The Bank of Scotland has a fantastic opportunity for first time buyers saving a deposit for their first home – doubled up savings.
The way this works is that savers who regularly deposit money into a Bank of Scotland savings account, up to a maximum amount saved of GBP5,000, will have the balance matched by the home builder Persimmon. The one proviso is that this only happens if the savings are used as a deposit on a new house.
A spokesman from the housebuilder saw it as making a real difference for first time buyers, though they would still need a considerable amount saved elsewhere in order to make the 25 percent minimum deposit most mortgage providers require. The Bank of Scotland are also in favour of the scheme as they want to help home buyers as much as they can.
The Abbey National has found that over sixty percent of UK holidaymakers have used savings to finance a holiday this year, while others are using the money to pay for a holiday before it even gets to the savings account.
Over a quarter of people surveyed by the Abbey National felt that the best thing to do with the spare money they had was to use it to finance a holiday rather than put it into a savings account or other savings vehicle.
A spokesman from the Abbey National suggested taking a little bit of the money that was being allocated to holidays and use it to build up some savings. This way the person gets their holiday but also begins to build a savings fund that may well prove essential in the future.
Lloyds TSB will be striving to reunite around GBP69 million with its owners, spread over 120,000 savings accounts that are laying dormant.
The bank will be working on accounts with more than GBP100 in them and will be using a specialist search company to locate the account holders and reacquaint them with their funds. The average amount per person will be in the region of GBP575 so it is a very worthwhile exercise and one that the recipients of the money are sure to appreciate said a Lloyds TSB spokesman.
These accounts appear to have been forgotten by their owners, hence the use of the search company. Lloyds TSB would not mind account holders getting in touch with them directly though, so if you think you have a dormant Lloyds TSB savings account get in touch with them and see if there is a windfall waiting for you.
