Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

There's nothing our team enjoy more than visiting our winners to present them with a big cheque, but we can't do that right now - we hope you understand. The lottery draws will still take place and winning postcodes will continue to be announced every day. If you are a winner we will contact you by phone, text message, email or post and your prize money will usually be paid straight into your bank account. If you don't pay by Direct Debit we will not have registered bank account details on file, so we might need you to contact us to claim your prize money.

You can sign up to join People's Postcode Lottery at our website postcodelottery.co.uk or by calling our Customer Experience team on our freephone telephone number 0808 109 8765. People's Postcode Lottery is an ongoing monthly subscription lottery where paid tickets are automatically entered into all our prize draws. You can purchase up to three tickets to play in our draws. Each ticket is based on your chosen postcode and costs £10 per month to play. There are Prizes announced every single day. 32% of the ticket price goes to good causes. For more information on how People's Postcode Lottery works, check out our How It Works page.

Each ticket plays in all our draws every month and can win a prize every single day. You can sign up to play People's Postcode Lottery with one, two or three tickets (one, two or three subscriptions). In our Saturday and Sunday Street Prizes, every ticket in one lucky postcode wins £30,000. If you play with one ticket, and your postcode gets drawn, you win £30,000. However, if you played with two tickets, you'd collect £60,000. If you played with three tickets, you'd pick up £90,000!

The same applies with our £1,000 Daily Prize, which runs from Monday to Sunday. These fixed amount prizes are awarded per ticket. The more tickets you play with, the more you win.

Prize funds in the £3 Million 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.

The simplest way to buy People's Postcode Lottery tickets is to sign up online at our website postcodelottery.co.uk. You can also buy tickets by telephoning People's Postcode Lottery on our freephone telephone number 0808 109 8765. Our Customer Experience team members will guide you through the sign up process and set up your monthly subscription. For details on our opening hours, see the Contact Us page. Each month, there are a set of draws. You cannot buy tickets for one individual draw – the minimum subscription is for one month and costs £10. Each month's payment enters your ticket into all draws that month and means that you play for all the prizes in that month of play.

When you sign up to play through our website, we'll send you a confirmation email containing important information about your subscription(s). If you don't receive this email within an hour of signing up, the first thing to do is to check the SPAM folder in your email. Sometimes emails from new contacts or businesses get filtered due to being mistakenly marked as SPAM. If possible, log into your email through the website for your email provider (rather than through a program like Outlook, or a mobile app) and check the SPAM folder.

The next step to take is to add People's Postcode Lottery to your safe sender list. This just tells your email provider that you want to receive emails from us. For instructions on how to do this, take a look at our guide to spam filters.

If, after making these changes, you've still not received our email, please give our Customer Experience team a call on 0808 109 8765 and we can investigate further.

You can telephone People's Postcode Lottery on our freephone number 0808 109 8765. Our Customer Experience team members will help you with any queries. Our staff can help you sign up for new tickets, or can assist with any changes to existing subscriptions. For more ways to get in touch, and our opening hours, see the Contact Us page.

If you've missed a telephone call from People's Postcode Lottery, there are a few reasons why we might have tried to reach you.

• If you're a player, we could be calling to advise you of a prize win or to resolve an issue with a payment or your subscription
• If you were previously a player, we might be calling you with some updates about People's Postcode Lottery
• If you've tried calling us with a query, or started to sign up on our website, then we might be contacting you to offer assistance

People's Postcode Lottery's complaints procedure aims to ensure that any given issue a player may have about the lottery is dealt with promptly and in confidence. The complaints procedure is without prejudice to players' legal rights. Further details of how to complain and our process can be found in Section 10 of our Terms and Conditions and in the webpage How does People's Postcode Lottery handle complaints? Copies of our full complaints procedure are available on request.

People's Postcode Lottery is committed to providing a responsible gaming environment. If you are concerned that gambling may have become a problem for you then you can self-exclude, to prevent your participation in lotteries operated by People's Postcode Lottery. Find out how to self-exclude from People's Postcode Lottery.

Your ticket plays for prizes every day of the week.

• Your ticket could win a Saturday Street Prize or Sunday Street Prize. You play for a £30,000 prize on both days.
• Every day of the week, your ticket could win £1,000 in the Daily Prize.
• Every Saturday, every ticket in 1,000 postcodes wins a £10 prize.
• Every Sunday, every ticket in 1,000 postcodes picks up a £20 prize.
• Every month, you're entered into a Postcode Millions in which your ticket plays for a share of £3 Million.

To find out more, visit our How It Works page.

You can find out the results by:

• Checking out the Lottery Results section on the website.
• Calling us on freephone number 0808 109 8765.

Winners are notified by email, SMS message, letter or phonecall depending on the prize you won. 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 109 8765.

If you pay by Direct Debit or if you signed up by other payment methods 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 109 8765 and we can arrange to pay your winnings.

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 £500,000

No. If you sign up to play People's Postcode Lottery, each ticket you play with is automatically entered into all of our draws, including these Postcode Millions draws.

It costs just £10 per month to play a ticket with People's Postcode Lottery. 32% of the ticket price goes to charities. See more about the cost of playing.

Most of our players make monthly payments for their tickets by Direct Debit. Setting this up is quick and easy and you'll never have to update your details. Any prize money will be paid directly into your bank account and you are fully protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee.

It's also possible to sign up for a subscription by PayPal.

Previously, it was possible to directly sign up to play with Credit Card or Debit Card. It's no longer possible to sign up for new tickets using these payment methods. For existing tickets paid for by Debit Card, payments will continue as previously until the card expires. At this point in time, alternate payment arrangements must be made to continue playing. Please call our Customer Experience staff on freephone number 0808 109 8765 for further assistance or advice.

If you wish to pay by Debit Card, it's possible to use the 'VISA via PayPal' payment method with your Debit Card to make your payments.

'VISA via PayPal' allows for you to pay for your monthly subscription using a VISA Debit Card. However, you will need to create a PayPal account in order to use this payment method.

Prizes are announced every day of the week with People's Postcode Lottery. You pay monthly for your ticket and when you sign up you will be informed of your first draw date. After this date, check out the winning postcodes revealed every day to see if your postcode gets lucky! Each month, we have draws which allocate prizes for every day of that month. Our £30,000 Street Prize winners are revealed every Saturday and Sunday. We usually announce the full winning postcode in our Postcode Millions draws on a Saturday too. Check out the Draw Calendar (PDF, 46KB) for more information. Players have lots more chances to win on other days with our £1,000 Daily Prizes, which run from Monday through to Sunday. All of our draw results are published online in our Lottery Results section.

Our winning postcodes are selected via random draws using software which has been certified by a Gambling Commission-approved testing house. The software uses a random number generator to pick out winning postcodes from the postcodes players have bought a ticket to enter.

20 draws are conducted each month with an independent adjudicator present, usually on the first Wednesday of the month. The winning postcodes are then announced on a daily basis as shown in the Prize Draw Calendar. Only playing postcodes (or, for the Postcode Millions, valid tickets) are entered into our draws. So, there's always a guaranteed winner for every prize.

For all prizes except the monthly Postcode Millions, playing postcodes enter each draw once. These prizes aren't shared, and each winning ticket claims the full advertised prize. Playing with more than one ticket in the same winning postcode? You win the prize amount for each ticket you play with. So, if your postcode wins a £30,000 Street Prize, and you play with two tickets, you'd win £60,000. Playing with three tickets? You'd win £90,000!

For the Postcode Millions prize, the £3 Million prize money is shared. The prize is split between players in the full winning postcode and the surrounding postcode sector (or occasionally, the larger postcode district). All tickets play, and a single winning ticket is selected to determine the full winning postcode. The maximum prize per ticket in the Postcode Millions is 10% of the draw proceeds, up to £500,000. For more information about how this works, check out section 2.6 in our Terms and Conditions.

The monthly payment for one ticket (one subscription) is £10. If you choose to play two subscriptions, the cost is £20 per month. For three subscriptions, you'll pay £30 each month. There are no additional transaction fees.

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 your choice of payment method.

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 109 8765.

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 109 8765.

Winners are notified by email, SMS message, letter or phonecall depending on the prize you won. If you win a Street Prize or get lucky in our Postcode Millions, we'll ring or write to you.

With sensitive information like wins and prize payouts, we need our players to take care to ensure the person calling is definitely from People's Postcode Lottery. Likewise, we'll also need to ensure we're definitely talking to the winning player before we can give any win information out.

We would encourage anybody receiving a call to make checks that the caller is definitely from People's Postcode Lottery. When we call you with news of a win, you should verify it's People's Postcode Lottery on the line by asking us to

• confirm your full ticketnumber,
• confirm your player reference number and
• confirm your first draw date.

All of this information is in the email or welcome pack you received when you first signed up to play. We'll be happy to set your mind at ease and prove it's really us!

Before we can discuss your prize wins in a phonecall, we'll also need you to answer two security questions in order to confirm your identity. However, we never ask for any sensitive bank information such as your bank account PIN.

Our £1,000 Daily Prize winners are informed by post.

Saturday's and Sunday's £10 and £20 prize winners are notified the following week by email or SMS.

For players who have registered bank account details on file, prize money is usually 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 transferred into your bank account within 28 days. Please note that, in some cases, for security reasons, we might need to call you to confirm bank account details.

Players paying by other payment methods:
If you pay for your subscription by other payment methods and you have already registered your bank account details with us, your prize money will be 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, 28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4ET. On receipt of these, your prize money will be transferred into your bank account within 28 days. Please provide your bank account information within six months of your win to enable us to make this prize payment.

If you have any questions, please call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765 or see Contact Us for other ways to get in touch.

Before we can discuss prize wins and payment arrangements in a phonecall, we'll need you to answer two security questions in order to confirm your identity. We need to be sure we are speaking to the account holder before we reveal any important information like a win.

With People's Postcode Lottery, your prize money is usually paid into your account within 28 days of your win. If you do not pay by Direct Debit, 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 109 8765 and we can arrange to pay your winnings. Please confirm this bank account information to us within six months of your win.

In 2019, over 77% of players won prizes with People's Postcode Lottery. These included £10 wins, £1,000 Daily Prizes, £30,000 Street Prizes and shares of the monthly £3 Million Postcode Millions prize. Thousands of postcodes win each week, and millions of pounds in prizes is won every month.

For £10 a month, players are automatically entered into all People's Postcode Lottery draws. Winning postcodes are announced every single day of the month. Only playing postcodes are entered into the Postcode Lottery draws, so prizes are always guaranteed to be won. Over 68% of the postcodes in Great Britain are now playing, so odds are, your neighbours could well be playing already.

If you sign up and play, you'll a win a prize if your postcode gets lucky. You never know when a big win is coming your way. Neighbours in Patchway were amazed when their postcode netted them £30,000 Street Prizes twice in just seven months!

32% 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. To help us help a range of good causes, sign up to play People's Postcode Lottery. Check out the latest news on how player funding is helping charity projects.

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

• Postcode Animal Trust,
• Postcode African Trust,
• Postcode Care Trust,
• Postcode Children Trust,
• Postcode Culture Trust,
• Postcode Earth Trust,
• Postcode Education Trust,
• Postcode Equality Trust,
• Postcode Global Trust,
• Postcode Green Trust,
• Postcode Heroes Trust,
• Postcode Innovation Trust,
• Postcode Planet Trust,
• Postcode Sport Trust,
• Postcode Support Trust,

and through direct beneficiary funding to charity organisations.

Do you know a deserving cause near you? They can directly apply for funding from four of the charity trusts which distribute funds raised by our players. Check out the websites:

• People's Postcode Trust,
• Postcode Community Trust,
• Postcode Dream Trust,
• Postcode Local Trust,
• Postcode Neighbourhood Trust.

to find out more details and see when and how to apply. The other charity trusts which share out player funding work with specific charity organisations, grouped by theme. For example, Postcode Children Trust works with specialist organisations to inspire and support children and young people to make the most of their lives and opportunities.

If you'd like to assist charities in a more practical way, check out our How To Help guide on how to volunteer or support good causes that inspire you. If you'd like to assist charities in your area, you can also check out Local Causes to find projects near you which are looking for volunteers.

If you’ve changed address and would like to update your playing postcode, give our Customer Experience team a call on freephone number 0808 109 8765. We just need you to tell us

• Your full name
• Your date of birth (as a security check)
• Your previous address
• Your full new postal address, together with your new playing postcode. Please note, we need you to tell us your complete new address: your new postcode alone is not sufficient.
• Your new phone number, if it has changed

We’ll make all the arrangements and let you know when you’ll start playing with your new postcode. You can also request a change of address by emailing us at info@postcodelottery.co.uk or by writing to us at

People's Postcode Lottery
28 Charlotte Square
Edinburgh
EH2 4ET
United Kingdom

Please ensure that your written request includes all of the information specified above. This allows us to make your change as quickly and easily as possible. If any of this key information isn't provided, we'll need to get back in touch with you to fill in the missing details.

If you need to change your bank details, please call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765. Unfortunately, it's not possible to request changes in bank account details by email or post. These updates must be discussed in a telephone call.

If you play with PayPal or Debit Card subscriptions and wish to add bank details, or change the bank details we have on record, you can call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765. In this case, to register (or amend) a prize payout bank account, you can also email or write in. Please note that you cannot email or write in to request a change to your Debit Card payment details. If you are updating your Debit Card (or a bank account which pays for your subscription) we need you to call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765.

• You can register updates to all your personal information by calling us on freephone number 0808 109 8765.
• 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
28 Charlotte Square
Edinburgh
EH2 4ET
United Kingdom

All requests will receive written confirmation of receipt and of any changes made. Please note, it's not possible for players paying by Direct Debit to request changes in bank details by email or post: these updates must be discussed in a telephone call.

Our Customer Experience team can make any changes to your subscriptions for you. If you wish to reduce your number of subscriptions or change your subscriptions, simply call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765. Discussing changes in a telephone call allows us to obtain all the necessary information from you and we can confirm back to you that the required changes are in place and when your last draw date will be on any cancelled subscription.

If you would like to stop playing, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Simply cancel your Direct Debit with your bank, or call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765. People's Postcode Lottery will not request payment for any future draws.

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. Players are currently unable to sign in to My Account while these changes are made.

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 109 8765 and they can change your contact preferences for you.

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'.
• Scammers 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 109 8765 or email us on info@postcodelottery.co.uk and we will be happy to advise.

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'.

We are also aware of instances of nuisance callers and criminals deliberately changing the caller ID, a practice known as 'spoofing'. In these cases, your caller ID displays a telephone number connected to People's Postcode Lottery, but the phonecall is not from us. The scammers then ask for information about bank accounts or payments.

One number being 'spoofed' is 0800 123 456, which is an inbound telephone number for members of the public to contact our Customer Experience department. This is not an outbound number that People's Postcode Lottery uses to contact players.

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.