Pigs might fly says Britannia Building Society

A shocking 21% of British adults, or 10 million people, admit to using a piggy bank, penny jar or hidden place at home to save their money, according to a survey by Britannia Building Society. And even a cautious calculation based on each one containing £10 could mean that over £100 million is sitting in the nation's piggy banks.

This means that unless people are savvy with their stashes and empty their piggy banks regularly into saving accounts, they could be missing out on serious amounts of interest - particularly in the light of recent interest rate rises.

Women are more likely than men to use piggy banks, with 22% admitting to saving in this way compared to 19% of men. But despite the piggy bank's traditional nature the older generation doesn't favour them, with just 9% of those aged over 65 confessing to using them compared to 30% of 25-34 year olds.

Piggy banks are an established way of teaching children how to save money and could be one of the main reasons why so many adults still use them, but piggy banks and money boxes also highlight the difference between 'keeping' and 'saving' money.

Neville Richardson, Britannia's Group Chief Executive, comments "People probably like to keep money in piggy banks and money boxes because they can visibly see how much money can be collected in a fairly short period of time and it gives them "instant access" to cash. But the clever thing to do is to convert loose pennies into pounds by transferring the money into a savings account which will pay you interest.

"Piggy banks are a great way of teaching children about the meaning of money. But it's also important to make sure we aren't robbing our children of the interest they could be earning on their savings.

"Those saving with Britannia will also benefit from the Britannia Membership Reward scheme that returns a share of the Society's profits to its members to reward their loyalty. The average payment this year was approximately £56 – another reason to break open your piggy bank and trot down to your local Britannia!"