February Premium Bonds prizes: how to use the prize checker and see winners
The February 2026 Premium Bonds draw has produced two new £1 million winners, with both top prizes going to people holding the maximum £50,000. Interest in the Premium Bond checker spiked ahead of results day, as savers looked for the quickest way to confirm whether they’ve landed anything from £25 up to the jackpot.
Premium Bonds don’t pay interest. Instead, each £1 bond is an entry into a monthly draw, and winnings are paid as tax-free prizes. That structure makes “checking” part of the ritual—especially on results day.
February 2026: where the millionaires are
For the February draw, the two £1 million prizes went to holders in Central Bedfordshire and Liverpool. Both had £50,000 invested, but the winning bonds themselves were bought years apart—one tied to a £17,500 purchase made in February 2022, and the other tied to a £2,000 purchase made in October 2004.
That detail matters because it underlines how Premium Bonds work: having more bonds increases your odds, but any eligible bond can win, even if it was bought long ago.
Prize fund and number of prizes
The February draw is built around a prize fund of just over £408 million, shared across more than 6.1 million prizes. The overwhelming majority of winners are at the lower end of the scale, while a smaller number of prizes sit in the high-value bands.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the headline figures for February:
| February 2026 draw snapshot | Detail |
|---|---|
| Prize fund | £408m+ |
| Number of prizes | 6.1m+ |
| £1m winner location | Central Bedfordshire |
| £1m winner location | Liverpool |
| Typical results day | February 3, 2026 (ET) |
Premium bond checker: the fastest ways to check
There are two main routes people use to check Premium Bonds prizes:
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Online prize checker
You enter your holder’s number and it returns whether you’ve won in the latest draw, plus recent draws. -
Official prize-checker app
The app can check the latest draw, several previous draws, and can flag older unclaimed prizes. It supports checking multiple family members’ bonds once their numbers are saved.
If you’re checking for someone else (a child’s bonds, or a relative you help manage finances for), you’ll still need the correct reference number associated with that holding.
What you need: holder’s number vs. NS&I number
Most confusion comes down to which number to use.
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Holder’s number: This is the key reference used for the web-based prize checker. It’s typically 9–10 digits, or 8 digits followed by a letter. You can find it on bond records, prize letters, or within account information if you have online access.
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NS&I number: This can be used inside the app, but it generally isn’t the number you type into the web prize-checking form.
If you don’t have the holder’s number handy, the practical fix is to locate an old bond record or prize notification, or access account details through your usual login route.
Premium Bonds prizes: what happens if you win
If you’ve won, you normally won’t need to “claim” in the way you would with a lottery ticket. Prizes are typically paid automatically, depending on how your account is set up (for example, paid to your bank account or rolled back into holdings if you’ve chosen reinvestment options).
A separate issue is unclaimed prizes, which often happen when older accounts are linked to outdated contact details or legacy payment preferences. If you’ve held Premium Bonds for a long time—especially if you moved house, changed banks, or opened the bonds for a child years ago—it’s worth checking not only this month, but also older draws that might still be sitting there.
Sources consulted: NS&I; MoneyHelper; The Telegraph; MoneyWeek
