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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Andy Richardson & Jonathan Humphries

The bank account handing 220,000 Brits £677 in free cash

New figures have revealed thousands of people are on average getting £677 added to their savings automatically after opening a lifetime ISA account.

Around 230,000 people are taking advantage of the specialist savings account - available to anyone between the ages of 18 and 40.

It adds 25% to all the money you put in. So for every £4 you save it will add £1.

The most recent figures from HMRC show how people have squirrelled away £604m in these accounts, seeing £151m added on top - working out at £677 each.

But while it seems like a great deal there are are a couple of important conditions, reports Mirror Online.

You can take your money out whenever you like, but only get to keep the Government top-up if the cash is used to buy your first home or you wait until you are 60.

If you use the cash for anything else the Government takes their stake back, plus a little bit extra under normal circumstances.

But people prepared to wait to use their money will struggle to find a better deal - and word is getting out.

Last year the number of people with lifetime ISAs surged to 45%, according to HMRC, with 69,000 new accounts opened and £118million added to savings pots.

This is a huge jump in both the number of savers and the amount of money being saved in a lifetime ISA," said Richard Pearson, director of investment firm EQI.

He said: “The growing uptake shows that people are not only keen to make their money work as hard for them as possible, they are also saving with a purpose in mind – their first home or towards their retirement."

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