Postcode Lottery Exposed — Do You Agree with Customer Reviews?
Postcode Lottery Review
You’re probably wondering why a lottery has a “postcode” in its name. Well, it’s exactly what it says! Postcode Lottery runs lotteries that are based on your postcode. It’s sold as a monthly subscription though you can purchase more than one. It’s run by “People’s Postcode Lottery” which manages society lotteries on behalf of charitable bodies. They support good causes (their words, not mine) all over Britain. Anyway, let’s all take a step back and see what exactly Postcode Lottery is about.
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How Can I Win Millions on Postcode Lottery?
Postcode Lottery is a subscription service. Each subscription buys one ticket for a month at a cost of £10 (plus a 0.50p service fee). This ticket is based on your postcode. You can buy as many monthly subscriptions as you’d like, which means you might have three tickets on your postcode. Why do this? Their millionaire prizes (six slated for 2013) are not in fact, one individual jackpot, but split amongst the people that live in an area based on the symbols (i.e. lowest prize is first three, second lowest is first four) in your postcode. The person with the full winning postcode gets the big prize. But, it is important to note that
“In accordance with the Gambling Act 2005, the maximum amount that can be won by a single ticket is 10% of the monthly UK ticket sales (up to and not exceeding £400,000)”,
states the official Postcode Lottery website. If you have three tickets, you could win three times in a specific shared draw.
The subscription also includes daily, weekly and monthly prizes based again – yes – on your postcode.
Over the years, the lottery has added a couple of additional opportunities to win prizes.
The first one is periodic competitions that are announced on the website and the PostCodeLottery Facebook page. These are usually for non-cash prizes like shopping vouchers, tablets or tickets for a range of events. The website has a long list of people who have supposedly won the competitions so far, but because of the small awards, it’s difficult to verify whether such people exist and if they’ve won anything.
There’s also a Postcode Lottery bingo. According to the official presentation, you deposit 10 pounds for a chance to win 30. There’s supposed to be a welcome bonus on the first deposit and some of the proceeds will once again be donated to charities.
Finally, there are some instant scratch cards. There are more than 150 games to choose from and an opportunity to get a prize of up to 5,000 pounds. Just like with other virtual scratch cards, however, it’s imperative to remain cautious. You don’t have a way of verifying the types and numbers of cards. In fact, there’s no telling if winning cards exist at all. Though Postcode Lottery supposedly gives you hundreds of options to win money (while supporting charities – something that they heavily put emphasis on), I’d still recommend retaining a healthy degree of skepticism about what they do.
Who Can Play?
Anyone who has a British postcode is eligible to play It’s easy for UK residents to sign up on the lottery’s official website. Debit and credit cards alongside PayPal are accepted for purchasing subscriptions.
How to Sign Up for Postcode Lottery
You can sign up by using their website or by calling their customer service on their toll-free number. When you sign up, you should receive a confirmation email containing important information about your subscription(s). If you do not receive any email from them, check your spam folder, and if it is still not in there, call their customer service.
How to Claim Get Postcode Lottery Winnings
The first time you make your monthly payment, by Direct Debit, your details will be saved and there’ll be no need to update them so that when you get any winnings, they are sent directly into that account.
Winners are notified by email, SMS message, letter, or phone call depending on the prize won. Generally, 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 them, and you win more than £3,000 per subscription, you will need to provide bank account information.
Previously, you could directly sign up to play with Credit Card or pay by Debit Card using a specific ‘VISA via PayPal’ approach. It’s no longer possible to sign up for new tickets using these payment methods.
Postcode Lottery’s Website
The website is pretty simple and straightforward to navigate around. The major sections that an intending player (or just a random person) may need information about are at the top of the website and on every web page. Overall, it has a simple layout anyone can understand.
Customer Service at PostCodeLottery.co.uk
Postcode Lottery has its telephone number all over its site. You can ring them or complete a form asking them to call you back at a specific time. People can also sign up for regular emails for Postcode Lottery news, updates, and results.
Changing Address on Postcode Lottery
Considering the fact that this lottery is based on postcodes, you may want to know what happens if you change your location and still want to participate in the lottery. All you have to do is call their customer service or send them an email, and provide the following information:
- Your full name
- Your date of birth (as a security check)
- Your previous address
- Your full new postal address – please note, that we need you to tell us your complete new address
- Your new playing postcode
- Your up-to-date phone numbers and email address
They’ll reach out to you with information on how soon you can start playing.
Complaints about Postcode Lottery
Most complaints about Postcode Lottery were about the fact that some lottery representatives call at inappropriate hours or inconvenient times [whocallsme.com]. There were also former players saying that they felt harassed by the lottery after refusing to continue to sign up for their service.
So Where Does the Profit Go?
One of the selling points of Postcode Lottery is that they direct a significant amount of the money collected from customers towards supporting charities. Some of the charities included in the official list are the Postcode Community Trust (a foundation supposed to aid marginalized communities), the Postcode Local Trust (providing project-specific funding), the Postcode African Trust (that supports charities like AfriKids and TheirWorld), and the Postcode Animal Trust (supporting charities like Marine Conservation Society, PDSA, Riding for the Disabled Association and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland).
Over the years, Postcode Lottery has increased the number of charities that it works with and there’s also information about the amounts of funds that have been submitted to each individual charity cause. This type of information is easily verifiable – you’ll simply have to contact the individual charity organization. Though they’ll probably refrain from revealing numbers, it’s still easy to check whether Postcode Lottery has made any contribution at all. And some of these contributions are supposedly huge – according to the lottery’s website, it has donated 1.2 million pounds to PDSA!
Why You Should Register With Postcode Lottery
Pros:
No numbers to pick
Lots of prizes
Supports charities
Many different games to choose among
Joining is easy
Numerous payment methods are supported
The customer support team is responsive – their effectiveness has been verified by users
Why You Should Not Register With Postcode Lottery
Cons:
Must have a UK residence
They do not have a mobile app
Is Postcode Lottery Worth It?
In case you’re wondering, “is Postcode lottery a con?” It isn’t. However, this is not a lottery that is going to make you a millionaire but it will provide some fun and it’s kind of cool that one doesn’t have to try to figure out what their lucky numbers could be. It’s a little lottery that the average person can play and be happy about, especially knowing that they are supporting charities. But, the bottom line is you must have a UK address to play! Also, you may want to check out the complaints about the lottery before giving it a try. The experiences of others are quite informative and it’s up to you to interpret the information.
Maureen Gill
I have been playing for a few years I emailed them a few months ago stating that I wasn’t happy and felt they weren’t transparent enough. I also asked how postcodes were selected, apparently, it is like this for example EH12 2YZ is the second 2 that c’ounts, I tried it with my postcode and there were so many roads with the particular postcode number which counted that even if only half the residents were playing your chance of winning anything big is remote, have had two ten pounds and like previous person a ‘prize’ which was an insult. Didn’t claim it. I am going to cancel thats £120 saved per year, I will do the Lottery occasionally at least I have had a few ‘lucky dips’.
It says when I try to check in that the site isn’t secure it won’t let me into it how can I check my postcode or cancel
Cancelling is easy; just cancel the direct debits at your bank either online or at the bank. You could ring them but that is your choice. They have changed the format of the postcode lottery sites and it is dreadful. No doubt they’ve taken on some new teenage techie who thinks anything old is crap so needs replacing. You might need to check your settings but exit and access the site again if need be. The “accept” or “choose your own” nonsense that we have to regularly deal with when accessing almost any site might need to be gone through which will eventually give you the option to reject all their optional settings. The site is accessible and you can still search your postcode, though I dislike the new format as it is not as intuitive as the old one.
Jeff Waldron
I’ve noticed a pattern with the same areas or same type of areas winning. This month, Wa31 won, which is perfect for them as the area has a mixture of working class areas and the filthy rich. An acquaintance of ours just won £60000 this month, and they’re millionaires. Hard to watch their terrible acting on Facebook as they tell the people in the red jackets how much the money means to them when they were really hoping for the jackpot with a massive bag of cash in the bank already. Then there’s the others who won who work in work in working class jobs and are in need of a genuine cash uplift. That’s always the tactic of PCL, select a postcode to win that contains both working and upper middle class areas to keep the punters happy each month and keep the cash coming in. I’d love to see the stats on the winning postcodes.
Although it’s back too, I didn’t know they’d cancelled the daily £30k ages ago. They snuck that one through!
Tanya
WA3 1BH won the millions draw in April and well done, funny how this lottery hasn’t revealed how many won with the full postcode. Clearly don’t want players adding up the prize total as this lottery claims £220m will be won this year. I think it is a blatant lie. Cancelled now as it is getting more and more dubious with lack of transparency
Josh D
Agree with all the negatives on here. Same areas winning and same prizes although the daily £30k is back but as usual it’ll be the usual areas that win it. Cancelled our subscription as its biased with the areas.