£1bn sitting in ‘zombie’ accounts

CONSUMERS could be leaving more than £1 billion to sit idle in “zombie” current accounts, a survey has found.

More than one in three (37 per cent) people have two or more accounts, but nearly half (49%) said they only use one of them on a day-to-day basis, comparethemarket.com found.

The average amount people said was sitting in an unused account was £141, which could equate to more than £1 billion sitting in unused accounts if the findings were projected across the UK, the website calculated after a survey of 2,000 people.

Nearly one third (31%) of those with more than one current account had originally opened another account to get a particular reward on offer.

But one in eight (12%) people with multiple accounts said they checked their unused account as little as twice a year.

Many people seemed unsure whether their money could be working harder elsewhere.

More than half (56%) did not know whether their bank had cut interest rates in the past year and 58% did not know the interest rate on their current account.

Jody Coughlan, head of money at comparethemarket.com, said: “Whilst it is a good idea to have a ‘rainy day fund’ set aside in case of emergencies, the fact that so many people don’t regularly check their additional accounts is a risky move to take.

“Unused accounts are easy targets for hackers who might be able to steal hundreds of pounds without it being detected.”