Leeds is buzzing after six residents hit the jackpot in the National Savings & Investments (NS&I) Premium Bonds draw for May 2025, each pocketing a cool £25,000. The announcement, dropped on May 1, has locals scrambling to check their bond numbers, hoping they’re among the lucky few who turned a modest investment into a life-changing windfall.
The winners, whose identities remain under wraps as is standard with NS&I, are part of a whopping 183 high-value prize recipients in Leeds this month. That’s a hefty haul for the city, though it’s the six £25,000 prizes that have tongues wagging. Premium Bonds, for the uninitiated, aren’t your typical savings account. You buy bonds starting at £25, up to a max of £50,000, and instead of earning interest, each bond gets a shot in a monthly prize draw. Prizes range from a humble £25 to a millionaire-making £1 million, all tax-free. The odds? A steep 22,000 to 1 for any prize, but that didn’t stop these Leeds folks from beating the house.
The draw, run by NS&I’s number-crunching machine dubbed ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment), is a monthly ritual that’s been turning ordinary savers into instant winners since 1957. This time, Leeds saw no millionaires—those went to bondholders in Derbyshire and Suffolk, each clutching £1 million—but the £25,000 prizes are nothing to sneeze at. For context, that’s enough to clear a chunk of a mortgage, buy a shiny new car, or fund a dream holiday without blinking.
NS&I’s system is airtight: every £1 bond has an equal shot, whether you’ve got £25 or the full £50,000 stashed. The winning numbers for May’s high-value prizes were published on May 1, available for anyone to check via NS&I’s online prize checker or This is Money’s interactive tables, which let you filter by region, prize amount, or bond purchase date. Leeds’ six £25,000 winners are among 5,806,049 total prizes dished out this month, worth a staggering £441,743,525 nationwide.
The city’s had a hot streak lately. Back in January, three Leeds residents nabbed £25,000 each, and in December 2024, one lucky soul bagged £100,000. But six winners in one go? That’s the kind of news that has neighbors eyeing each other’s mailboxes, wondering who’s suddenly flush. With NS&I’s prize fund rate now at 3.8%, down from a high of 4.65% in 2023, the payouts are still juicy enough to keep savers hooked.
For those itching to join the party, buying Premium Bonds is straightforward: online at NS&I’s website or by post with a cheque. Minimum buy-in is £25, and you’re in the draw the next month. Just don’t expect a guaranteed payday—two in three bondholders have never won a dime, per industry stats. Still, for these six in Leeds, May 2025 is a month they won’t forget.
The winning bond numbers for May 2025 are listed on NS&I’s official site. Prizes are paid directly to bank accounts or reinvested into more bonds for most winners. Unclaimed prizes, including a £50,000 pot from November 2007, are still floating out there. Leeds’ total high-value winners this month: 183.