Alliance & Leicester Reveals Online Boom

Alliance & Leicester's prophecy of two years ago that 42 million of us will be banking online by 2020 looks well on the way to being fulfilled, according to its most recent figures.

It shows that 59 per cent of Brits now carry out most of their banking over the internet, with 61 per cent admitting to making far greater use of online account services over the past two years.

The possibilities internet banking holds for frequent use clearly do not pass consumers by – 29 per cent use it once or twice a week, while 12 per cent have the bit between their teeth enough to do so on a daily basis.

Andy Muddimer, Alliance & Leicester's head of internet banking, observed: "The pressures of modern life mean that internet banking is the best option for many UK banking customers.

"As we see the internet become increasingly important in other aspects of our daily lives, from reading the news, booking a holiday or simply making a purchase we would otherwise not have the time to do, then we can expect internet banking to become even more popular as the key way of managing our finances."

Britons haven't completely eschewed their local bank branches, though – with a range of statistics showing that they are still highly-valued, especially when it comes to making more complex financial decisions and carrying out actions such as paying in cheques.