New Year boost for your savings resolve

By today over half of people (54 per cent) in the UK will have already broken their new year's resolutions and by the end of January the vast majority (78 per cent) will have given up completely, research by Lloyds TSB Savings has revealed.

After losing weight and getting fit, the most common New Year's resolution for people in the UK is to save, with 74 per cent saying one of their resolutions for 2007 is to start saving or increase the amount they save.

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of the population confess that they don't have any savings at all and of these almost one in ten (9 per cent) has never saved. Despite 61 per cent of people agreeing that 'if you look after the pennies the pounds look after themselves' one in ten say they put off saving because they feel the amount they can afford to put aside is too small to be worthwhile.

To help people get onto the savings ladder this year Lloyds TSB is launching 'Save the Change' the UK's first savings scheme that automatically rounds up every debit card purchase to the nearest pound and sweeps the change into a savings account of your choice.

Save the Change is particularly helpful for young people and families with young children who find hard to start saving. According to the bank's survey 30 per cent of 25 to 44 year olds have no savings at all and only 17 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds save on a regular basis. In addition over half (54 per cent) of 18 to 24 year olds wish they could be more disciplined to save.

Despite our initial determination to stick to New Year's resolution many of us find it difficult to make changes to our long term behaviour as life coach Gladeana McMahon explains; "We all start the New Year with good intentions but as the weeks go by it's easy to let your resolve slip, particularly when you're trying to lose weight or start saving and you can't see the results of your efforts immediately.

"The great thing about Save the Change is that once you are registered it does all of the hard work for you. If only there were a similar way of taking the need for will power out of New Year slimming!"

Liz Hogbin, Lloyds TSB head of savings said, "For many of us saving is a bit like going to the dentist, we know we should do it but we keep putting it off. That's why we're committed to making saving as easy as possible for our customers.

"As an extra boost to get people started we will be matching the money you save in both February and March up to £50 each month so customers could easily have a £200 nest egg saved by Easter with no effort at all."

Save the Change will go live on 1 February 2007 but customers can register now by visiting lloydstsb.com/savethechange.