Banking News 23 Percent Of Brits Have Nothing In Savings Accounts Says Nationwide 3048
23% of Brits have nothing in savings accounts says Nationwide
10 March 2009 / by Rebecca Sargent
The research into saving trends found that 23 per cent of Brits have nothing in a savings account, while the number of people who deem saving as important has fallen from 66 per cent in July 2008, to 57 per cent.
The study comes amid falling interest rates on savings accounts following the Bank of England’s announcement last Thursday that the base rate now stands at a 315 year low of 0.5 per cent.
Commenting on the research, Andy McQueen, savings director at Nationwide building society says, “We’re very concerned that since we started monitoring the savings habits of the UK last year, the importance consumers put on saving has been falling.”
When asked whether they thought it was a good or a bad time to be saving at the moment, 57 per cent of people think now is a bad time, compared with 37 per cent back in June 2008.
In comparison, less than one in five people think that now is a good time to be saving money.
Mr McQueen added: “Interest rates have decreased but there are still a number of good products available paying a healthy return that people should be taking advantage of. As job security across the UK worsens, consumers do need to have a nest egg built up that will cushion them through any unexpected financial crisis.
“Even though returns are smaller at the moment, it’s still just as important for people to regularly put money aside.”
© Fair Investment Company Ltd