The 500th Premium Bonds holder to win the £1 million jackpot has been revealed, and they have done so with one of the smallest-ever holdings.
The prize went to a winner in Sheffield who had £3,000 worth of Premium Bonds, having purchased the winning bond in February 2008.
It is the lowest-value holding to win £1 million since a winner in Devon won the jackpot with £1,001 in August 2021.
Five hundred Premium Bonds holders have now been made millionaires since the £1million jackpot prize was first introduced in 1994, thanks to February’s landmark draw
Overall, this month’s winner has won the jackpot with the 34th-lowest holding ever, out of all the 500 Premium Bonds millionaires since the prize was introduced in 1994.
The person with the lowest ever holding to win did so in July 2004 with a mere £17 of Premium Bonds to their name.
>> See the full list of Premium Bonds winners
February’s Premium Bonds prize fund rate was 3.15 per cent – its highest level in 14 years, after NS&I increased the rate twice in quick succession.
This month’s draw will see close to five million prizes paid out worth almost £314million, meaning an extra £15 million will be paid out in tax-free prizes compared to last month.
The 499th jackpot winner also announced this month went to a person based in Sefton, Merseyside, with a £30,000 holding. They purchased their winning bond in May 2006.
Jill Waters, NS&I’s retail director, said: ‘February 2023 is a month to remember for Premium Bonds.
‘Not only has the prize fund rate reached its highest level in 14 years, but we’ve now created an amazing 500 Premium Bonds millionaires since 1994 thanks to today’s landmark draw.
‘What a story for that 500th £1 million winner – this customer from Sheffield holds £3,000 in Premium Bonds, which is one of the lowest value holdings to ever scoop the coveted jackpot prize since it was launched.
‘Their investment 15 years ago has paid off for them, along with our Sefton winner who bought their winning Bond almost 17 years ago.’
| Number | Month of draw | Value of holding | Region | Purchase date | Days held between purchase and win (using 1st month) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jul-04 | £17 | London | Feb-59 | 16587 | |||
| 2 | Jan-15 | £400 | Yorkshire and Humberside | Aug-08 | 2344 | |||
| 3 | Oct-08 | £400 | Scotland | Oct-06 | 731 | |||
| 4 | Mar-95 | £476 | East | Nov-93 | 485 | |||
| 5 | Jan-10 | £500 | London | Dec-87 | 8067 | |||
| 6 | Oct-95 | £500 | South West | Dec-94 | 304 | |||
| 7 | Apr-13 | £575 | London | Aug-89 | 8644 | |||
| 8 | Jan-98 | £710 | West Midlands | Dec-81 | 5875 | |||
| 9 | Aug-97 | £800 | North West | Jun-87 | 3714 | |||
| 10 | Jul-94 | £904 | North East | Oct-78 | 5752 | |||
| 11 | Apr-14 | £1,000 | North East | Nov-11 | 882 | |||
| 12 | Jul-95 | £1,000 | South West | Nov-92 | 972 | |||
| 13 | Aug-21 | £1,001 | South West | Jul-20 | 396 | |||
| 14 | Dec-06 | £1,010 | Yorkshire and Humberside | Feb-03 | 1399 | |||
| 15 | Dec-95 | £1,026 | South West | Oct-95 | 61 | |||
| 16 | Nov-10 | £1,050 | Yorkshire and Humberside | Jul-06 | 1584 | |||
| 17 | Mar-01 | £1,300 | South East | Oct-00 | 151 | |||
| 18 | Nov-97 | £1,379 | West Midlands | Aug-87 | 3745 | |||
| 19 | Nov-94 | £1,380 | West Midlands | Aug-87 | 2649 | |||
| 20 | Feb-98 | £1,550 | London | Jul-83 | 5329 |
Are premium Bonds better than standard savings?
Premium Bonds are one of the nation’s most popular savings products and could prove to be an ideal home for someone to kickstart a savings habit, with only a minimum investment of £25 required to get started.
It could also be a good home for a person’s rainy day savings. It takes two working days to withdraw money from Premium Bonds meaning it can be deemed an easy-access account – albeit working slightly slower than a standard instant-access savings deal.
The odds of each £1 Bond winning a prize will remain fixed at 24,000 to 1, the recent changes mean that the number of prizes worth £50 to £100,000 have now increased.
The 3.15 per cent Premium Bonds prize fund rate compares favourably against other easy-access deals on the market. At present only one easy-access deal offers a higher rate.
– Check out the best easy-access savings rates here.
However, the 3.15 per cent prize rate is an average return and savers may do better or worse than this.
Last week, This is Money’s editor, Simon Lambert asked if Premium Bonds were now the best place for easy-access savings.
He said: ‘The Premium Bonds rate of return beats the best no-strings attached easy access savings deal and comes within a whisker of the top one.
‘Will you get the average rate of return? That depends on luck, of course, and in a lucky year you may do much better than the quoted 3.15 per cent, whereas in an unlucky year you could do much worse.
‘However, there is another point to note here and that requires a school maths recap: the Premium Bond prize fund rate is a mean average, reflecting the total amount paid out in prizes to everyone compared to the amount held across all bonds.
‘The problem with this, as with any mean average, is that it can be skewed by the big and small numbers at either end or any uneven numbers.
‘A fairer way of stating the rate of return would be to give the median, which is the middle among all the holders, and the existence of a pair of £1million jackpots, plus 59 x £100,000 prizes and 117 x £50,000 ones, means the median has to be lower than the mean.
‘The chance of any individual £1 bond winning a prize is 1 in 24,000 and the more you hold in Premium Bonds the greater your chance of doing well.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk