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THE STRICT RULE COULD MAKE SOME BONDS INELIGIBLE FOR DRAWS 13:25, 30 May 2025Updated 13:25, 30 May 2025 With the next Premium Bonds prize draw just days away, savers are being urged to check
they haven’t accidentally made some of their bonds ineligible. This happens if they go above the £50,000 limit on their account. In the midst of the cost of living crisis, most people
likely won’t forget if they’ve invested this amount of cash but it can happen accidentally. There is £92million of Premium Bonds prizes that are unclaimed, usually because people have
forgotten their numbers. The £50,000 limit will also include any bonds you may have forgotten about or lost. If you have won prizes on bond numbers that put you above this threshold,
NS&I has the right to reclaim these prizes. So it can be vital to regroup all of your Premium Bonds investments. Especially before adding any more savings to your account. The NS&I
offers a tracking service for people who need to find potentially lost accounts. This can include if you’ve forgotten your own account details or if you think a relative had NS&I savings
before they died. It can only be used to trace NS&I accounts or investments. You can apply on paper with the Tracing Service or online through My Lost Account. Additionally, people
often chose to have any Premium Bond winnings reinvested automatically into their account according to Birmingham Live. If your account is nearing £50,000, NS&I recommends updating how
you claim your prizes to stop any windfalls from pushing you over the threshold. If NS&I recognise that you are going above the limit when you next buy a bond, you might get a ‘failed
transaction’ error. A representative of NS&I previously told Express: "The money will bounce back to your bank, this is automatic and will take two to three working days."
Experts at MSE also noted that if your ineligible bonds won a prize, this will be reclaimed and reallocated to the next relevant prize draw. Premium Bonds also hold a minimum investment
amount of £25. Although each individual bond is £1. Article continues below Every bond receives a unique bond number that is eligible for the monthly draw. The next draw is due on Monday,
June 2. The total prize money now sits at £411,118,825, according to Birmingham Live. A decrease of £18.9m compared to the last draw, to be split between 5,901,229 prizes. The odds of
winning will remain at 22,000 to 1, but there will be an estimated 20% more prizes worth just £25, while the number of higher value wins will drop significantly.