The first newly crowned millionaire is from Derbyshire and had a winning bond number of 535MK963637. They have £50,000 in Premium Bonds and bought the victorious bond in March 2023.
The second millionaire is from Gloucestershire, who owns the bond number 203JB525288 and holds £29,900 in the fund. This was purchased in February 2013.
In this month’s draw, 5.9 million prizes were awarded, which totalled £461m.
There were 125 billion bond numbers eligible for October’s draw, and since the first draw in 1957, ‘Ernie’ (NS&I’s electronic random number indicator equipment) has picked out 719 million prizes worth a total value of £33bn.
On the first working day of each month, a new millionaire will find out about their winnings, but if your number isn’t drawn, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow (2 October) to find out if you’ve won one of the cash prizes, which are free from income and capital gains tax (CGT).
You can check if you’ve been a winner this month or in previous draws by searching for your number on the NS&I website, using the prize checker app or even asking ‘Alexa’ on your smart speaker.
There were 88 winners in October who will each scoop £100,000, with 177 Premium Bonds holders winning £50,000.
One of those £100,000 prize winners only had £275 invested in their Premium Bond and another purchased their bond 47 years ago.
Andrew Westhead, NS&I’s retail director, said: “This shows that all eligible £1 Premium Bonds, regardless of when they were bought, have an equal chance of winning.”
If you’re one of the lucky winners, NS&I will send a notification of the good news to your registered address.
Are you sitting on an unclaimed prize?
However, there are many who, due to not updating their details after moving house, have untouched cash with their name on it going unclaimed.
This impacts Premium Bonds holders who have requested any fee to be paid in the form of a cheque as opposed to a direct bank transfer.
As it stands, there are 2,459,320 unclaimed prizes adding up to £88m left waiting to be claimed by Premium Bonds winners.
The most prominent area is where one of this month’s millionaires came from in Gloucestershire, where 22,595 prizes are worth £768,875.