Internet banking can lead to weight loss

Switching from a branch-based current account to internet banking saves time, money, and can even lead to weight loss, new data reveals.

Figures out today from first direct show that its customers save 38 minutes a week by using its online service, when compared to the average amount of time spent by Britons on their finances.

And those minutes add up.

Over the course of a year the amount of time saved is enough to brew 1,000 cups of tea, see 16 films, play or watch 22 games of football, and burn off the amount of calories in a Christmas dinner - simply by watching television.

The bank points out that the average Briton spends five times as long brewing cups of tea each week than one of their internet banking customers does on managing their finances.

And time is precious in the modern world. When the amount of time the average Briton spends on eating, sleeping, working, household chores, and spending time with the children is totted up, parents have just 51 minutes left a day for everything else, first direct has revealed.

And taking time from your day to visit a branch, or wait in a telephone queue, is not something that needs to be done any more.

"Short of combining some disparate activities - like sleeping at work or eating your children - the way to manufacture time is to shorten unnecessary time-wasting activities," Richard Kimber, first direct ’s chief executive pointed out.