Brits are sitting on a staggering £24 billion in cash at home – with notes stuffed into wallets, safes, jars, bedside drawers and even underneath mattresses.
More than half of adults still keep physical cash around the house, with those who do holding an average £822 each.
The poll of 2,000 people by Investments by MoneySuperMarket comes just days after Defence Secretary Wes Streeting urged households to keep some cash at home as part of basic preparations for an emergency.
Families were also encouraged to consider having bottled water and tinned food handy in case they temporarily lose access to electricity or online banking because of disruption, including power cuts, extreme weather or cyber-attacks.
And judging by Britain’s enormous cash stash, millions of households may already have at least one part of their emergency kit sorted.
The most popular place to keep money is a purse or wallet left at home, used by 35% of those who keep cash.
But others favour rather more traditional hiding places. One in seven use a safe, 11% keep money in a jar, 10% use a tin and 8% tuck it into a bedside drawer. A small percentage even still keep cash underneath the bed or mattress.
For most, there is already an emergency-preparedness logic behind keeping it there – with 34% saying the cash is for emergencies. 26% use it for everyday purchases.
But Britain’s attachment to cash goes far beyond the money tucked into kitchen jars and bedside drawers, research has found.
Research for MoneySuperMarket found the average Brit has £18,061 held across savings, ISAs and current accounts, but many stop short of investing out of fear.
Kara Gammell, Personal Finance Expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: ‘While the value of investments can go down as well as up, holding all of your long-term money in cash can also have drawbacks if inflation – or the cost of doing nothing – reduces its spending power over time.
‘Once you’ve got emergency savings covered, investing regularly over the longer term could help your money work harder towards your future goals.’
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