A saver from Stoke-on-Trent might have secured the best investment of the coronavirus lockdown - bagging a 7,000 per cent return on their Premium Bonds in just five months.
The man bought £14,000 worth of Britain's best-loved savings product in February 2020 and one of the Bonds scooped the £1million jackpot in this month's draw.
He opted for the safe haven of Treasury-backed National Savings and Investments just as indices were beginning to flash red, ahead of one of the worst three-month periods in the history of international stock markets.
Piggy power: A Stoke-on-Trent saver who bought some Premium Bonds in February scooped one of the two £1m jackpots
While his £14,000 investment boomed by 7,042 per cent between February and June, and his total Bonds holding of £27,500 by 3,536 per cent, over the same period the FTSE All-Share has slumped by 16 per cent and the American S&P 500 6.3 per cent.
Despite the recent stock market recovery, investing £14,000 in a fund which tracked the FTSE All-Share at the start of February, rather than depositing it in Premium Bonds, would have left him with £11,668.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Previous
- 1
- 2
- Next
- How did Agent Million deliver the jackpot news to April's... How can I find out if I'm owed any money from my dead... Your Premium Bond stories: I waited 60 years and then bagged...
Share this article
Share
15 shares
HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP
- Are you due a visit from Agent Million? Check with our Premium Bonds prize checker
The man became the second Premium Bond millionaire from Stoke-on-Trent, while June's other jackpot winner was from Nottingham.
She held the maximum £50,000 worth of Bonds, seeing a buy-and-hold investment strategy pay off as a January 2017 purchase led to her being visited by Agent Million.
She was the eighth millionaire from the East Midlands city.
The FTSE All-Share Index may have recovered from one of the worst falls in the history of the stock market, but it is still down 16% on where it was at the start of February
In total, more than 3.6million prizes were handed out by NS&I this month, worth more than £104million.
Some other holders of Britain's best-loved savings product also saw a big return.
One saver from Kent turned a £2,250 holding bought in March 2018 into £100,000 this month, a similarly stellar return of 4,344 per cent.
And someone from Northamptonshire bagged a similar return, turning a £1,000 holding bought a month later into £50,000.
Premium Bonds Winners
| Prize | Area | Value of bond |
| £1,000,000 | West Sussex | £4,625 |
| £1,000,000 | Hampshire And Isle Of Wight | £2,000 |
| £100,000 | Shropshire | £50,000 |
| £100,000 | Leeds | £100 |
| £100,000 | Warwickshire | £50,000 |
| £100,000 | Greater Manchester | £40,000 |
| £100,000 | Cheshire East | £20,000 |
| £100,000 | Surrey | £50,000 |
More March 2024 winners
View list of March 2024 winnersTo put these returns into context, every £1 Bond has a roughly 24,500 to 1 chance of winning a prize of £25 or more, with Bonds earning an average prize fund rate of 1.4 per cent annually.
That blows all other easy-access savings account rates out of the waterif you're feeling lucky, while NS&I's Income Bonds paying 1.16 per cent and its Direct Saver paying 1 per cent are also among the best savings rates available at the moment.
Figures from NS&I reveal the number of eligible Bonds in the last two Premium Bond draws of June and May has sharply increased, as savers like the lucky winner from Stoke-on-Trent stashed money in the safe haven of NS&I.
Bonds become eligible for the draw after they have been held for a full month after they were purchased.
| Month | Total Premium Bonds in the draw | New Bonds in the draw |
|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | 81,180,745,735 | |
| July 2019 | 81,646,957,120 | 466,211,385 |
| August 2019 | 81,979,282,936 | 332,325,816 |
| September 2019 | 82,518,577,254 | 539,294,318 |
| October 2019 | 83,121,568,735 | 602,991,481 |
| November 2019 | 83,678,794,092 | 557,225,357 |
| December 2019 | 84,379,826,041 | 701,031,949 |
| January 2020 | 85,042,266,956 | 662,440,915 |
| February 2020 | 85,346,436,256 | 304,169,300 |
| March 2020 | 86,147,886,134 | 801,449,878 |
| April 2020 | 86,430,926,941 | 283,040,807 |
| May 2020 | 87,664,243,494 | 1,233,316,553 |
| June 2020 | 89,218,660,280 | 1,554,416,786 |
| Source: NS&I | ||
There were 1.55billion more £1 Bonds in the June draw than in May, suggesting savers piled into the product in April as banks cut savings rates and NS&I reversed proposed cuts to its variable rate accounts which would have seen the rate on Premium Bonds cut to 1.3 per cent.
In total, there were 2.79billion more Bonds in the June draw than in April, as savers snapped up Bonds in March and April in response to falling markets and emergency cuts to the Bank of England base rate.
By comparison, an average of just over half-a-million Bonds were bought each month in the 10 months between May 2019 and February this year.
If you're one of the 20.9million Premium Bond holders, you can check to see if your number's up withThis is Money's price checker, use the NS&I app, be notified by email, post or text or ask an Amazon Alexa smart speaker, if you have won.
SAVE MONEY, MAKE MONEY
Best buy savings
Best-buy savings
Top rates of up to 5.49%*
Open viaRaisinfor exclusive £50 bonus
Easy access
Easy access deal
Competitive 4.84% interest*
Start with £1. Monthly interest
Fibre broadband
Fibre broadband
£50 voucher when you sign up*
£24.99 per month for 18 months
* Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
