Budding savers offered chances to win prizes

Fledgling savers are being offered the chance to win prizes by some high street providers.

NatWest is launching a new savings competition to help encourage first-time savers.

Ten customers will each be awarded £1,000 for opening an account and then developing a regular savings habit.

To have a chance of winning, customers need to open a digital regular saver account in August, set up a standing order for between £1 and £50 and make payments in September, October and November. The 10 winners will be selected in December.

The account, which allows for withdrawals, pays 3% interest on balances of up to £1,000.

Lewis Broadie, NatWest savings expert, said: “We hope the added incentive of winning £1,000 in time for Christmas will help encourage more customers to begin building a savings pot.”

Nationwide Building Society also said on Monday it is adding an extra prize draw to its Start to Save account in January, due to the account’s popularity.

The society said more than 319,000 accounts have been opened and over £135 million has been saved since the deal was launched in February 2020.

Start to Save pays 1% interest and is designed to encourage people to build a savings buffer. Customers have the chance to win prizes of £100 by saving regularly.

The more people save, the more prizes there are, since the fund in each draw equates to 1% of the total balance increase across all accounts meeting the entry criteria.

Savers are entered if they increase their account balance by £50 to £100 in each of the three calendar months prior to that draw.

In July’s draw, 2,756 savers won £100 each and a further draw is due to take place in October.

Tom Riley, Nationwide’s director of banking and savings, said: “Given the account’s popularity and its success in encouraging regular saving, we are pleased to be able to add an additional prize draw in January.”