National Savings and Investments’ Ernie to create more premium bond millionaires to celebrate 50th anniversary

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) will give away five £1 million prizes in each of its two anniversary draws as part of the celebrations of 50 years of Premium Bonds. In both December 2006 and June 2007, there will be three extra jackpots as well as the usual two, giving customers five chances to win £1 million for two months only. Plus there will still be over a million other tax-free* prizes.

- FIVE chances to win £1 million in December 2006 and June 2007
- Estimated prize fund of £88m in December 2006
- More than one million other tax-free* prizes in each draw
- Odds of winning any prize remain at 24,000 to 1
- Premium Bonds launched 50 years ago on 1 November 1956 – archive footage, unique interviews and photo opportunities are available

The extra prizes are being introduced by NS&I (http://www.nsandi.com/ ) as part of the Premium Bonds’ 50th anniversary celebrations and are in addition to the normal prizes. The odds of a £1,000 holding winning one of the jackpot prizes is estimated to improve from 16 million to 1 to 6.5 million to 1 for December and June. The odds of a £10,000 holding winning one of the jackpot prizes is estimated to improve from 1.6 million to 1 to 646,000 to 1. The overall odds of winning any prize with a £1 Bond will remain the same at 24,000 to 1 which means that with average luck, an investor with £30,000 in Premium Bonds can expect to win 15 tax-free* prizes a year – more than one a month. The Premium Bond (http://www.nsandi.com/ ) prize fund rate will increase from 3.15% to 3.30% tax-free*, for the two anniversary draws**.

For customers to have the chance of taking part in these exciting anniversary draws, they must have bought their Premium Bonds before 31 October.

Premium Bonds first went on sale on 1 November 1956 and the first draw was on 1 June 1957, the anniversary draws are to celebrate these dates. Prize draws between the anniversaries will be unchanged**. Premium Bonds were designed to encourage saving among people who were not attracted by interest but by winning cash prizes. They were immediately a success story and continue to be incredibly popular – in fact more Premium Bonds were bought in the last five years than in the previous 45 years put together.

Peter Cornish, NS&I’s marketing director said: “As Premium Bonds approach their 50th anniversary they continue to be more popular than ever and we wanted to share this success. We always pay out as much as we can afford in total prizes but for these two months we wanted to give something extra back. That is why NS&I is introducing these extra prizes in addition to the normal prizes in December and June.

“Premium Bonds appeal to people who want an exciting way to save money and relish the chance of winning the jackpot, or one of the other million prizes we give away, safe in the knowledge their investment is 100% secure because Premium Bonds and NS&I are backed by HM Treasury and customers can get their money back at anytime.”

Premium Bonds can be bought online at www.nsandi.com (http://www.nsandi.com/ ), by telephone on 0500 007 007, by post, over the counter at Post Office branches and also through Tesco stores or at www.tesco.com.
Since the first Premium Bonds prize draw in 1957, over 140 million tax-free* prizes worth £9 billion have been given away. Prizes range from £50 to £1 million. Ernie has created 164 millionaires since the £1 million jackpot was introduced in 1994.

There is currently £30 million in unclaimed prizes. There is no time limit on claiming prizes. Premium Bond investors can check to see if they have won by logging on to www.nsandi.com and using the Premium Bond prize checker.

Notes to Editors

* All Premium Bond prizes are free of UK income Tax and Capital Gains tax.

** This assumes there are no other interest rate changes between September 06 and June 07.

Journalists requiring more information on National Savings and Investments (http://www.nsandi.com/ ) (NS&I), please contact the NS&I media team.

NS&I have a number of spokespeople available for interviews and our experienced radio team is available via our ISDN line: 020 7602 4522.

NS&I will announce the new jackpots at the BBC Proms in the Park events on 9th September, which NS&I is sponsoring as part of its celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Premium Bonds.

Elen Thomas 020 7348 9654 elen.thomas@nsandi.com
Mark Brooks 020 7348 9301 mark.brooks@nsandi.com
Jonathan Akerman 020 7349 9433 jonathan.akerman@nsandi.com
Gill Stephens 020 7348 9449 gill.stephens@nsandi.com