Premium bonds: is it worth investing now the odds of winning are better?

For the UK’s 22 million-plus bond holders, the prize fund rate is the highest it has been for 24 years. Photograph: True Images/Alamy

Patrick Jones* will never forget the moment he opened a letter and discovered he had won £100,000 on the premium bonds.

“I thought: this is absolutely bonkers. It must be a hoax,” says Jones, who had invested £15,000 in the bonds.