Premium Bonds celebrate diamond anniversary

First launched by Alderman Sir Cuthbert Ackroyd, the then Lord Mayor of London, when he bought the very first Premium Bond on 1 November 1956, NS&I has since gone on to make 350 Premium Bonds millionaires.

The investment immediately caught the imagination of the British public following their launch sixty years go, with the end of their first day on sale seeing £5 million worth of Premium Bonds sold.

And by the time of the first prize draw on 1 June 1957, there were 23,000 prizes drawn with a top prize of £1,000.

Whereas people used to buy their Bonds from the Post Office, today, customers buy their Bonds online, over the phone, or by post.

And the amount they can invest has also changed.

In 1956 the maximum holding limit stood at £500 but in 2016, that figure now stands at £50,000.

The way that customers check and receive their prizes has changed too.

No longer having to wait for the prize numbers to appear in the newspaper, on Ceefax or in the local Gazettes, holders can now go online to the Premium Bonds prize checker on nsandi.com or can download the new and improved Premium Bonds app, which informs customers if they have won a prize in the latest draw, or in the last six months.

Premium Bond holders can also opt to have Premium Bond prizes paid directly into their bank account with notification of prize wins coming to them by email.

The top prize has changed from £1,000 to the current £1 million jackpot, and while the first version of ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment), ERNIE 1, if it were still in use today, would now take over 100 days to complete a draw, today’s model, ERNIE 4, takes around five hours.

Jill Waters, retail director, NS&I, said: “Over the last 60 years, Premium Bonds have become a part of the fabric of British life with almost a third of Britons now holding the product. When they were first introduced in 1956 they changed how the nation saved and, over time, have increasingly become a part of many savers’ portfolio.

“And like anything that has remained popular for so long, Premium Bonds have moved with the times, offering customers what they want and now being easier to manage through our online and phone service, as well as over a million of our customers now choosing to have their tax-free prizes paid directly into their designated account.”