New data from finance experts AJ Bell has revealed that 14 million people have never won a prize by having a Premium Bond account. These government-backed savings products from NS&I allow savers to enter a tax-free prize draw and win up to £1million. But 14.3 million holders have never won a prize. This accounts for almost two-thirds of Premium Bond account holders. Additionally, the prize fund rate is being cut from 3.6% to 3.3% in April, with the odds of winning widening to 23,000 to 1 at the same time.
“The allure of Premium Bonds resides in the potential for holders to win a prize up to a maximum of £1 million, but many of those with money in the accounts will never win – or see a return on their money at all. There are more than 14 million premium bond holders yet to win a prize, big or small, making up nearly two-thirds of all account holders,” said Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell.
“Fewer than 1% of the prizes dished out between February 2025 and January 2026 went to those with accounts worth less than £1,000, according to the data revealed by the NS&I. What’s more, this cohort of Premium Bond holders made up around three-quarters of all who held the accounts in February 2025.”
She added: “Even when looking at account sizes up to £10,000, just 6% of prizes fell into the hands of account holders in that bracket during the period. Conversely, 53% of all prizes went to those with the maximum account value of £50,000.
“Among non-winners, the average Premium Bond account holding is £128.91, showing that unless you’re willing to fill the accounts with larger sums of spare cash, you’re unlikely to win at all.”
She warned that the “safety” of these government-backed premium bonds does not always equal success, and there are better returns to be made elsewhere. She also warned that more people might be attracted to a Premium Bonds account when the Cash ISA limit is slashed to £12,000 per year next year, which would be the opposite of what the government wants from savers.
“Although in practice very few people will have been using up their allowance above £12,000 a year, research by AJ Bell last year suggested that a quarter of Cash ISA savers would turn to Premium Bonds or other NS&I products in the event of a cut to the allowance, running counter to the government’s stated aim to get more Brits investing.
“Over the longer term, investing has proven to beat cash returns, and short of winning one of the maximum prizes, will undoubtedly stand a better chance than Premium Bonds at helping someone to amass wealth. For example, someone who had invested the non-winning Premium Bonds account average of £128.91 into Fidelity Index World 10 years ago would have seen a return of 252.3% and a pot worth a healthy £454.19. Had they decided to invest £1,000, that figure would have increased to £3,523.32.”
She warned that, essentially, the majority of people who put their money into a Premium Binds account rather than something like a Stocks & Shares ISA are essentially allowing their cash to just “gather dust”.