Premium Bond prize fund up by 50%
Premium Bond
payouts are to increase by 50%, adding an extra 500,000 winners to the monthly
prize list.
National Savings
and Investments (NS&I) has announced that from October 1.75 million savers will
receive a prize, which could range from £25 to £1 million. In addition, the
prize fund will rise from £33.8 million to £52.5 million.
NS&I hopes
the move will attract new savers and boost the return rate for existing Bond
holders.
It follows calls
from consumers to improve return for investors, after the prize rate was cut
from 1.8% to 1% earlier this year.
Experts have claimed
that next month’s 50% increase in payouts will boost the average saver’s return
rate to 1.5%.
‘Premium Bonds are hugely popular with our customers and we know that winning prizes frequently is particularly important to them,’ said Peter Cornish from NS&I. ‘These changes mean we can increase the frequency of an envelope from ERNIE dropping on their doormat.’
More than 23
million consumers have £40 billion invested in Premium Bonds, making them the