Premium Bond winners take home over £4.9 billion in prizes in 2025

Consumers win big in what’s been a brilliant year for Premium Bonds.

As the year draws to a close, Premium Bond holders have taken home a staggering 71,722,056 prizes worth over £4.9 billion – with December alone seeing the highest number of winning Bond numbers for any month in 2025. Over 6.1 million prizes were drawn this month, boosting festive spending.

One person with just £100 in Premium Bonds won the £1 million jackpot in March this year – however, the odds of winning a cash prize are 22,000 to one of any £1 Bond number.

“Premium Bonds do not pay interest, but these can appeal to savers who want to test their luck for winning big in the prize draw,” Rachel Springall, Finance Expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, commented.

Should you give the gift of a Premium Bond this Christmas?

Premium Bonds can make a good gift, especially for children, and could be a fun way to make some extra cash in 2026. This year a sizeable 77,177 accounts were opened for under-16s.

They can be bought with just £25, and in 2025, 22 children won prizes ranging from £100,000 to £1 million. In total, the prizes won by young Premium Bond holders this year were worth an astounding £91,674,575.

There are, however, other ways to set aside money for your children.

“Those who open a Premium Bond for a child might instead want to look towards a Junior ISA, where investing the cash in a stock and shares option might be a better choice to grow over a longer period of time, versus a cash pot,” Springall stated.

Is a savings account better for you?

Premium Bonds remained popular this year, with more than 470,000 people opening new accounts, and the average balance for new customers in 2025 was £10,674. While some of these customers may get lucky and win big, others may find they could have received a better return by putting it into a top savings account.

If you were to place £10,674 into the leading easy access savings account – currently Chase’s Chase Saver With Boosted Rate (paying 4.50% AER, inclusive of a 1.94% 12-month bonus) – for a year you could make around £480.33 in interest (assuming the interest rate didn’t change).

By contrast, the Premium Bond annual prize fund rate is currently 3.60%, meaning that for every £100 of Premium Bonds bought, NS&I pays out £3.60 in prizes. However, you could earn significantly less than this or much more.

For more details see our guide on Premium Bonds vs savings accounts.

“There are lots of easy access accounts which only need £1 to set up, and the pot can then earn some interest. Savers might then feel more inclined to top up the pot regularly towards a specific goal, whereas a Premium Bond could just be forgotten about over time,” Springall noted.

Understandably, she added that “savers may well be feeling a bit pessimistic right now because interest rates are coming down, with dozens of providers passing on the August 0.25% cut to base rate and inflation [continuing to] erode their cash in real terms”.

However, in times of uncertainty, Springall highlighted that it’s wise for consumers to “take a step back and review if they are using the right kind of savings accounts to suit their needs. As interest rates drop it’s essential to compare and switch deals on a regular basis and ensure that any monthly deposits are not neglected”.