Monday, April 7, 2008

Claim Your Winning Premium Bonds Prizes

Premium bonds offer an opportunity to win cash prizes. Imagine if you have won 1,000,000 pounds. What would you do with that kind of money?

A unique number is printed on every bond. The number will be kept along with all the numbers which have been issued. They are entered into automatic number generator which gives out the winning numbers every month. The cash prizes are ranged from 50 to a million pounds. With the ownership of these bonds, you stand a chance to be a winner for the whole year. Don't you think it is better to put your money in these funds instead of your bank saving account which offer meagre returns?

There are cases where no one step forward to claim the prize money. Why are there unclaimed premium bond prizes? One of the possibilities is that they are not aware that they have won the prize. Another reason could be they have not informed the National Savings and Investment (NSI) agency about their new addresses when they move. Usually after the draw, the agency will notify the winners by mail. If nobody claim the winning prize, the agency will hold the money until someone comes forward and claim it.

Many investors do not know how to claim their money. You just need to know the right places to find it. The National Savings and Investment (NS&I) usually offer this information on the Internet. Unclaimed prizes are announced in the form of lists. You can do a simple search at premium bond prize checker to determine whether you are the past winner or in some circumstances, your prize may be pending. This service is free. You only need to enter your bond numbers and in a few seconds, you will know if you win any prize. If you find out that you are the winner, you can claim the money by presenting your bonds to the agency. Without the bond, no one can touch the money even if they know the bond number. Therefore, never lose the bonds and always keep them in a safe place.

When you buy the bond for the first time, you are given a unique code. This code represents your bondholder number. It also holds all your bond numbers. In case you forget your the number, try to recall the number given you when you buy your first premium bond. The code will carry 8 digits followed by a letter. The bond numbers will contain alphabets in the numbering sequences and these numbers will not follow the same sequence. This will help you to differentiate between your bondholder code and your bond numbers.

With most online bondholder checking services, the list of prizes is updated on a regular basis. Always remember your bondholder number because this is what is needed if you want to do a search online. If you have a hundred premium bonds, you only need to remember one number. After entering the number, you will receive an email which is sent by the service provider, informing you the result. With such a system in place, even if you move, you can still receive the email. Thus, if you are out of the country, you can still check the results online and have the results emailed to you. The service providers will look into the database for new and past numbers. In the few days, you will know if you have won the prize money.

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