The Money Stop

Millions of Brits are storing billions of pounds in their homes and missing out on the benefits of banking.

That is according to Virgin Money, which says we have a combined £3.5 billion worth of cash stashed away.

The firm has labelled it the ‘biscuit tin bank’ and says that we should all take that money and put it into a bank account as quickly as possible.

With the money just sitting in our homes, Virgin points out that we are missing out on interest which would be earned if it was in a bank account.

The £3.5 billion would earn a combined total of £174 million in interest every year if it was in an account and, based on future interest rates, our cash is set to lose £200 million in spending power by 2010.

Virgin discovered that 15 per cent of Brits have up to £1,000 in their home, while two per cent have around £5,000.

It may seem crazy to keep this amount of cash in the house but apparently we have our reasons.

Despite the massive risks associated, such as theft, six per cent say they keep the money in the house to hide it from their partner, four per cent do not trust banks and one per cent want to keep it tax-free.

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