Three-quarters of bank’s 26m UK customers fear rising prices with 80% holding less than £500 in savings

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www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/06/demand-for-debt-services-by-lloyds-customers-jumps-rising-prices-savings

To think a lot of people in the UK are living hand to mouth. Especially with the cost of living getting worse (food price rise, bills rise, stagnant wages, utility bill rises etc..) We are going to see a lot more people borrowing money let alone having anything for savings.

Does this article resonate with you and those in your circle?

Nunn added that eight in 10 of its customers have less than £500 of savings in their current and savings accounts.

It's really hard. We're going to have to cut down on our weekly shop even more if we ever want to save anything...at the moment we're not saving anything...I mean not being able to save anything

That looks like very high numbers with low savings, but it's in line with other figures I've seen.

I'm not personally in this situation, but I know of plenty who are unfortunately.

The Financial Conduct Authority produced similar figures in its research. The situation is I am afraid only going to get worse. Whilst some are doing well, there are a large group of people now in work and really suffering to make ends meet. This group is growing.

It may not be as bad as it sounds overall ,as this is only Lloyds it may have something to do with their saving account rates...
0.2 on instant access is a joke. Locked ones are not much better!

so no. I don't think this reflects population but rather shite savings with lloyds. I transfer all my savings elsewhere so I am in their 80% because I don't save with them

Agree with Bubble, only in my case Barclays. I have a fair amount of savings but not with them!

My savings are with a different bank because of terrible instant saver rates too.

0.2 should be criminal.
Booohooo lloyds

Always interested when they say things like this, how do people define savings. for instance person A has 7K savings in their account and 10K outstanding on PCP for a car and 2k on credit cards. Person B has chosen to pay down all their loans and has £250 in the bank, no credit cards and has paid their car off and owns it out right. Person C owns their house, car out right and has no credit but over £500 in savings.

Who should be concerned or is only person C right.

“About 80% of individuals and UK customers and families have less than £500 worth of savings in their current account and their savings account. They might have money elsewhere but what we can see is less than £500.”

Oh, come on. A lot of people do live hand to mouth, that's true, and yes, that's hard. But most people have multiple accounts with different banks, because interest rates are so shit that people have no reason to be loyal to one bank. These stats are bull.

I can tell you, I have less than £500 in several accounts and I'm not going to starve anytime soon. They've manipulated the stats for their own purposes.

The FCA's Financial Lives survey provides a better picture FCA Financial Lives Survey 2022 This does demonstrate how "on the edge" a substantial number of people are taking into account debt and savings.

Just agreeing with others. My savings are all completely separate from my current account, mainly because it makes it easy to budget (have everything going out of 1 account, what's left is "fun money", if I want to buy anything over and above I have to transfer it from savings so avoids impulse buys), and also for security so if I lose my current account card or it gets cloned or my bank account hacked it only affects the small amount in there. Not to mention if you've put in the effort to get savings most people would sensibly put them somewhere with higher interest rates than their current account!

Interesting llyods are giving their staff £1000 bonus to help with the current cost of living, our company made the same (or local equivalent) announcement for all employees globally a couple of weeks ago.

I guess this is the alternative approach to more permanent wage increases that will drive inflation higher, or maybe a warning our usually reliable annual bonus scheme due in September (usually £2-3k cash + shares) wont be paying out again for the 3rd year running. 🤔

Shocking to see those numbers, this doesn't resonate with me or anyone I know but it's good to understand how widespread the issue is within this country. As unless you step out of your 'bubble' it's hard to see the full picture

Oh, come on. A lot of people do live hand to mouth, that's true, and yes, that's hard. But most people have multiple accounts with different banks, because interest rates are so shit that people have no reason to be loyal to one bank. These stats are bull.

Not in my experience they aren't. Savings rates are crap atm, but if you have none anyway then it doesn't make any difference. I don't know anyone who has multiple accounts with different banks, I am likely to know more people who struggle to even get a bank account to be honest.

Not saying that either of us is right, just that you can't say that the stats are bull just because in your experience people have savings elsewhere. In my experience, they don't.

This particular issue is spread within Lloyds. That article is basically a bank moaning people don't save with them

Perhaps MN is on the main quite a privileged group, well educated in the main with decent careers and salaries and fairly middle class too.

Therefore, not representative and because lots of MN users have lots of savings stashed here and there with small amounts in banks they don't realise/tone deaf even to the huge number of people living hand to mouth in this country... Let them eat cake mentality. It doesn't affect them or their circle so it's not that common - it really is. Having worked with people in poverty it's out there in huge numbers and growing - you won't find them at the garden parties, theme parks, having lunch at a country inn, the races, tennis or various other social pursuits. They have little to do confined by lack of money and put down by other sectors of society who have never walked in their shoes.

Of course a significant percentage of people are struggling financially.

That was the case prior to this year.

A few people having savings in different bank accounts doesn't negate that.

My savings are in Premium Bonds or Vanguard so I'd fall into these figures but it's not a true representation. Of course people are struggling, but the statistics are skewed.

We have less than £500 in savings. Both work in nhs (b5 and 6) have a mortgage and 1 child. We save a little but it soon gets spent. It's hard to save.

The lack of savings sadly does not surprise me. Many will be struggling, but some will have spent money on luxuries or have limited financial knowledge.

100% behind financial education being a part of schooling.

Surely a better indicator of financial stress would be the amount of credit card debt this year compared to the last or the number of mortgage defaults?

www.finder.com/uk/saving-statistics

This says about third - 33% have less than 600 in savings. Which pretty much shows this 80% is Lloyds issue. That of course doesn't negate that people are feeling financial pressures overall, but Guradian and lloyds are just moaning here

I've always lived hand to mouth and seen my employability and now my ability to get self-employed work as my "insurance" of sorts. I don't keep money in savings as there's always something to buy or stock up on. I have debts, bills, need stocked cupboards, and can pay rent in advance. I don't have savings but feel secure anyway.

I know people who have savings and the thought of not having so terrifies them, but it's just how I've always lived. I come from a single parent on benefits my whole childhood and went to uni around the time of credit being dished out to us willy nilly. I was in 3K commercial debt before I left uni and navigated the world with wild abandon until settling down to be sensible.

I regret nothing.

I wouldn't say only a few people have more than 1 bank account - rather a high proportion,even a majority do - based on my own circles but also forums like this,mse, refinery, fb, etc.

But the point made that we're a country of 2 halves is fair enough. The section on the MSE open University on saving says that even in the "good" years British people saved way under the EU average ( as percentage of earnings - something like 0.45% compared to average of 8% and high of 13%. Obviously the people who were struggling to save anything then are likely to be even worse off now and need to be the focus of any help that gets provided.

But....there are also a huge proportion of people who could have saved more but prioritised other things. E.g in the last stats before covid (2019) the average brit took 1.9 holidays abroad. If you take away all the people that didn't go away at all that's a huge percentage of the population who went abroad more than 2 or 3 times a year -so could easily have saved £500 or more just by dropping ONE holiday. That's not even looking into the stats abkht increased car finance, the number of people with the highest end smart phones etc...i.e. easy cuts you could make without limiting your lifestyle if you wanted to prioritise saving.

So its not as easy as just saying "people would save more but they physically cant" if people in much poorer countries do manage on average to save much more than us. We need to help the absolute poorest who actually can't save, but (as a pp said) then provide much better financial education for the vast majority who could save but have never been taught to prioritise it and then end up screwed when the really hard times come.