Overview
- NS&I will lower the Premium Bonds prize rate from 3.6% to 3.3% starting April’s draw, which pushes the odds to about 23,000 to 1 for each £1 bond.
- The monthly prize fund will fall to roughly £375 million from about £408 million, with fewer larger prizes and more £25 awards.
- Freedom of information data show about 14.3 million of roughly 23 million holders have never won, and first-time winners now wait about 3.1 years on average.
- Prizes skew toward bigger balances, with average winners holding around £39,500 compared with an average holding near £5,406 across accounts.
- Reports and investigations into lost or locked accounts have raised the prospect of NS&I paying compensation worth hundreds of millions.