According to the Bank of England, UK residents had over £580 billion on deposit at the end of June 2006. Shared equally among the UK’s 48 million adults, this comes to over £12,000 per head. Alas, much of this cash mountain is owned by just a few million wealthy individuals.
What’s more, according to independent financial researcher Moneyfacts (which powers the Fool’s search engines for credit cards, personal loans, savings accounts, etc.), the average savings rate on a balance of £10,000 is little more than 3% a year. Given that the Bank of England’s base rate is presently 4.75% a year, and that Best Buy savings accounts pay over 5% a year before tax, it’s clear that millions of savers have their nest eggs in decidedly dodgy savings accounts!…
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