Christmas Saver - get ready for some festive feel-good!
Christmas – the most expensive day of your year?
We all know Christmas happens once a year. But the build up seems to start earlier and earlier - and with Selfridges opening its Christmas shop at its flagship Oxford Street store on 1 August that’s 146 days of snowglobes, sleighbells and singing Santas!
A 2015 study by YouGov found that British households expected to spend £796 on Christmas, with the biggest expense being gifts at £596, followed by food and drink at £159 and finally £41 on assorted extras such as cards. With children in mind, this year Amazon’s top three toys for Christmas are the Barbie 3 Story Townhouse (£82.99), WowWee CHiP Interactive Robot Dog (£199.99) and Furby Connect Pink Toy (79.99). Adding up to a whopping £363.97 it’s easy to see how the costs mount up.
That’s a lot of money for one day – how do people pay for it?
Aviva reported in December 2015 that two in five (41%) UK adults put money aside to help pay for Christmas costs, with an average of just under £420 per person. However the remaining 58% do not put aside any money to help pay for Christmas, and 52% do not set a budget for their festive spending.
For those turning to credit cards the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) published figures in January, finding UK consumers were less reliant on their credit cards to fund Christmas shopping in 2015 than they were a year earlier – 262m credit card purchases with a collective value of £13.7billion were made in December, 3% down on 2014.
For some top tips on how to ease the burden of the festive season, please see our blog.
How it works
This savings account pays you an interest rate just like any other account. However, as this is a charity support account, as at 1 October each year we will calculate 0.10% of average account balances held during the year 1 October to 30 September. We will then contribute this amount to donate Christmas presents or Christmas food items to a Suffolk charity. This is a donation from Ipswich Building Society and not from any members' funds deposited with us.
Details of donations made will be included in our Freehold Post email newsletters and on our website.
You can open a Christmas Saver account by visiting a branch or contact us to find out more.
Christmas Saver 0.70% Gross*/AER** Limited Access and Bonds (Variable rate) - Variable interest rateAccount Name Interest Rate Account Type Key Details
- Instant access between 1 October - 31
December each year
- 0.10% of average account balances will
be calculated and used to donate
Christmas presents and food items to
a Suffolk Charity
| Useful Downloads | Download |
|---|---|
| Savings Interest Rates Leaflet - interest rates and summary of terms for all of our personal savings products |  |
| Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) Information Sheet |  |
| Identification details - documents required when opening an account | |
| Customer Information - outlines procedures for opening and using our savings accounts | |
| General Investment Terms & Conditions - applies to all savings accounts with the Society | |
| Standing Order Form - to make regular payments from your bank to your Society account, please print this form, fill in the details and post it to your bank. If you are not using this form, our bank details are: Account number: 00004000 Sort Code: 23-44-48 Roll No/Ref No: IMPORTANT - please quote your 9 digit Society account number |
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*Gross - The amount paid with no income tax deducted
**AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) - A notional rate which illustrates what the gross rate would be if the interest was paid and compounded once per year
