NS&I to stop sending out cheques for prize winners

THE thrill of ripping open an envelope from National Savings & Investments to discover a £25 cheque inside will end in February.

NS&I is set to stop sending out winnings as paper cheques. In future, prizes will be sent by electronic transfer to your bank account or reinvested into more bonds.

From December, Premium Bond holders will be contacted via letter telling them of the changes and how they must provide their bank account details if they want to receive winnings as cash payouts. It marks the end of an era for the unexpected postal windfall that first popped through letterboxes in 1964.

Cheques have traditionally been sent for all winnings up to £1,000. The vast majority – about 3.8million a month – are for £25.

For £5,000 or more you fill in a ‘claim form’. The lucky two winners of £1million each month will continue to get a personal visit with someone knocking on the door. A spokesman for NS&I says: ‘There are currently 1.8million unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth more than £67million. Paying prizes via a bank electronic transfer will help ensure they always get claimed.’

The cost-saving drive towards becoming paperless began when NS&I stopped selling physical Premium Bonds over post office counter in 2015. In September, almost three quarters of its 3.8million prizes were paid directly into customers’ bank accounts or reinvested into more bonds. More than £88billion is currently invested in Premium Bonds by 21million people. Taking into account the chance of winning, the average rate of return is 1.4 per cent a year. Odds of a single £1 bond – minimum investment is £25 – of winning any prize is just 24,500 to one. From the March prize draw, cheques will no longer be sent out. To find out if you are a winner – or have an unclaimed prize – you can visit the prize checker link at nsandi.com.