Half of Brits haven’t switched their savings accounts in the last five years, leaving them with ‘miserable’ rates of interest, data from Hargreaves Lansdown suggested.
The investment giant says there is £267.8 billion collecting dust in accounts that pay no interest at all.
This calculation is based on a rate of 2.75 per cent in an easy access account, and means savers are missing out on over £7.4 billion a year in interest.
According to a survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK, 35 per cent of Brits have never switched savings accounts.
More than half (58 per cent) have no plans to switch in the next year.
The survey also found that most people (32 per cent) refused to switch because they believe rates are too low to bother with.
While this may have been true when interest rates were so low, rises in recent months have pushed up the most competitive rates to 2.75 per cent.
This means Brits earning next to nothing in a miserable high street savings account could make almost seven times the interest by switching to the most competitive easy access rate on the market.
That figure can be bumped up to more than 11 times the interest by locking your money away for a year (4.55 per cent).
Meanwhile, 26 per cent of Brits said they haven’t switched because they trust their bank and want to stay loyal, while 18 per cent think a switch is too much hassle.
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Save your loyalty for your loved ones: your bank doesn’t deserve it.
“Sticking with a high street giant despite disappointing savings accounts paying miserable rates of interest, is costing us billions of pounds.
“Even if we just switched the money collecting dust in accounts paying no interest at all we could make £7.4 billion in interest, and if we switched those paying rock bottom rates in high street accounts, we could make billions more.”
For Brits who are remaining loyal to their high street banks, the amount of interest being lost should be considered, as smaller and newer banks tend to offer the best rates.
While some people would find switching to a smaller bank quite daunting, these banks have to follow the same rules as those on the high street in order to be allowed to operate in the UK.
They also offer all the same protections, so if anything was to go wrong, the first £85,000 in any institution is guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Hargreaves Lansdown says there are easier ways to switch for those who believe the task is too much hassle.
Switching to an online cash savings platform, like Active Savings, instead of having to open a number of different savings accounts with a variety of banks, could be an option.
In this case, savers can open one account with one application and move money between different accounts with different banks in a handful of clicks.
They can also view all their accounts in one place, which makes it much easier to keep an eye on them.
