Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can I join People's Postcode Lottery?

The easiest way to get your People's Postcode Lottery ticket is to sign up online. Alternatively, give us a call us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5.

What's the difference in playing with 1, 2 or 3 tickets?

Each ticket can win prizes every single day, and plays in all draws every month. In our Saturday Street Prize, every ticket in one lucky postcode wins £25,000. If you play with one ticket, and your postcode gets drawn, you win £25,000. However, if you played with two tickets, you'd collect £50,000. If you played with three tickets, you'd pick up £75,000!

The same applies with the £5,000 Dream Holiday, the £1,000 Daily Prize and the Sunday prizes. These fixed amount prizes are awarded per ticket. The more tickets you play with, the more you win.

Prize funds in the Postcode Millions draw are shared on a per-ticket basis. The more tickets you play with, the greater your share of the total prize fund.

Each ticket costs £10 per month to play. For two tickets, your subscription would be £20 per month, and for three tickets, it would cost £30 per month.

What does my ticket play for?

Your ticket plays for prizes every day of the week. Every Saturday, it plays in two Saturday Street Prize draws, for a £25,000 prize. Monday to Friday, your ticket could win £1,000 each day in the Daily Prize. On a Sunday, your ticket could win £100, £50, £20 or £10. Your ticket also plays in monthly draws for a brand new BMW, a £5,000 Dream Holiday and £5,000 cash. Every month, we also have a £3 Million Postcode Millions draw and your ticket plays for a share of a £3 Million cash prize fund.​

How can I tell if I'm a winner?

There are lots of ways to see if you're a winner.

• Check out the Winners section on the website.
• Call us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5.
• We publish winning postcodes in the press.

Winners are notified by email, SMS message, mail or phonecall depending on the prize you won. For our big winners, of course, we'll see you in person! We recommend that players register an email address with us and keep their address and telephone details up to date, to ensure they can be notified of any prize wins. To update any of your contact details, please give our Customer Experience staff a call on 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5.

When will I receive my prize money?

If you pay by Direct Debit or if you signed up by Credit Card, Debit Card or PayPal but have already registered your bank account details with us, your prize money will be transferred to your bank account within 28 days. If you haven’t registered your bank details with us yet, please ring us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 and we can arrange to pay your winnings.

When do Postcode Millions happen?

In 2016, we have Postcode Millions draws every month, giving our players the chance to win their share of massive £3 Million prize pots*.

* In accordance with the Gambling Act 2005, the maximum amount that can be won by a single ticket is 10% of draw proceeds up to a maximum of £400,000

Do I need to buy separate tickets for the Postcode Million draws?

No. If you've signed up to play, each ticket you play with is automatically entered into all of our draws, including these Postcode Million draws.

Is People's Postcode Lottery free to play?

It costs just £10 per month to play a ticket with People's Postcode Lottery. A minimum of 30% of the ticket price goes to charities. See more about the cost of playing.

When does my ticket play for prizes?

You can win cash prizes every day of the week with your People's Postcode Lottery ticket. You pay monthly for your ticket and when you first sign up you will be informed of your first draw date. After this date, you'll play for prizes daily. Each month, we have ten draws which allocate prizes for every day of that month, Our £25,000 Street Prize winners are revealed on a Saturday. We usually announce the full winning postcode in our Postcode Millions draws on a Saturday too. Check out the 2016 Draw Calendar (PDF, 44KB) for more information. Players have lots more chances to win on other days with our £1,000 Daily Prizes, our monthly BMW draw, £5,000 Dream Holiday prizes and our Sunday £100, £50, £20 and £10 prizes. All of our draw results are published online in our Winners section.

How much will my monthly payment be?

Your monthly payment for one ticket is £10. If you pay for your ticket by Credit/Debit Card or PayPal, you may also pay a small additional monthly transaction fee (35p). If you sign up by Direct Debit, there is no such fee.

When will my payments be taken?

In your first month, two payments may be taken close together. These are payments for each of your first two months of play. Tickets are paid monthly in advance simply to ensure that you play in draws from the earliest opportunity. After this first month, payments will only occur once every month. The exact timing of when these regular payments are taken depends on whether you pay by Direct Debit, Credit/Debit Card, or PayPal.

Direct Debit customers have their payments taken either at an early collection date (on or around the 10th of each month) or at a late collection date (around the end of each month).

For specific information on your payment date schedule, call our Customer Experience staff on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5.

How do payments work with multiple tickets?

Our payment system changed a little while ago to make it easier to manage your tickets. Previously players with more than one ticket would see a single Direct Debit mandate for the cost of all tickets. Now though each ticket uses a separate Direct Debit mandate, which makes it easier to change the number of tickets you play. Please don’t be alarmed if you see more than one Direct Debit mandate on your account. For any questions, please call our Customer Experience staff on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5.

What happens when I win a prize?

£10 Sunday prize winners will be notified by email or SMS on the Tuesday following their Sunday win. £20 Sunday prize winners will also be emailed on that Tuesday. £50 and £100 Sunday prize winners will be contacted by post. £1,000 Daily Prize winners with email or SMS contact details on file will be notified on the Friday of the week of their win. As for our big winners, we'll see you in person!

For players who have registered bank account details on file, prize money is usually automatically transferred into your bank account within 28 days. However, if you do not pay by Direct Debit, we may need you to contact us to claim your prize money, depending on how much you have won.

Players paying by Direct Debit:
If you pay for your subscription by Direct Debit, your prize money will be automatically transferred into your bank account within 28 days.

Players paying by Credit Card, Debit Card or PayPal:
If you pay for your subscription by Credit Card, Debit Card or PayPal, and you have already registered your bank account details with us, your prize money will be automatically transferred within 28 days. If you haven't registered your bank details with us, and you've won more than £3,000 per subscription, you'll need to register a bank account to receive your prize money. You will be required to provide two forms of identification - a driver's licence or passport - and a recent bank statement clearly showing your name, account number and sort code. Please email scans of the documents to info@postcodelottery.co.uk or post photocopies to People's Postcode Lottery, 76 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3BU. On receipt of these, your prize money will be transferred into your bank account within 28 days.

If you have any questions, please call us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 or see Contact Us for other ways to get in touch.

How do I claim my prize?

With People's Postcode Lottery, your prize money is automatically paid into your account within 28 days of your win. If you pay by Credit Card, Debit Card or PayPal, haven't previously registered bank details with us, and you win more than £3,000 per subscription, you will need to provide bank account information. In that case, please ring us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 and we can arrange to pay your winnings.

How much money goes to charity?

A minimum of 30% of the ticket price goes to supporting charities. Our players have raised millions of pounds for good causes. By playing People's Postcode Lottery, you give yourself the chance to win great prizes, but you also help some amazing charities do vital work. Find out more about how your ticket supports charity.

How is charity money distributed?

Money raised by our players is distributed to good causes by the grant-giving trusts

• People's Postcode Trust,
• Postcode Community Trust,
• Postcode African Trust,
• Postcode Animal Trust,
• Postcode Care Trust,
• Postcode Children Trust,
• Postcode Culture Trust,
• Postcode Dream Trust,
• Postcode Earth Trust,
• Postcode Global Trust,
• Postcode Green Trust,
• Postcode Heroes Trust,
• Postcode Local Trust,
• Postcode Planet Trust,
• Postcode Sport Trust,
• Postcode Support Trust,

and through direct beneficiary funding to charity organisations.

Visit www.postcodetrust.org.uk to find out more about our small grants scheme, which gives grants of between £500 and £20,000 to local community projects and charities.

How can I change my personal information, including address, bank details etc?

• You can register updates to all your personal information by calling us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5
• You can also email requests of this type to info@postcodelottery.co.uk. If you are seeking any changes to your account, please note your full name, address and date of birth in your email.
• You can also submit a request for these changes by post. Please write to the address below, stating what your previous details were and what you’d like to change them to be.

People's Postcode Lottery
76 George Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3BU
United Kingdom

All requests will receive written confirmation of receipt and of any changes made.

How can I reduce the number of tickets I play or cancel completely?

Simply call us on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 and our Customer Experience team specialists can make the changes.

How can I stop receiving particular emails from People's Postcode Lottery?

In a copy of the email which you no longer want to receive, click the Unsubscribe button in the footer of the mailing. You should then be taken to a webpage in which you can choose to unsubscribe from future mailings of that type. Alternatively, call our Customer Experience staff on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 and they can change your contact preferences for you.

Why can't I log in to My Account?

We received some invaluable suggestions from players regarding the My Account functionality and have identified a series of improvements to make this service even better. My Account is currently unavailable while these changes are being made.

What are the warning signs for scams?

People's Postcode Lottery urges the public to be vigilant and look out for key warning signs in any communication telling them they have won any lottery:

• You cannot win a lottery unless you have entered. You must be a player of People's Postcode Lottery to win a prize with us.
• Legitimate lotteries don't ask you to pay taxes, custom fees, insurance shipping, handling fees etc before you can receive your 'winnings'.
• Scammer often ask their targets to send money upfront to them by money transfer.

If you are unsure about any communication you receive, please call our Customer Experience staff on freephone number 0808-10•9•8•7•6•5 or email us on info@postcodelottery.co.uk and we will be happy to advise.

I'm worried I've received a letter/email/phonecall from a scammer. What should I do?

Periodically, fraudsters will run lottery scams. Sometimes, these scams can involve an individual posing as People's Postcode Lottery. The scammers contact members of the public by letter, email, phonecall or SMS message. The scammers will then claim that their target is a winner of a special lottery award. The fraudsters will often then ask for payment or your bank details before they will transfer any 'winnings'.

People's Postcode Lottery warns the public that these communications are scams and should be ignored.

We encourage anyone who has encountered a scam to report it to Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud reporting centre. For more information visit www.actionfraud.police.uk.