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Article: Mean Ernie cutting down; Premium Bond draw suffers a prize payout tumble MONEY MAIL.
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- March 28, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: SYLVIA MORRIS
MILLIONS of Premium Bond holders will receive a thinner slice of the cake in the draw next week as the prize money pot is cut and the number of [pound]100 prizes slashed by almost a half.
Ernie - an acronym for Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment - which picks Premium Bond prizewinners each month, is expected to dish out [pound]48.4 million in the April draw. This is a huge [pound]4.43 million less than in March.
In effect, National Savings has cut the payout from 4.25pc to 4 pc of the total invested. Five years ago in June 1996, when the Bank of England base rate stood at 5.75pc - the same level as today - the ...