Unclaimed Money in Prizes
Strange as it may seem, there are vast amounts of unclaimed money lying around the financial system - could you be due a share?Millions of pounds of prizes have been left on the table by premium bonds investors, lottery players, and others.
The value of unclaimed National Lottery prizes alone has recently reached £100m, and unclaimed Premium Bond winnings are also at record highs. Could you be due a prize? Find out what happens to lottery, premium bond, and bookmaker prizes which haven't been claimed.
Premium Bonds
All winners of Premium Bond prizes are notified in writing by National Savings and Investments (NS&I), the body who runs the bonds scheme. However, it's not always possible to contact winners for a number of reasons.
The most common reason is that people have moved house since buying their bonds, and haven't notified NS&I. This is more common than might be imagined, as premium bonds have no time limit and in many cases can sit forgotten in desk drawers, while still being entered into every monthly draw automatically.
The latest figures show that 430,000 prizes remain unclaimed, with a total value of some £25m.
The good news for bond holders who may have unknowingly won a prize is that there is no time limit on claiming your cash - the prizes are held by NS&I indefinitely. You can check online whether any bonds you own have earned you some money at the National Investments site.
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