According to a study carried out by the Abbey National recently a number of UK people are dipping into their savings in order to pay their ongoing bills.
The Abbey National was looking specifically at money held in ISAs and, having seen around GBP6 billion taken out of them asked customers what the money had been used for. Just over 30 percent of people said it was to cover day to day expenses, the most popular answer provided.
Although it can seem easy to use savings to cover costs the issue comes a little later said an Abbey National spokesman. If a cash ISA had the maximum put into it then any withdrawals cannot be made up later, leaving the account holder with a reduced return through interest.
A new international bond has been introduced by the Alliance and Leicester which is a limited edition fixed interest rate for one year.
Investors can sign up for the bond from now and, with a minimum investment requirement of GBP50,000, enjoy an interest rate of 6.65 percent gross if taking the interest payment at the end of the year or 6.45 percent should interest be paid monthly. The Alliance and Leicester fixed rate bond is available to both new and existing customers as long as funding does not come from money already held by Alliance and Leicester.
An Alliance and Leicester spokesman, when discussing the new bond at its launch said that they always endeavoured to offer the best interest rate they could and this particular bond should be very popular in what is a highly competitive market.
According to a survey by the owner of the Egg card, only around half of employees in the UK have savings that would cover them for at least 4 months. This is the average time people find themselves between jobs for having been made redundant.
Egg also looked at the amount of money needed to live in the UK today, which works out to GBP1,077 per month, without any luxury purchases included. So four months at this level should be the minimum level of savings held by people in the UK. As stated then half the UK working population would be unable to sustain themselves if they found themselves out of work.
An Egg card spokesman urged people to seriously consider their own situation as finding themselves in a position where they are unable to meet their monthly bills would be disastrous for many families.
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