Overview
- Among the affected accounts, the average balance is about £23,700, and households could have earned nearly £1,000 more this year by moving money into higher-paying savings.
- Yorkshire Building Society based its estimate on CACI’s current account database and paired it with Opinium polling to assess household finances.
- A November survey of 2,000 people found average Christmas spending fell to £596 from £774 in 2024, with only 15% planning to spend over £1,000 and 55% feeling financially stressed.
- Separate research from Spring Savings, launched by Paragon Bank, estimates roughly £526bn sits in current accounts earning no interest, implying around £20bn in forgone interest each year for about 29 million people.
- Paragon reports inertia and a desire to keep a rainy-day buffer keep funds in low-yield accounts, while an easy-access rate of 4.76% would pay about £243 a year on £5,000.