Premium Bond’s operator National Savings & Investment (NSI) has announced that it is to make ten people millionaires to celebrate its 50th birthday.
The first batch of five will be selected at random by Ernie the Premium Bond computer to celebrate the founding of NSI in November 1956.
A further five will be selected in July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Premium Bond prize draw. Altogether, £88 million in cash prizes will be given away.
“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,” said Peter Cornish of NSI.
Almost 40 per cent of the UK population, or 23 million people, are Premium Bond owners, with £32 billion invested. Some £9 billion has been won since 1956.
Rather than calculating interest like the best savings accounts available commercially, Premium Bonds give access to a monthly draw of prizes of between £50 and £1 million.
The tax-free awards have been calculated to be the equivalent of an average 5.5 per cent return for a higher-rate tax payer or 4.23 per cent for a standard rate tax-payer.
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