The British Public Has Never Been So in Touch with Their Spending Habits

A new survey has given a snapshot of the UK’s banking habits and revealed that the British public has never been so in touch with their bank balance. The results show that technological advances within banking have resulted in people using online and mobile banking apps to check their spending more than ever.

This fast, instant access means more people are now keeping on top of their finances regularly with four in five (83%) now checking their bank balance once a week or more and over half (52%) like to check their spending all the time, wherever they are, meaning people no longer have to wait for a statement to fall through their door.

The rise of mobile banking allows people to organise their finances easily, and in 2015 a total of £2.9 billion* was transferred each week alone with mobile and tablet banking. With this rise, Nationwide Building Society has uncovered the five places that people are now most likely to check their finances;

1) 68% use mobile banking from the comfort of their sofa

2) 50% do their online banking from their bed

3) 42% use work time to sort their finances using mobile banking

4) 21% like to keep on track of their spending whilst they’re shopping

5) 4% like to browse at the gym

The survey of 2,000 UK adults found that Brits believe they would have greater control of their money if they were able to see how much they spend daily on impulse purchases such as coffee (15%). Searching transactions by dates and periods of time (14%) and being able to search transactions by location (13%) would also allow more financial control. A further 1 in 4 (25%) admit they have a fair to non-existent ability to stay on top of their finances.

New banking apps are allowing consumers to keep on top of their spending – and saving – with constantly evolving new features. Nationwide’s Impulse Saver service enables customers to save up to £100 into their savings account without the need to log in. Since its launch, over £18.5m has been saved this way. The research also found that on average we spend £55.77 per month on things we hadn’t budgeted or accounted for, which is almost £700 a year.

Divisional Director of Group Retail Strategy at Nationwide, Barnaby Davis said: “This research shows customers are using mobile banking from many places all of the time. I remember a time when customers would check their balance once a month on a bank statement, now we see people checking their bank once a day and in many cases more times than that.”

The Quick Balance feature allows customers to check their balance without logging in, and since it was introduced two years ago has been used 100 million times – making shopping faster, easier and free from any nasty surprises; meaning you can make that impulse purchase without fear.

Barnaby added: “People are no longer shocked when checking their balance as they are looking at it much more frequently; this allows everyone to feel financially empowered by keeping on track of their finances.”