A dive into the past as Premium Bonds saver pockets £50,000 with just £22 worth of bonds bought in 1970

A Premium Bonds holder has defied the odds to scoop £50,000, the third largest prize on offer in the monthly prize draw, with holdings of just £22.

The winner bought his winning bond 54 years ago, in February 1970, showing that good things often come to those who wait.

This lucky winner, based in Humberside, has achieved a 227,173 per cent return on their initial investment, even though it took more than half a century to achieve this.

We previously revealed that the odds of winning a prize of at least £50,000 with a £50 holding are 9.5 million to 1.

So the winner of the November 2024 draw had an even better chance of winning a £50,000 prize.

Other notable winners from this month’s draw include two Premium Bonds holders who scooped £100,000 in prize money with a £1,000 asset, representing a 900 per cent return on their investment.

One of these winners, from Suffolk, won £100,000 from a bond they bought in June 1998, more than 26 years ago.

The other winner, based in Barnet, bought the winning bond in April 2014.

This month’s two £1 million jackpot winners are based in Warwickshire and Cornwall.

The Cornish winner had an asset of £38,000 and bought the winning bond just ten months ago in January 2024.

The winner from Warwickshire scooped the other coveted prize of £1 million with a maximum holding of £50,000 from a bond purchased in November 2016.

A total of 6 million prizes worth £464 million will be paid out during the November prize draw. There were 126.5 billion bond numbers eligible for the drawing.

From next month, the Premium Bonds Prize Fund prize pool will be reduced from the current level of 4.4 percent to 4.15 percent.

This means that the chance of winning a prize increases: 22,000 to 1.

The number of £1 million jackpots remains the same, at two per month.

But there will be fewer bigger prizes of £100,000 and £50,000 in December.

NS&I says there will be 83 prizes of £100,000, six fewer than the most recent draw, and 167 prizes of £50,000, ten fewer.