Savings Week

subjecttocontract

TheWoodler said:

Savings Week is certainly on and is about financial education. 

https://uksavingsweek.co.uk/
It has been nice when they’ve offered products to coincide with Savings Week, but to me that doesn’t really appear to be the intention, it’s more about encouraging people to start saving or to save smarter. 

With official and financial research statistics both demonstrating how few people have a significant financial buffer, we shouldn’t forget that some people struggle to save or are bamboozled by savings. We’re the converted, other people may need help to navigate this world.

They have made their toolkits available and as a representative of a community group I asked if we could use the toolkit for our group and yes, no problem. Rather than being disappointed, I’m glad that they have made this initiative available under a non-brand-specific umbrella and in plain English, absolutely suitable for a discussion on savings at the group I represent and which went very well. 

There’s loads of excellent articles on savings on individual banks’/building societies’ websites, but you wouldn’t necessarily look at them if you weren’t a customer, and the way you navigate to discover articles varies from institution to institution (it’s not just financial education articles, navigation to access eg accessibility info, ironically enough, also varies.) Savings articles might be on a blog stream at one institution and under Help at another, for example. 

Differing web structures and templates are part of security design, but it doesn’t always make it straightforward for the customer. We shouldn’t forget that there are people who may not be financially enabled to save much, digitally savvy or linguistically empowered (eg BSL users).

When I think of people who haven’t had financial education at home or school, who are disadvantaged by their circumstances to only be able to save a very little, or who still struggle to access our digital world, I don’t consider Savings Week disappointing at all. We’re more fortunate than many and as PP have pointed out, there have been some good accounts lately. 

Education and being able to help yourself and help others are also what MSE is about IMHO. Savings are a great and lucrative hobby, and I’ve certainly benefited from both the site and the forum (and its helpful and wise users) - but the frequent conversation about whether one can grab a branch account as well as the online offering, or complaining that certain institutions’ top offerings are branch-only, doesn’t sit well with me particularly. 

Others may disagree, but let’s be pleased about impartial efforts to promote financial education. 

But the problem is that they have made little or no effort to publish, educate or advertise to those very people who might need it. I haven't seen anything this week about 'savings week' and I've been looking. Imagine if I was not a saver......how would they expect to grab my attention if they make no effort ?

dealyboy

I had a shy good advice e-mail from Marcus 

poseidon1

An utterly pointless excercise in my view.

At the very least it could have been used to bang the drum (loudly) in favour of the government's own incentive saving scheme for low income families below -

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/220-million-boost-for-the-help-to-save-club#:~:text=Help to Save is a,or via the HMRC app.

Stolas

I guess savings week, is every week for us forumites 🙂

I am a bit disappointed that HSBC and Santander haven’t upped their game, and that Virgin appears to have nothing of note at the moment. 

I agree that if the goal of savings week is to educate people, and encourage good saving habits, it’s been woeful - I haven’t seen any publicity for it outside of these forums. 

Bobblehat

subjecttocontract said:

TheWoodler said:

Savings Week is certainly on and is about financial education. 

https://uksavingsweek.co.uk/
It has been nice when they’ve offered products to coincide with Savings Week, but to me that doesn’t really appear to be the intention, it’s more about encouraging people to start saving or to save smarter. 

With official and financial research statistics both demonstrating how few people have a significant financial buffer, we shouldn’t forget that some people struggle to save or are bamboozled by savings. We’re the converted, other people may need help to navigate this world.

They have made their toolkits available and as a representative of a community group I asked if we could use the toolkit for our group and yes, no problem. Rather than being disappointed, I’m glad that they have made this initiative available under a non-brand-specific umbrella and in plain English, absolutely suitable for a discussion on savings at the group I represent and which went very well. 

There’s loads of excellent articles on savings on individual banks’/building societies’ websites, but you wouldn’t necessarily look at them if you weren’t a customer, and the way you navigate to discover articles varies from institution to institution (it’s not just financial education articles, navigation to access eg accessibility info, ironically enough, also varies.) Savings articles might be on a blog stream at one institution and under Help at another, for example. 

Differing web structures and templates are part of security design, but it doesn’t always make it straightforward for the customer. We shouldn’t forget that there are people who may not be financially enabled to save much, digitally savvy or linguistically empowered (eg BSL users).

When I think of people who haven’t had financial education at home or school, who are disadvantaged by their circumstances to only be able to save a very little, or who still struggle to access our digital world, I don’t consider Savings Week disappointing at all. We’re more fortunate than many and as PP have pointed out, there have been some good accounts lately. 

Education and being able to help yourself and help others are also what MSE is about IMHO. Savings are a great and lucrative hobby, and I’ve certainly benefited from both the site and the forum (and its helpful and wise users) - but the frequent conversation about whether one can grab a branch account as well as the online offering, or complaining that certain institutions’ top offerings are branch-only, doesn’t sit well with me particularly. 

Others may disagree, but let’s be pleased about impartial efforts to promote financial education. 

But the problem is that they have made little or no effort to publish, educate or advertise to those very people who might need it. I haven't seen anything this week about 'savings week' and I've been looking. Imagine if I was not a saver......how would they expect to grab my attention if they make no effort ?

And even if the "Building Society Association" had made lots of effort to publish, educate or advertise reasons for people to start saving or save smarter via Savings Week, there is more education available here on this forum 52 weeks of the year than probably anywhere else! Additionally, it's not as if Martin Lewis is shy on promotion or education, so maybe they should get him on board to promote the week and point newbies to where they can see "where to start" and "best buys" etc .... pointing to MSE, of course!

Eco_Miser

clairec666 said:

I overheard a colleague this week talking about their payslip and it seems they have a complete misunderstanding of how taxation works - they assumed if they worked more than a certain number of hours they would be taxed 20% on everything, not just the amount above the threshold. A few colleagues work multiple jobs yet had never heard of tax codes and had no idea how much tax they were paying.

This is quite likely due in part to lazy language by professionals and hobbyists - "If you exceed the PA you're taxed at 20%" rather than  "If you exceed the PA  the excess is taxed at 20%".

EditL PA not PSA.

topyam

Maybe they're keeping their amazing offerings for tomorrow 😂

topyam

Who thinks we will get something today?? 

topyam

Tbh if i was not on here, i wouldn't know it was Savings Week

mebu60

I had another email from YBS. Title was 'UK Savings Week ends soon'. I didn't read that either.