Closer watch on finances

In view of the ubiquitous economic slump people in Great Britain more often resort to monitoring their finances online, so that the time spent for online banking exceeds the one spent for visiting social network sites, as per the information provided by the study done by an online bank Cahoot.

38 million people are using their banks' online banking facilities as they want to be aware of their financial status which is explained by the credit crunch.

Today 3 billion hours are being dedicated yearly to online banking while surfing social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo or MySpace takes customers 2.7 billion hours annually.

"Indeed, the credit crunch is making Britons far more conscious about keeping in control of their finances," says Matthew Timms, director at Cahoot.

"As a result we're flocking to internet banking," he adds, "where we can instantly access and manage our finances at a time and location of our choice as well as pick up some of the best rates on the market."