POUND NOTES

■ Financial fact: Fixed bond rates have shown some improvement over the past six months, according to Moneyfacts.co.uk. Back in April, the average one-year fixed-rate bond on offer paid less than 1% interest – at 0.98%. But by October, the average one-year fixed-rate bond on the market was paying 1.14%.

■ Many britons ‘hiding cash stash from loved ones’: Nearly half of Britons are keeping a secret cash stash their close family or friends know nothing about, a survey suggests.

Some 48% of people admitted to having money squirrelled away in bank accounts, bonds, stocks and shares or even in hiding places around the home.

While nearly a third (29%) claimed they had simply not got round to telling loved ones, one in 10 hid savings in case their nearest and dearest tried to spend it, according to the survey of 2,000 people from wills specialists at law firm Slater and Gordon.

■ Turning off heating when not needed ‘could save households £82 per year on average’: Householders confess to leaving the central heating on unnecessarily for six and-a-half hours per week typically, with nearly a fifth (18%) admitting to warming their home when it’s not needed for 10 hours or more every week, a survey has found.

More than half (51%) admit to heating their homes when they are out of the property and not returning, or when it isn’t necessary to have the heating on, Direct Line Home Insurance found.

It calculates that turning off the heating when not needed could save a household £82.52 annually on average.

■ Insurance customers who pay monthly ‘less likely to

switch’: People who pay for their insurance monthly rather than annually are up to 33% less likely to switch provider, according to research from GoCompare Insurance.

As a result of not switching, they could potentially be paying on average £144 more for car insurance and £113 more for home insurance – with some monthly payers paying even more than they need to.

The research involved 5,000 people digging out their bills to help understand why some people switch and others don’t.