Premium Bonds winner wins huge prize after 50-year wait with just £22 in Bonds

A loyal saver who previously had just £22 in Bonds took home a big prize in the November draw.

The customer, from Humberside, won £50,000 for a winning Bond they purchased over 50 years ago, in February 1970.

They purchased £20 worth of Bonds in 1970 and previously had a total of £22 in Bonds prior to this month's draw.

Prizes in the monthly draw range from £25 up to a £1million jackpot. The two jackpot prizes went out this month to a saver from Warwickshire, with winning Bond number 286CJ469715, and a saver from Cornwall, with winning Bond number 567MN061686.

Other big prize winners in this month's draw who previously had low holdings include a saver from Kent who had just £21 in Bonds, who won £10,000. They purchased their winning Bond almost half a century ago, in June 1975.

Another saver from Bedfordshire who previously held a total of just £179 in Bonds also bagged a £10,000 prize.

Each £1 Bond has an equal chance of winning a prize in the monthly draw, with winning Bonds picked at random.

The prize fund rate for Premium Bonds is currently 4.4 percent with the odds of a £1 Bond winning at 21,000 to one.

But this is dropping from the December draw, down to 4.15 percent, with the odds of winning falling to 22,000 to one.

A compared different regions of the UK to find out which area had the best luck for winning prizes.

This found that Essex has the best win rate over the year up to the October 2024 draw, with a win rate of at 3.84 percent. The region won the most prizes, with 11,301 wins worth a total of £33,579,000.

These were the top 20 counties with the highest win rate:

Essex - 11,301 prizes - £33,579,000 - 3.84%

Kent - 10,246 prizes - £29,431,000 - 3.49%

Hampshire and Isle of Wight - 9,976 prizes - £30,959,000 - 3.40%

Surrey - 9,440 prizes - £28,811,000 - 3.23%

Outer London - 9,241 prizes - £29,804,000 - 3.16%

Inner London - 7,407 prizes - £20,329,000 - 2.55%

Hertfordshire - 7,403 prizes - £22,808,000 - 2.55%

Devon - 7,176 prizes - £21,987,000 - 2.47%

West Sussex - 6,750 prizes - £23,863,000 - 2.33%

Dorset - 5,990 prizes - £18,264,000 - 2.07%

Suffolk - 4,925 prizes - £14,602,000 - 1.71%

Buckinghamshire - 4,872 prizes - £14,379,000 - 1.69%

Lancashire - 4,631 prizes - £13,895,000 - 1.61%

Wiltshire - 4,359 prizes - £13,012,000 1.52%

Hereford and Worcester - 4,226 prizes - £11,812,000 - 1.47%

Cambridgeshire - 4,131 prizes - £12,481,000 - 1.44%

Derbyshire - 4,078 prizes - £12,413,000 - 1.42%

Gloucestershire - 4,041 prizes - £12,573,000 - 1.41%

Lincolnshire - 4,012 prizes - £10,852,000 - 1.40%

East Sussex - 4,011 prizes - £11,676,000 - 1.40%.