Hundreds of people will walk away with £100 cash prizes in Nationwide Building Society’s second Start to Save prize draw as around twice as many people got into a regular savings habit.
Since launching Start to Save back in February, some 62,400 members with little or no savings have managed to squirrel away more than £100 – helping Britain’s biggest building society tackle the worrying statistic that 11 million people in the UK have less than £100 saved.1
Start to Save is an online, instant access, regular savings account that pays 1.00% AER/gross p.a. (variable), which allows a balance increase of up to £100 per month.
The second draw, which took place this week, has seen a 95 per cent increase on the number of winners (458) in July’s inaugural draw. The total prize fund for the October draw is £89,700 – nearly double the amount that was on offer in July – meaning there are 897 winners.
The prize fund equates to one per cent of the total balance increase across the accounts that met the entry criteria of saving between £50 and £100 each month between July and September.
Winners will be notified by email this week with their prizes paid into their account around 28 October.
By the end of September, 137,000 Start to Save accounts have been opened. All of these accounts will be eligible for the January prize draw assuming a minimum of £50 is saved each month between October and December.
Start to Save continues to be popular with people aged 18 to 39, with that age group accounting for around half (52%) of all openings – much higher than the normal proportion of savings account openings for this group.
The Society launched the regular savings account to encourage Britain to put money away at a time when more than 11 million people across the UK were reported to have less than £100 in savings. In response to that, 62,410 members who had less than £100 in savings with Nationwide previously, now have more than £100 as a result of Start to Save. That equates to 45 per cent of all the accounts opened.
Tom Riley, Nationwide’s Director of Banking & Savings, said: “We’re focused on delivering convenient, secure and easy-to-use products and services which put members in control of their money at every step. We launched Start to Save in February to help play our part in getting the nation saving and support the Money and Pensions Service’s new financial wellbeing strategy. These latest figures from our second prize draw are extremely encouraging, especially with more than 60,000 who previously had less than £100 now having more than that as a result of saving into the account. Despite the pandemic and the financial difficulties it has led to, it’s great to see that people, particularly in younger age groups, have continued to try to save where they can.”
