PRIZE BONDS:An Post have around €1.5 million in unclaimed prize bonds looking for an owner. We have the details of four winners here – are you one of the lucky few? And are bonds still worth the investment?

YOU DIDN’T by any chance buy a prize bond in Limerick in 2001 did you? Or maybe in Cork in 1975? Or in Dublin two years later? Could you have been a pioneer of the Government-backed draws, investing in a bond in Dublin in 1957, the year it all began? Or perhaps you didn’t buy the ticket at all, but someone close to you did.

If any of these dates and places ring a bell, we suggest you put down this newspaper immediately – no, best wait until you’ve read to the end of this article – and dig out your tickets, on the off chance that they match the numbers printed elsewhere on this page.

Each of these four tickets is worth around €20,000 but the prizes have gone unclaimed for as long as 19 years. To its eternal shame, the National Lottery only gives people 90 days to claim their prizes – it is a constant fear of Pricewatch that we will discover we’ve won the Lotto 91 days after a draw is made – but prize-bond winning tickets never expire.

If the ticket holder dies, then the ticket gets passed on to their heirs and prizes start earning interest if they remain unclaimed for more than six months.

Although €20,000 is not going to set anyone up for life, it would still be a nice surprise to find out it was coming your way on a bank holiday Monday. If we can put you in touch with your winnings we’d be delighted, not least because we have never won a cent on prize bonds.

This failure on our part is remarkable when you consider that there are around 6,000 cash prizes awarded each week and we have had 20 prize bonds for 20 years. In that time there have been 6,240,000 cash prizes awarded and not once have we got anything. Not only that, but we’ve never met anyone who’s won anything on them either.

So is it worth buying prize bonds at all? A growing number of people seem to think so. Since many of our banks were exposed as being reckless with our money 18 months ago, thousands have flocked to the relative safety of the prize bond market. In fact, almost half of 2008 sales occurred in September and October of that year – a time when fears for the security of the entire Irish banking system forced the Government to offer a full State guarantee on deposits.

Prize bonds, like An Post savings, are a Government guaranteed investment, so they are one of the safest investments you can make. While your money does not earn interest, you can cash in the bonds whenever you want at face value and they are included in each of the regular draws. Even if you win a prize on a particular bond, it is entered in subsequent draws.

Concern about the safety of bank deposits has driven sales of prize bonds to their highest ever level, the company behind the bonds has said. Sales for the first half of 2010 showed record investment levels; 2009 figures showed gross sales of €370 million, up 32 per cent on 2008, while the value of the fund topped €1 billion for the first time in the scheme’s history.

The Prize Bond Company has also introduced a monthly €1 million prize, the most recent prize was won last Friday by a Kilkenny resident with a ticket bought 29 years ago.While a million euro is not to be sneezed at, the monthly draw remains under the radar for most people as unlike the National Lottery, there is absolutely no razzamatazz when it comes to announcing Prize Bond winners and they all remain anonymous, so there isn’t even a person to present an outsized cheque to.

In 2009 it gave away €28 million, the highest value of prizes awarded of any year to date and it says its prizes will top €30m this year.

Last week on Twitter we asked if anyone with prize bonds had actually won anything. While a handful of winners contacted us, a lot more losers – and we mean that in the nicest possible way – got in touch.

“My family have around 50 or 60 [between them], grandparents as well as nephews and nieces. Never ever won anything,” came one response. “My daughter got a bunch when she was born, from a kindly uncle. She’s 19 now, never got a bob,” said another.

“I’ve had them since I was seven. Never won a thing and never checked. It’s just another way for the Government to waste even more of our euro,” said one clearly disgruntled bond man.

Another person has had bonds for 30 years and “never won a brass cent off them”. Or maybe he did. Someone else answered our question with the wise words: “Maybe I’ve won loads of times and never knew about it.” She’s right on the money.

All told, there’s around €1.5 million in unclaimed prizes waiting to be collected from prize bond tickets – a figure which represents less than 0.3 per cent of the value of prizes awarded since the launch of the scheme in 1957. While most of the prizes are for small amounts – over 70 per cent are for €250 or less – there are the four prizes of €20,000 waiting to be collected.

The Prize Bond Company does write to winners to inform them of their good fortune, but if you move house and forget to notify them – and, let’s face it, remembering to tell the Prize Bond Company we’ve moved house is a long way down most people’s to-do list – there’s not really a lot they can do to put you in touch with your winnings. All prizes are listed on prizebonds.ie or can be checked by phoning CallSave 1850-671000.

Incidentally, as a result of our Twitter survey, we may have found out why we have yet to win anything on the bonds. Someone else has stolen all of our luck. “My mum has won €75, 35 separate times over a period of four years,” said a contributor by the name of Róisín. With luck like that, she can buy our prize bonds anytime.

Could it be you?

Four prize bonds waiting to be claimed

€20,000

Winning bond number is DB 539878 Bond won in October 2004

Bond bought in Limerick in May 2001

€19,046.07

Winning bond number is P137675

Bond won in December 1991

Bond bought in Cork in November 1975

€19,046.07

Winning bond number is 380050

Bond won in March 1996

Bond bought in Dublin in March 1957 (bought the year the Prize Bond draw began, 52 years ago)

€19,046.07

Winning bond number is R982310

Bond won in September 1996

Bond bought in Dublin in December 1977