How to trace lost NS&I savings and Premium Bonds

Premium Bonds do not expire. A Bond bought decades ago and pushed to the back of a drawer is still valid, still registered to its holder, and still entered into the monthly prize draw, because each £1 Bond has its own number and it is that number which goes into the draw¹. Nothing is lost by losing the paperwork: NS&I keeps the records, and its tracing service exists precisely so that a holding can be found again, whether it belongs to you, to a child, or to someone who has died¹.

The scale of what goes unclaimed is large. NS&I reports 2,817,080 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes worth £123,537,625 in total, most of them simply never delivered because the holder moved house or never told NS&I how to pay them². Prizes range from £25 to £1 million and are tax-free³. Tracing a holding usually starts with one number, the holder's number, and this page explains what that is, how to find it, and what to do at each stage.

Old Premium Bonds stay valid until they are cashed in

There is no expiry date on Premium Bonds and no rule that says a holding lapses after a set number of years. NS&I's position is that you can cash in all or part of your Bonds at any time⁵, and until you do, the holding sits on NS&I's records in your name. The paperwork is only evidence of the holding, not the holding itself, which is why a lost certificate or Bond record is an inconvenience rather than a loss of money.

This is worth stating because it is not true of every NS&I product. Several of NS&I's fixed-term products are designed to be held to the end of their term: Green Savings Bonds cannot be cashed in before the end of the term⁶, Index-linked Savings Certificates starting their term on or after 23 July 2023 cannot be cashed in early⁷, and the same applies to Fixed Interest Savings Certificates renewed from that date⁸. If a tracing search turns up one of these products rather than Premium Bonds, the money is still there, but access to it depends on the product's own rules. The guide to closed NS&I products covers the older ones, and how Premium Bonds work explains the product itself.

For Premium Bonds specifically, the practical effect is that time is not pressing. A Bond bought in the 1970s is as valid as one bought last year, and it has been in every monthly draw since it became eligible. NS&I states that Bonds must be held for a whole month before they are eligible for the prize draw², but after that first month eligibility continues indefinitely.

Unclaimed prizes: 2,817,080 worth £123,537,625

NS&I reports 2,817,080 unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes, worth £123,537,625 in total². A prize usually becomes unclaimed for mundane reasons: the holder moved house and did not tell NS&I, the prize was posted as a cheque to an old address, or the holder never registered for the online service and did not realise a prize had been won. NS&I says it contacts everyone when they win a Premium Bonds prize⁹, so an unclaimed prize is nearly always a delivery problem rather than a decision by NS&I to withhold it.

The main tool for finding prizes is NS&I's prize checker. It shows any prizes won this month, anything won in the previous six draws, and any older unclaimed prizes⁴. It is updated on the day after the first working day of each month⁴, so a win in the latest draw appears early in the month. To use it you need your holder's number, which is covered below.

One rule catches people out: prize cheques expire after 3 months, for security⁴. An expired cheque does not extinguish the prize. If you find an old cheque, or discover a prize you never received, you can still claim it, and once NS&I has confirmed your details it will pay the prize again, by your chosen method. The dedicated guide to claiming unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes goes through the steps.

What you need before you start: your holder's number and Bond records

Two things identify a Premium Bonds holding: the holder's number and the individual Bond numbers underneath it. The holder's number has either 9 or 10 digits, or 8 digits followed by a letter¹. It is the number NS&I uses to find your whole holding, so it is the single most useful thing to have before you start. You can find it by logging in to NS&I's online service and checking your Premium Bonds account page, or by calling NS&I and asking for a replacement Bond record¹.

If you do not have the holder's number, you can still trace the holding, but you will need to give NS&I enough information to find you on its records. NS&I's tracing guidance sets out what helps: your full name and current address, the address at the time you invested and any other previous addresses, your previous name if you have changed it, the approximate date and year the account was opened, the approximate amount invested, and any other relevant information¹⁰. A signature and date are needed if you write rather than use the online form¹⁰.

The same principle applies to other NS&I products. If you are asking NS&I to merge or link old accounts, its guidance lists the details that help it find them: the type of investment, the approximate start date, the amount invested, your holder's or customer number, the account number, and any Bond numbers or Certificate numbers¹¹. Old certificates and passbooks are worth digging out, but none of them is essential.

How to trace Bonds you hold in your own name

NS&I runs a tracing service for exactly this situation. You can trace lost savings and investments using an online form, without having to send any post¹. The form asks for the details listed above: your name now and at the time, your addresses then and now, and roughly when and how much you invested¹⁰. NS&I then searches its records and comes back to you with what it finds.

Once the holding is found, NS&I can tell you your holder's number, the value of the Bonds and whether any prizes are waiting. If you register for the online and phone service at that point, you can see the holding yourself from then on: the service lets you check your NS&I investments, pay money in and take it out, change your personal details, and choose to have any Premium Bonds prizes paid straight to your bank account¹³.

If the tracing search finds nothing, it is usually because the details given did not match NS&I's records. Previous addresses are the most common stumbling block, because a holding is indexed against the address at the time of purchase. Trying again with an address from a different period, or a previous name, often resolves it. The related guide to finding your NS&I holder's number covers the search in more detail.

Getting a replacement Bond record by post or phone

Not everyone wants to manage savings online, and NS&I does not require it. If you are not registered for the online and phone service, you can write to NS&I and ask for a replacement Bond record¹. The same route works for other NS&I certificates: if you cannot find a certificate, NS&I asks you to write with your full name and address and as many details about the investment as you can remember, and it will send a replacement¹³.

Some changes can only be done on paper. If you need to change your name, or you want to use the post, NS&I asks you to download and send a paper form¹⁴. The same applies to a child's name¹⁵. Address and contact details are easier: if you have Premium Bonds you can change yours or your child's address and contact details by filling in a simple online form, with no need to create an account or send paper, though you will need your holder's number and your previous and new details¹⁴.

By phone, NS&I can confirm your holder's number and post a Bond record. If you are already registered for the online and phone service and find you have won a prize you never received, you can call NS&I to claim it; if you are not registered, you can register, or write instead⁹. A postal claim for an unclaimed prize needs your holder's number, your current name and any previous names, your current address and any previous addresses where the Bonds may have been registered, and your signature⁹.

Adding old Bonds to your online account

Finding old Bonds is one thing; having them visible in your online account is another. NS&I's guidance is direct: if you have come across some old Premium Bonds, you can write to NS&I to get them added to your online account¹. This matters where a holding was opened before the online service existed, or where records were never linked to an online profile. Once added, the Bonds appear alongside anything else you hold, and prizes can be paid automatically rather than by post.

The online and phone service covers Premium Bonds, Green Savings Bonds (online only), Income Bonds, Direct Saver, the Junior ISA (online only) and the Direct ISA, and it also supports fixed-term investments such as Children's Bonds, Fixed Interest Savings Certificates, Guaranteed Growth Bonds, Guaranteed Income Bonds and Index-linked Savings Certificates¹³. So a tracing search that turns up several old NS&I products can usually end with all of them in one place.

If you would rather not go online at all, that is allowed. If you have Premium Bonds, Children's Bonds or an Investment Account, you can manage them by post and you do not have to use the online service¹⁶. NS&I has also introduced online forms for some tasks, so you can fill in a form to switch to or withdraw money from certain accounts, or manage how you receive your Premium Bonds prizes, without a full online account¹⁷. The choice is between convenience and paper: the holding, the prizes and the protection are the same either way.

Bonds bought for you as a child

Premium Bonds are often bought for children, by parents, grandparents or others, and these holdings are frequently forgotten by the child, who may not know they exist. The rules are consistent: anyone over 16 can buy Premium Bonds for a child, but a parent or guardian must be nominated to look after the Bonds until the child turns 16¹⁵. That person, the responsible person, manages the account, and a child can have more than one responsible person linked to their account, though the child can only have up to £50,000 of Premium Bonds in total¹⁵.

For the child, the practical point is that control passes at 16. Instructions made by a parent or guardian on the child's behalf only remain in place until the child turns 16¹⁸. After that, the Bonds belong to the young holder to manage, which is when tracing them becomes the holder's own job. If you were given Bonds as a child and have never seen the paperwork, the tracing route above works in the same way: NS&I needs your details, including your address at the time, and can then confirm the holding.

A few things distinguish children's holdings. Where someone other than a parent buys Bonds as a gift, the child's parent or guardian must give permission for their information to be shared with NS&I, and the gift only reaches the child after identity checks are completed, which can take up to four weeks³. The gift giver cannot view the child's account; only the parent or guardian has access³. Children under 16 can hold NS&I's Junior ISA, Premium Bonds and the Investment Account¹⁹, while Children's Bonds were closed to new sales from 24 September 2017²⁰ and Income Bonds are no longer offered for children under 16, though accounts opened for a child on or before 5 April 2013 continue under transitional rules²¹. The guides to buying Premium Bonds for a child and children's savings accounts cover these products in full.

Tracing Premium Bonds after someone has died

A Premium Bonds holding does not disappear when its holder dies. It becomes part of the estate, and the executor or administrator of the estate is the person who deals with it. NS&I should be informed as soon as possible: the account is then frozen and no more Bonds can be bought, but the existing Bonds can stay in the prize draw for up to 12 months after the death. When the estate is settled, the Bonds are cashed in; they cannot be transferred directly to a beneficiary.

The executor uses the same tracing information as anyone else: the holder's name, their addresses, and whatever Bond records or holder's numbers can be found among the person's papers¹⁰. NS&I will also need to see confirmation of the executor's own authority to act, typically the grant of probate or letters of administration, before it will release money or act on instructions.

NS&I's approach to its products on death gives a sense of how these holdings are treated. For its Green Savings Bonds, NS&I states that if the Bond holder dies, the money in the Bond becomes part of the holder's estate and the Bond continues to earn interest⁶. The same principle of the holding forming part of the estate applies across NS&I products, with the product's own rules determining what happens to it in the meantime. For Premium Bonds, that means the monthly draw continues for the permitted period, and any prizes won during it are paid to the estate.

Claiming prizes and choosing how they are paid

Once a holding is traced, the prizes follow. There are two main ways to receive a prize: straight into your bank or building society account, or reinvested into more Premium Bonds¹². Around 9 in 10 prizes are now paid one of these two ways²⁴. If you choose either, NS&I will let you know by text or email if you win⁴. The alternative is payment by post: prizes are sent to your home address as a warrant⁹, which is the route most likely to produce an unclaimed prize if your address is out of date.

Changing how prizes are paid is straightforward. Online, you go to 'Your profile', then 'Prize options', choose how you receive prizes and how you are contacted, then click Save¹². On paper, the prize options form (PB 1425) can be posted to NS&I, or you can update your options online at nsandi.com/PBPO¹⁸. Prize options can be changed at any time¹⁸. One detail matters for registered customers: if you are already registered for the online banking service, you need to log in to change how you receive prizes, whereas unregistered customers can change their options without registering¹⁷.

Large prizes have an extra step. If you win £25,000, £50,000 or £100,000, NS&I sends a claim form, which must be completed and sent back before the prize can be paid². This is why keeping contact details current matters even for a traced holding: a prize of this size that cannot be delivered simply joins the unclaimed total. The guide to how Premium Bonds prizes are drawn and paid explains the draw and payment process in detail.

Tax on prizes, and the inheritance tax exception

Premium Bonds prizes are tax-free. Premium Bonds are a savings product with a monthly prize draw instead of interest: each £1 saved gets an entry into the draw, with prizes ranging from £25 to £1 million, and NS&I describes them as tax-free³. Because no interest is paid, there is no interest to declare and no personal savings allowance to think about, which is the main tax difference between Premium Bonds and an ordinary savings account. The guides to how tax on savings interest works and the personal savings allowance cover the contrast.

The exception to the tax-free position arises on death, and it is not really about the prizes at all. When a holder dies, the holding becomes part of their estate, and it is the estate, not the prizes, that may face tax. NS&I's own terms for its products confirm the mechanics: for Green Savings Bonds, the money in the Bond becomes part of the holder's estate when they die⁶. An estate's liability depends on its total value and the rules on estates at the time, which are outside what NS&I determines. Anyone administering an estate with traced NS&I holdings may find the tax section useful for the wider picture.

For a holding that stays in your own name, the position is simple: prizes are tax-free, and there is nothing to report. For a child's holding the same applies, though the guide to tax on children's savings explains the rules that can apply to interest from other accounts held for a child.

The odds: 21,000 to 1 per £1 Bond

Tracing an old holding often prompts the question of whether it is worth keeping. The current figures, from NS&I's product page, are these: the odds of any single £1 Bond winning a prize in the monthly draw are 21,000 to 1, variable, from the July 2026 prize draw; before that draw the odds were 23,000 to 1². The annual prize fund rate is 4.35%, variable, from the September 2026 draw². Prizes range from £25 to £1 million².

Two rules shape how the odds work in practice. First, each £1 Bond has its own number and its own entry into the draw³, so a larger holding means more entries, and the odds are quoted per £1 Bond. Second, there is a ceiling: any Bond numbers that go over the £50,000 limit are not eligible to win prizes, and if a number beyond the limit is drawn and a prize paid in error, NS&I has the right to reclaim it². The maximum holding is £50,000³, so this bites only where money has been paid in beyond the limit, which can happen with reinvested prizes on an old holding.

The prize fund rate is not an interest rate. It describes the total amount paid into the prize fund each month as a percentage of the money invested, and NS&I splits prizes into three value bands, higher, medium and lower, allocating a percentage share of the monthly prize fund to each⁴. Most prizes are at the lower end. Whether a traced holding is worth holding is a matter of circumstance, and the comparison guide to Premium Bonds versus a savings account sets out the trade-offs.

Keeping a traced holding secure, and where to complain

A traced holding is only useful if it stays in the right hands, and two risks are worth knowing about. The first is fake bond scams, which commonly impersonate NS&I or well-known banks; the guide to savings and fake bond scams explains how they work. NS&I does not cold-call people to offer Bonds, and anyone asking you to pay money to release a traced holding is not from NS&I. The second is stolen post, which matters for holders who receive prizes by warrant: suspected theft or loss of post can be reported by telephone on 08457 740 740²⁵, and the same number appears in official guidance on protecting your identity²⁶. If you believe your identity has been stolen, the Information Commissioner's Office sets out the steps to take²⁷.

If something goes wrong with the holding itself, NS&I has a complaints process, and complaints that NS&I cannot resolve can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles complaints about savings²⁸. The volume of complaints about Premium Bonds is small relative to the number of holders: in the first quarter of 2026/27, 98 complaints about Premium Bonds (NS&I only) were opened, of which 47% were upheld²⁹. An upheld complaint is one the ombudsman found in the consumer's favour, so the uphold rate says something about how often things go wrong rather than how hard it is to complain.

For free, impartial help with any of this, MoneyHelper and the Financial Ombudsman Service are the places to start, and the consumer protection guide explains your rights across financial services. The NS&I guide and the page on NS&I accounts and Treasury backing cover the provider itself.