085 007 007, but you will only qualify for this method if you’re registered for phone or online banking with NS&I.
If you've invested in Premium Bonds for a long time, it's worth checking whether you may have forgotten to claim any prizes. According to NS&I, 2,547,426 prizes have been left unclaimed, worth over £97 million.
Unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes do not expire, so even if you have one left unclaimed from the 1950s then it is still worth checking.
How will my Premium Bonds prize be paid?
When you opened your account with NS&I you will have set a preference for how you would like any Premium Bonds prizes to be paid. If you opted for automatic payments then you will have your cash prize paid directly into your bank account. You could also have opted to have your winnings reinvested into Premium Bonds .
According to NS&I, over 90% of prizes are paid into winners’ bank accounts or automatically reinvested.
If you did not opt for either automatic payment or reinvestment, then you will receive a cheque. If you have moved home since buying your Premium Bonds then you should make sure that your address has been updated.
You can change your payment method on the NS&I website.
The data showed that, despite over 5.1 million Premium Bonds holders winning a prize between March 2024 and February 2025, around 14.4 million more holders have never seen a penny in returns.
The vast majority of Premium Bonds winners are people who invest a lot in the savings vehicle. The analysis showed that the average holding of those who won was £23,397, compared to the average holding for all Premium Bonds holders of £5,406.
However, Premium Bonds remain a popular savings vehicle because the government does not charge tax on any winnings that you may get from a prize draw, allowing savers to minimise the amount of tax they have to pay on their savings.
Furthermore, the allure of getting an unexpected visit from Agent Million is incentive enough for many to put their cash into Premium Bonds.
Sign up for MoneyWeek's newsletters
Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Daniel is a financial journalist at MoneyWeek, writing about personal finance, economics, property, politics, and investing.
He covers savings, political news and enjoys translating economic data into simple English, and explaining what it means for your wallet.
Daniel joined MoneyWeek in January 2025 and previously worked at The Economist in their Audience team. He read history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and edited Cambridge's student newspaper, Varsity.
In his free time, he likes reading, walking around Hampstead Heath, and cooking overambitious meals.
