Laziness costs Brits billions in interest

By simply not bothering to move left-over cash into high-interest savings accounts, millions of Britons are missing out on billions of pounds of interest.

Yorkshire Bank today reveals that two people in three have money left over at the end of the month, with an average balance of £316.15.

But just one Briton in five makes the most of this by moving it into a higher-rate savings account.

And a lot of this is simply laziness - with one person in seven admitting they "forget or cannot be bothered with the hassle" of making more of their money.

"Many of us find ourselves running short of money but sometimes we can be our own worst enemy by not making the most of what we do have," said Gary Lumby of Yorkshire Bank.

"Too often we fritter away any spare cash we may have at the end of the month, when putting just a little aside can make a big difference when we really need it."

And if all the people who have money left over in their bank accounts at the end of the month moved it into a high-interest account they would earn an extra £88.56 a year or £1.7 billion collectively.

But people need not miss out on the extra cash.

Either by moving to a current account that pays a good rate of interest (currently Halifax, Coventry Building Society, Alliance & Leicester, and Nationwide all offer more than four per cent interest on current accounts) or by setting up a standing order to automatically transfer left-over funds to a savings account people can make the most of their money with little or no effort on their part.

"The easiest way to save is through setting up a regular payment from your current account to a savings account, as it requires minimal effort to set up. Once it’s in place it manages itself with a set amount of money regularly transferring into your savings account on a monthly basis without having to lift a finger," Mr Lumby concluded. XXX