Survey: 1 in 6 UK residents keep their money at home

Where have you go your money hidden?

A new survey from Virgin Money indicates that UK residents have at least £3.5 billion in cash stashed around the house rather than in a bank collecting interest. This, Virgin points out, is the more than the equivalent of the gross domestic product of The Bahamas, or enough money to build five Wembley stadiums.

One out of six Britons say that they keep money at home rather than in the bank. Why don’t they put there money safely in a bank, where it will collect interest? Six percent say that they are hiding it from their life partner, while 4 percent claim that they don’t trust banks. One percent don’t want the government to know how much money they have.

According to a forecast of future inflation from Royal Holloway University, the money hidden will lose almost £200 million in purchasing power between now and 2010. In the bank, the amount now hidden in biscuit tins or in the freezer or under the mattress would earn £174 million in interest payments per year. Or they could put the money in mini cash IRAs, which would earn £877 million in five years. Or, that £3.5 billion, invested in the top ten stocks, would have earned a capital gain of £2.6 billion.

Any way you look at it, that money could be doing a lot better than sitting at home, shivering in the freezer.

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