Why don’t Premium Bonds winners ever seem to come from the Channel Islands or Isle of Man?

Why, when the winners of the Premium Bonus prizes are announced each month, are winners from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man never listed?

I have noticed on your monthly winners list that there are never any winners from these places.

Given the number of wealthy individuals who call these places home, you’d think more major prize winners residing there would be announced. Via email.

Helen Kirrane of This is Money responds: Considering that there are no rules that prevent those who live on these islands from buying Premium Bonds, it seems a mystery.

To have premium bonuses if you live on the Isle of Man or Channel Island, NS&I simply states that clients must have a UK bank or building society account that accepts BACS transfers.

There are no rules or laws that prevent people born or living in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man from having premium bonds or being NS&I clients.

A low personal tax rate on the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as the absence of capital gains tax, stamp duty or inheritance tax, have made these areas popular with wealthy Britons.

So, why are there no Premium Bonus winning listings in these countries?

The answer is simply due to the way NS&I reports the location of award winners.

NS&I sets rules when announcing the location of prize winners to protect identities.

Each client is assigned to a standard city, local authority, county or region and country of the government.

When a winner is assigned to a city with less than 100,000 account holders, NS&I uses the following hierarchy until a level is found where that area has at least 100,000 premium bond holders. These are:

Tier 1 Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) city (as Blackpool);

Tier 2 county or local authority (such as Lancashire);

Tier 3 government standard region (such as Northwest);

Tier 4 country (like England).

But for premium bondholders living outside the UK, NS&I only publishes the country when there are at least 100,000 holders living there. Otherwise, they post the area as “overseas”.

The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands fall into this group.

Premium Bonus Winners

Prize
Area
bond value

£1,000,000
Hereford and Worcester
£50,000

£1,000,000
essex
£23,000

£100,000
Sheffield
£30,000

£100,000
norfolk
£49,000

£100,000
inner london
£49,990

£100,000
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
£5,000

£100,000
west midlands
£50,000

£100,000
Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot
£10,000

More August 2023 Winners

See list of winners for August 2023

An NS&I spokesperson responds: If a £1 million winner came from the Isle of Man, Guernsey or Jersey, it would be reported as ‘overseas’.

This is due to a rule we have put in place to protect our £1 million winners.

If the area they come from has less than 100,000 Premium Bondholders, we will report in the area below that it has more than 100,000 Premium Bondholders.’

Due to the smaller number of bondholders in Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, we are unable to break this down beyond ‘overseas’.

Helen Kirrane adds: Guernsey has just over 19,000 Premium Bondholders and Jersey just over 29,000; Taken together, this is much less than 100,000 Premium Bondholders, so NS&I would not report these as Channel Islands.

The default option for reporting a winner from one of these areas would be “overseas.”

NS&I was unable to provide customer numbers for the Isle of Man.

There have been five overseas winners since NS&I launched the £1 million jackpot in April 1994, but NS&I does not disclose in which countries or territories, such as the Channel Islands, these winners lived.