Why your household bills could be about to soar – and what to do about it
Household bills could soar by up to £400 a year as the Government tries to find ways of funding its ‘net zero’ pledge by 2050, a new report has claimed.
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) says the Government needs to invest heavily in greenhouse gas removal technologies if it is to meet that target. It estimates that investment will cost the taxpayer up to £400m over the next decade, but argued that the most polluting industries, such as shipping, aviation and agriculture should pay £2bn a year from 2030.
However, the NIC acknowledged that this cost would likely be handed down to consumers in the form of higher food, transport, goods and energy bills. It estimates that the lowest earners are likely to see their bills rise £80 a year by 2030, with the highest earners having to fork out up to £400 more a year.
However, you can offset those costs by making some small money-saving changes elsewhere.
Here are just some of the ways you can trim your outgoings.
- Cut your utility bills: the average dual fuel energy bill costs £1,131 a year, or £94.35 a month, according to Ofgem. However, you can cut hundreds a year off your bill by only using the heating when necessary, turning off lights when you leave a room, using energy efficient lightbulbs and making sure your boiler is serviced regularly. You could also save a lot of money by shopping around for the best energy deal by using a comparison site.
- Check you’re not overpaying on council tax: More than 400,000 homes are currently in the wrong council tax band and are therefore overpaying, according to TV money expert Martin Lewis. It is thought that some homes have been in the wrong band since the current system was introduced in 1991. However, if you have overpaid, you might be able to claim a discount on future payments. Click here to find out how.
- Use the car less: Petrol prices hit an eight-year high in June after eight consecutive monthly increases, according to motoring organisation RAC. With the average annual fuel bill standing north of £1,000, you could save a small fortune by opting to walk or cycle to work instead.
- Reduce your debt interest payments: According to The Money Charity, the average UK resident has nearly £2,000 in credit card debt. If you’re paying high rates of interest on your loans and credit cards, look to see if you can shift them onto a card charging 0% interest. That way, your monthly repayments are paying down just the debt, rather than the interest.
- Cancel unused memberships and subscriptions: Have a gym membership that you never use? Or perhaps paying for Netflix when you rarely watch television? Then you might want to consider cancelling them. But make sure you check you’re not locked in and liable for any early cancellation fees first.
If you’d like to discuss additional ways to make your money work harder, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your adviser.
What the proposed 1% hike to National Insurance would mean for your money
The Government is reportedly planning to hike National Insurance by 1% to pay for social care, in a move that could leave workers hundreds of pounds a year worse off.
The increase would result in workers having to pay more in tax, meaning they would have less disposable income to spend each month. It has been reported that the plan could raise more than £10bn in additional tax revenue to help the Government pay for the rising care costs of the UK’s ageing population.
While the policy is likely to be unpopular, experts say it would result in fewer people having to sell their homes to pay for care in old age. However, critics argue a hike to National Insurance is the least fair way of solving the problem, as it would hit lower earners hardest.
Also, as retirees do not pay NI, it would also mean the burden of funding social care would fall entirely on workers, which again would likely be very unpopular.
Here we explain what the proposal would mean for your finances.
How does National Insurance work at present?
NI raises around £150bn a year for the Treasury’s coffers, making it the second biggest earner after income tax.
It is used mainly to pay for state benefits, such as the state pension, statutory sick pay, maternity leave and unemployment and disability benefits.
Workers do not pay NI until they earn £9,568. You then pay 12% of your earnings between £9,568 and £50,270, and 2% for anything you earn over this amount. The self-employed pay lower amounts of NI.
However, if the Government presses ahead with its plans, those rates would rise from 12% to 13% and from 2% to 3% respectively.
How would it affect me?
How much you pay in NI is linked to how much you earn, meaning the higher your salary the bigger your contribution. Figures calculated by accountants Blick Rothenberg for The Sun reveal that someone earning £15,000 a year would see their NI contributions rise by £54 a year to £706.
Someone on £25,000 – slightly under the median national salary of £29,900 – would see their NI bill rise £154 to £2,006.
If you earn £50,000 a year, your NI bill would rise by a whopping £404 to £5,256, while someone earning £75,000 a year would see theirs jump by £654 to £6,033.
How likely is it that the hike will happen?
While the Conservatives ruled out increases to income tax and NI in their 2019 election manifesto, these are exceptional times.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has publicly stated the need to balance the books and to find a way to pay off the enormous amount of debt that the Government has taken on since the start of the current crisis.
So, while the move might be unpopular, the Government could argue it is necessary to get the public finances back on an even keel.
Having that said, there’s a possibility the Chancellor may well tweak his plan to introduce a blanket NI increase, especially if there is a backlash among Conservative MPs and workers.
If you’d like to discuss the topics mentioned in this article further, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your adviser.
Pension Freedom age set to rise, do you need to change your plans to prepare for it?
The age at which you can take your pension is set to rise, but how might that affect your long-term plans?
From 2028 the age at which you can take your pension is set to rise. The Government confirmed on 20 July 2021 that the Pension Freedom age will rise from 55 to 57 at the end of the tax year April 2028. This means pension holders will have to wait longer to access their savings. The changes are set to be enacted alongside the rise in State Pension age, which the Government says reflects the changing nature of the workforce and the need for pensions to last longer into old age.
But how might it affect your retirement plans?
Anyone who was planning on calling it a day on their 55th birthday might want to think again about how their wealth is distributed. Thankfully with plenty of notice from lawmakers, time is on your side. One change you can make to ensure you have quicker access to long-term wealth is to channel more of your savings towards ISAs. ISAs are not subject to the same restrictions as pensions, so you’ll be able to access the money at an earlier age.
However, this could lead to a smaller overall pot as the tax relief that comes with pensions is extremely valuable. In the first instance, you should not divert any money that comes with extra employer contributions attached.
Unfortunately, the Lifetime ISA (LISA) is not an alternative in this instance. Although the LISA offers generous 25% bonuses up to £1,000 each year, you cannot access the money until age 60, even later than pension freedom’s age.
Pension Freedom loophole
There is however a loophole to the rule changes as they stand currently, which could help anyone who doesn’t want to be affected by the new change in the rules. If you have the age of 55 written into the policy of your pension scheme, you will be entitled to access that money age 55 regardless of the law change. This will count for any pension scheme that has age 55 stipulated before April 2023. As it stands this varies between providers, with some set to move the age automatically to 57.
It is worth checking then what the age on your policy is. If you think you’ll want to access the money as soon as possible, you might consider making the small administrative change that could open your pension savings early. However, before doing so you must consider some of the other implications of changing provider or policy – including exit fees, loss of benefits, costs and loss of investment returns, before making a decision.
If you’d like to discuss any of the themes raised in this article about pension freedoms or your pension more generally, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your adviser.
Rishi Sunak’s pensions tax traps: what to expect
With the Government in need of a way to pay for the enormous cost of the pandemic, pensions are perhaps an easy target for the Chancellor.
The Treasury is reportedly formulating plans for a pensions tax raid in a bid to rescue public finances. According to the Telegraph, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his team are considering three different reforms to pensions tax relief to help balance the books.
Slashing the lifetime allowance
The first of the reforms being considered is a reduction in the pensions lifetime allowance from £1.073m to £900,000 or £800,000. At the moment, savers who have pots in excess of the £1.073m are hit with a hefty tax charge of up to 55% when they draw down any amounts above the threshold. If this plan goes ahead, it means thousands of extra savers would be forced to pay steep taxes when they withdraw their pension as their pots would exceed the new lifetime allowance.
Scrapping higher-rate tax relief
This has been under discussion for some time and could see the Treasury introduce a flat pensions tax relief rate of 30% or even lower at 20%. Pensions tax relief is where the Government tops up your pension pot to encourage you to keep saving for your future. With pension tax relief, a portion of the money you would have paid in income tax goes into your pension instead. How much depends on whether you’re a basic or higher rate taxpayer. At the moment, basic rate taxpayers get 20% tax relief, whereas higher rate taxpayers get 40%. That means a £100 pension contribution would cost them just £80 and £60, respectively.
If the Treasury presses ahead with this plan, basic rate taxpayers will benefit but higher rate taxpayers will miss out.
Tax employer contributions
The final measure under consideration is a potential new tax on employer contributions. While the details of this plan are thin on the ground, forcing employers to pay tax on employee pensions contributions would heap costs on firms at a time when the economy is still in recovery mode.
What should I do?
In short, nothing at the moment. At present, we do not know if these plans being kicked around in Whitehall will come to fruition. According to reports, it’s unlikely that we will see any movement until the Autumn Budget in November – if at all. However, if you are already sailing close to the £1.073m lifetime allowance cap, it’s worth speaking with your financial adviser to assess your options. While everybody is different, if this is you then you may be better off diverting your pensions contributions into an ISA instead.
However, it’s always best to speak with a professional before taking such a huge decision which could have major consequences.
Extra savings stashed away during lockdown? Here are some ideas for what to do with it
Brits have stashed away an extra £180 billion in savings during the pandemic. If you built up some extra cash in the last year, here are some ideas for what to do with it.
Brits have stashed away a mountain of cash during the pandemic. It makes sense – people have had to stay home and thus saved money on eating out, going to the pub and big holidays abroad. If you were one of those lucky enough to build up some extra cash during the past 15 months, chances are you’ve asked yourself what you should be doing with it.
Here are four sensible things you can do with your lockdown savings.
Pay down debts
This might be an obvious one, but it’s worth mentioning. While it’s important to have an emergency supply of money, just in case the boiler breaks, it might be worth using some of your excess cash to pay down your debts, particularly if you are being charged lots of interest. If you don’t have any credit card debt or personal loans, it might be worth paying off your mortgage. By doing so, you may be able to reduce your term and therefore the overall level of interest you’ll pay. That might be a sounder idea than leaving it in a savings account earning less than 1%. However, before you do that, check your deal’s terms and conditions to make sure you don’t have to pay any fees for overpaying your mortgage.
Make a rainy-day fund
Once you’ve covered high-interest debts, the next thing to do is build up your ‘rainy-day’ fund. This fund is essential whether you’re working or retired. If you’re working, loss of income from redundancy can have a fast and unanticipated impact on your finances. Saving between three and six months’ worth of your salary is ideal to cover your costs while you look for a new job. If you’re retired, having a rainy-day cash fund can be vital if you’re drawing an income from your pension or ISAs and the markets take a dip. Selling investments to fund your lifestyle in a bad market crystallises losses and will leave your portfolio permanently worse off. Instead, a cash buffer will tide you over while markets recover.
Put it in your ISA or pension
If you have the first two ideas covered already, the next thing to think about is whether that cash can be sheltered tax-efficiently. Make the most of your annual ISA allowance, or even contribute more to your pension. That cash can be put towards investments to grow and bolster your long-term wealth. Saving in cash is only really a good idea if you need the money in the short-term (I.e. for a rainy-day fund). Anything else that is earmarked for long-term wealth growth should be working harder as an investment.
Spend some of it
Finally, it is okay to actually spend some of the money you’ve saved. Of course, do that in a responsible way. Does the dining room need redecorating? Maybe you want to take a quick holiday somewhere warm? Spending money shouldn’t be taboo when it is well-spent (and sometimes going for a slap-up dinner comes under that too!). Just make sure you’ve got your debt under control and your emergency cash pile in place first.
There are of course other tax-efficient considerations to make in this circumstance, such as gifting to loved ones if you are in a position to do so. If you’d like to discuss the ideas mentioned in this article more, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your adviser.
Looking for love? Then watch out for romance scams
Romance scams have boomed over the past year as fraudsters switched their attention to those searching for companionship during lockdown.
Figures from UK Finance, the trade body, reveal a 20% increase in the number of bank transfer romance frauds in 2020. Overall, victims lost £68m – or more than £7,800 each – last year to this type of fraud, according to the trade body.
Romance fraud is a particularly vile type of scam where fraudsters will pose as a potential love interest on a dating website who is looking for a long-term relationship. Usually over many weeks or even months, the fraudster will try to gain the trust of an unsuspecting victim by trying to convince them that they want a genuine relationship. Once that trust has been built, the criminal will typically ask for cash to help pay for bogus medical bills, to fly over to be with the victim or for some other fictional emergency. However, once the victim sends the money, the fraudster typically flees and is never heard from again.
Katy Worobec, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, says: “With the rising use of online dating services during lockdown, criminals are using clever tactics to exploit people who think they’ve met their perfect partner online. “Romance scams can leave customers out of love and out of pocket, but there are steps people can take to keep themselves or their family and friends safe – both online and offline.” Romance scams can be highly sophisticated, and therefore spotting them is not always easy.
However, below are some tips you can use to make sure you stay safe online.
- Be suspicious: If you are asked for money by someone you haven’t been speaking to for that long, or by someone you have never met, you should assume it’s a scam.
- Check their profile photo: Typically, scammers will steal the profile picture of someone else and pass it off as their own. However, you can tell if someone has done this by saving the photo and conducting a reverse image search on Google. If the name they gave you doesn’t match the one on your image search, the chances are you’re talking to a scammer.
- Ask friends and family: If you have any doubts that the person you are talking to is not real, talk to friends and family to see what they think.
- Guard your personal information: It’s not only money a fraudster may be after, so do not share personal documents such as your driver’s license or passport.
- Other tell-tale signs: Instead of asking you for money, they may instead ask you to take out a loan for them, or to transfer money to someone on their behalf. You shouldn’t do either of these things, regardless of what reason they give you.
- Tell the authorities: If you think you’re speaking to a scammer, or you think you may have been the victim of romance fraud, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk.
Is it time you ditched your High Street bank and went digital?
With a slew of digital-only options, is it time to ditch your old bank? We look at how Monzo, Starling and Revolut are challenging the old guard.
Digital-only banks have become more established in the past few years, with a multitude of options. But is it time to ditch your High Street bank for one of them? In the past decade since the financial crisis a multitude of digital-only banks have emerged as banking customers look for new and innovative ways to handle their finances.
Digital-only financial options are now really varied, and consumer choice has never been better, with plenty to pick from via your smartphone. The range of services from digital-only providers now matches those provided by the high street. However, for the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on current accounts. Big banks such as HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest have come under increasing pressure in recent times from so-called challenger banks in the current accounts market. But what do these challengers actually offer to customers?
Here are some top picks, their best features and drawbacks.
Monzo
Perhaps the most famous one on this list, Monzo is well-known now for its flashy ‘hot coral’ (read: pink) debit cards.
Monzo offers lots of features including budgeting, spending analytics and ‘pots’ which you can create to help manage and apportion your money. You can even set up bill-specific pots to keep cash aside to pay your monthly bills from. You can set yourself monthly spending limits and make payments really easily within the app. It will also give you summaries of spending areas each month, categorised in sections such as eating out, personal care or groceries. This can be especially helpful if you’re struggling to identify areas where you might be overspending regularly.
Like High Street stalwarts such as Lloyds or NatWest, Monzo is a fully licenced UK bank. As such you get £85,000 deposit protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The account also provides other optional services such as overdrafts and loans. It also has a premium service called Monzo Premium, which costs £15 and will give you phone insurance, worldwide travel insurance, 1.5% interest on balances up to £2,000 and other perks – it even comes with a shiny metal bank card. Check if you’re not already receiving some of these services such as phone protection on your home insurance though, as it may not be worth it.
Starling
The other major digital-only bank to choose from is Starling, founded by long-time banker Anne Boden. Boden worked for years at major High Street banking institutions before taking what she’d learned from those places and implementing the best bits into Starling.
Starling has lots of spending analytics, makes payments really easy and has a user-friendly interface for customers who might not be the most tech-savvy. It also has segregated spending pots called ‘spaces’ which can help you manage small savings goals.
One of the standout features on Starling though is zero-cost spending abroad. Starling charges nothing for you to spend abroad, and only changes your money into foreign currency at the interbank rate, meaning you’ll always get the best deal when using your Starling card abroad. It also has the option to add joint accounts for you and your partner, plus euro accounts if you need to keep, send or receive money in euros.
As with Monzo, it is also a fully licenced UK bank offering all the same protections as peers.
Best of the rest
While digital banking apps have proliferated in recent times, most are not really worth considering for one specific reason – they aren’t licenced UK banks and don’t have the same level of deposit protection as Monzo, Starling, or big High Street banks.
There are, however, two names of note in this category: Revolut and Monese.
Revolut has become something of an alternative option. It has many of the features of Monzo and Starling but doesn’t currently have FSCS protection. Rather, money is secured in so-called e-money accounts. The feature that sets Revolut apart is the greater variety of currencies you can maintain balances in. It is, however, an inferior choice if you’re looking for UK-specific current accounts.
Monese gets a mention because it is extremely easy to set up and use. However, like Revolut it doesn’t currently carry any deposit protection.
Whether you decide to drop your old bank or not, there is certainly plenty to choose from now in digital banking. Although the aforementioned apps have done a lot to innovate when it comes to mobile-only banking, many of the bigger banks have now largely caught up in terms of features.
It’s best to consider what you need the account for, and whether it’s suited to you, before moving all your bills and salary into it. Remember though that there’s no limit to how many current accounts you have, so keeping more than one is perfectly possible. Just try not to open them all at once as this may leave an impression on your credit report.
Tips for building a nest egg for your children or grandchildren
Starting early can make an extraordinary difference to long-term wealth. Here are some options to help your children or grandchildren.
Building a nest egg for a child or grandchild needn’t be a difficult process. But the earlier you start, the better the outcome will be for them. Not starting saving earlier in life is a common problem, but it can be difficult in your 20s and 30s to get your savings going with so many costs of living. But once you’re older, with kids or even grandkids, you may start to think about whether you can help them get a financial foothold in life to help them when they’re older. Not only does it make sense from an inheritance perspective – the more you give away while you are younger, the less potential there is for tax liabilities – but the earlier you start building them a nest egg then the bigger that egg will be.
If you’re looking to make a start there are some options which can make It simple and tax-efficient.
Junior ISAs
The Junior ISA or ‘JISA’ should be your first port of call when considering saving for a child or grandchild.
JISAs, like normal ISAs, come in a few forms. You can start with a Stocks and Shares JISA or a cash JISA. Cash JISAs, while offering rates that tend to be better than normal savings accounts, still don’t offer much by way of interest at present. At the time of writing the top cash JISA offers 2.5% interest.
A stocks and shares JISA, while not offering a guaranteed rate of return, will have the benefit of access to investment markets. Because the time horizon of a child is so long (if you start saving for your kids when you have them you potentially have an 18-year window to amass a pot for them), it suits investing in equity markets which have shown to deliver superior long-term returns.
The Government has increased the limit on annual JISA contributions to £9,000 a year. This can be split between a cash account and an investment one, if you prefer. The child can then access the money in the JISA and have full control of it at age 18.
Children’s savings accounts
There are a variety of children’s savings accounts on offer, some from big High Street banks and some from new challenger banks. While the top-choice products offer similar rates to cash JISAs, they are mainly inferior to JISAs because of their lack of a tax wrapper. In reality then these kinds of accounts should only be turned to if you’ve maxed out the annual contribution for your child’s JISA, but still have further money you want to give them.
There is one consideration to make for children’s savings accounts however, from the perspective of education. Often a children’s savings account will give more responsibility to them than a JISA which parents manage. Giving a child their own account to manage can provide valuable life lessons to them from an early age.
Pensions
Yes, that’s right, a pension. You can open a pension for your child. While the rules governing pensions prevent them from accessing the money before pension freedom age, it could be a valuable alternative or addition to a JISA.
The annual limit you can contribute to a child’s pension is £2,880 per year. This is given 20% tax relief much the same as regular pensions, meaning you can put away up to £3,600 in total. Like a stocks and shares JISA, a pension has the benefit of access to investment markets, which really could help with long-term wealth creation.
The conundrum of picking between a pension or a JISA is that the former can only be accessed at age 55 (which could increase to 57 in 2028), while the latter gives the child full access to the money at age 18.
Unless you’re confident that the child will have a fully responsible mindset with their money at age 18, it may be worth hedging and having a blend of both accounts.
But likewise helping them to understand the importance of what you’ve given them and learning good financial habits as they grow up may put them in a great position to use that money wisely. And with the long-term landscape so uncertain, it may be better to give them something they can access at 18.
Are you saving enough for retirement? Here’s what to consider when planning
From living longer to cruises of a lifetime - here are a few things you need to consider when saving for your retirement.
There’s no one easy way to calculate how much you’ll need to get by in retirement, as everyone has different goals and aims for how they want to enjoy it. However, there are some general pointers that can help you get a grasp of what you need, and what you need to be saving and investing to achieve it. When planning for your retirement, thinking about how much income you’d like on a monthly basis is a great starting point.
A rough guide to help could be assessing what you spend monthly now, and then taking away bills which will not be there in future (your mortgage, for example, which has a fixed end date). Doing this can help you get a clearer picture of what it costs just to maintain the lifestyle you currently have.
A common ‘rule of thumb’ in this regard is replacing about 70% of your salary on an annual basis. This is predicated on the idea that you will have paid off the mortgage, so won’t have that to pay off each month. Think then in terms of percentage income. A £200,000 pension pot that pays 3% per year will pay out £6,000. You might be able to attain more income for that size of pot, but it will involve more risk.
It’s also important to think about whether you want work to be a hard stop, or you plan on transitioning over time out of full employment. This can be a good option if your pension pot doesn’t extend as far as you may like yet, and the state pension is a way off from kicking in.
Keeping the state pension in mind is also important. While it may not seem like enormous sums of money, it does form a key part of many people’s retirement plans. The age of the state pension is creeping up slowly, which needs to be kept in mind when planning.
Perhaps the best answer to “how much should I save?’ is “as much as you can”, but there are some other factors to consider.
Think of the ‘U’
Saving for retirement is about goals. What do you want, and how long do you expect to want it for? As retirement unfolds everyone has a different idea of what they’ll want to do with that time and money.
On average though people’s expenditure tends to follow a ‘U’ shape. That is – when they first retire spending is high because they reap the benefits with tax-free lump sums and access to cash - taking nice holidays or maybe finally putting that extension they always wanted on the house. As they settle into a more normal routine over time though, costs start to diminish (the bottom of the U).
Finally, as people enter their later years, costs tend to rise again. This can be from more banal things like getting help in the garden or around the house, to more significant events such as health issues or care requirements.
Lamborghini or Laburnum?
Thinking about your needs in retirement can be framed principally through the kind of lifestyle you intend to lead. The income needs of someone who plans to be at home with grandkids tending to a garden will be very different from someone who intends to jump on cruises and see the world, or buy a fast car. Both choices are fine ones to make, but the former will likely be more frugal than the latter. That being said, if you’re planning to spend time at home, you will likely have to think more about the cost of living there, maintenance and even whether you’ve got equity locked up inside the property.
Live long and prosper
The other big thing to think about is longevity. Not only do you need to be able to replicate a portion of your income via a pension and other wealth on day one of retirement – it needs to be able to last for a long time. While predicting your own lifespan is impossible, there is a guide to keep in mind from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). At the moment a man aged 55 has a life expectancy in the UK of 84 years according to the ONS. This rises to 87 for a woman. While these are only averages, this is a significant period of time by any measure. While taking an income from wealth is perfectly possible, the more you save early on, the more time it has to grow and the better your outcomes will be overall.
For those that don’t have as much saved at retirement as they would have liked, it means either adjusting their lifestyle accordingly, or taking more risk with their pensions (something which brings its own challenges). The good news is, a lot of this can be addressed right now. Saving regularly and investing that money to an appropriate level of risk for you, at all stages of your adult life, is crucial. Retirement planning needs to be done as soon as reasonably practicable, because the earlier you start investing in a pension, the more it will be worth.
Your adviser can help you consider these plans more carefully. Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Savings lotteries – what are they, and are they worth it?
Savings lotteries have become more prevalent in recent times as banks look to incentivise saving without offering better rates. But are they any good?
Nationwide Building Society has launched a new lottery for customers, which automatically enrols them in a monthly prize draw where one lucky winner can scoop £100,000. How does it compare to others?
Nationwide had previously launched different lotteries for different kinds of accounts, including for its Cash Isa and Start to Save products. But this is different in that any Nationwide customer with a mortgage, current account or savings account will be automatically entered. There are 8,008 chances to win each month, with a top prize of £100,000, two £25,000 prizes, five £5,000 prizes and 8,000 £100s up for grabs. The competitions will run monthly for 12 months from September and be selected from a pool of roughly 14 million Nationwide customers.
Alternatives
Nationwide isn’t the only firm to offer savings lotteries to customers. Indeed, with the crashing of savings rates in recent years, it has become a more common incentive to entice new customers without offering better rates.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous of the lot are Premium Bonds. The National Savings & Investments (NS&I) Premium Bonds prize draw is incredibly popular. Some 21 million savers have over £107 billion squirreled away in Premium Bonds according to MoneySavingExpert. Rates were slashed recently though, so the odds of winning anything at all have lengthened considerably. Premium Bonds do still offer good prizes, including two £1 million prizes every month. NS&I says the rate at which you’ll win prizes each year roughly equates to a 1% rate of interest on your savings. This is not however guaranteed, and you could hold the bonds your whole life and win nothing.
The other major savings lottery available at the moment comes from Halifax Bank. It is offering three prizes of £100,000 every month, plus more smaller amounts. To qualify you’ll need to open a savings account with the bank and deposit at least £5,000.
Other banks have recently offered new ‘lottery-style’ accounts, including NatWest, Post Office Money and Family Building Society, but those are currently unavailable to new customers as they have proven so popular.
Overall, the aforementioned lottery accounts can be a good idea if you have smaller sums of cash, as rates on best buy accounts are shockingly low anyway. That being said, the bulk of your savings may be better off elsewhere, such as in investment markets, in order to generate a better rate of return.
If you’d like to discuss options for your cash savings further, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your adviser.