The research, carried out by YouGov in December 2006, questioned 2,375 UK current account holding adults and revealed that 6% would ‘rather live for today’ than save.
While 19% admitted to not saving as much as they had intended to during 2006, 82% said they had allocated 2007 as the year to organize their savings and 31% said that this was because they had realized the serious implications of not having adequate provisions.
Despite this, the research revealed that many UK consumers do not have comprehensive saving plans for the coming year. Of those questioned, 56% said they were not going to commit to a regular saving scheme, instead putting money aside as and when they could afford to, while 31% said their saving plan consisted of collecting loose change into a ‘piggy-bank’.
The reasons given for a lack of financial organization included 14% who said that organizing their finances was either too time consuming or too complicated and 74% who said that they could not afford to during 2006 and may well not be able to afford to in 2007.
Helen Palmer, head of current accounts at Alliance & Leicester, said: Despite ambitious plans for the year ahead, unless people commit to saving a set amount on a monthly basis it is highly unlikely that they will get round to saving any money at all.
She concluded: When you consider how much people can maximize their returns by putting their money into a high-interest savings account by standing order from their current account, it is surprising to see that some people are still living in the dark ages by keeping money in a piggy bank at home.
