One in ten Scots have '˜secret' savings, bank survey reveals

One in ten Scots have secret savings. Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Bank of Scotland research found that women are the most secretive, with 12 per cent admitting to saving in a personal account their partner does not know about, compared with 8 per cent of men.

The latest How Scotland Lives study found that women are more likely than men to save regularly, with almost a third (31%) saying they automatically transfer money into another account for short-term saving, compared to one quarter of men (25 per cent).

Almost a third of men (30 per cent) keep their savings in their current account for short-term saving, compared to just one fifth (21 per cent) of women.

Scots aged between 35 and 44 are the most secretive age group, with 12 per cent admitting to keeping their savings a secret from their partner.

None of those aged between 18-24 years old believed their partner had any money hidden away.

However most Scots do not suspect that their partner is secretly saving, with eight in ten saying they do not think their partner has a secret savings account at all.

Mike Moran, director, Bank of Scotland, said: “It’s great to see people saving, regardless of whether they are saving into a secret savings account or not.

“Putting some money away each month is an important part of managing your finances and it’s good to see that so many Scots are getting into the habit.”

The study of 2,007 Scots found that Dundonians are the most secretive, with one in five (19 per cent) keeping money hidden from their partner.

Glaswegians are the least likely to have secret savings, with only 8 per cent this year having such an account.

However only 4 per cent of people in Dundee believe that their partner would be keeping their savings a secret, while no respondents in Glasgow believed that their partner had funds hidden from them.

The research, carried out by YouGov for Bank of Scotland, found that wealthy people were as likely as the less well off to have secret savings.

It found that 14 per cent of Scots with more than £100,000 worth of savings admitted to having a secret stash and an equal 14 per cent of Scots with under £1000 of savings also admitted to keeping money hidden from their partner.

The online interviews were carried out between December 1 and 9 last year.