UK workers hate queuing for the bank at lunchtime

UK high street bank websites reap the benefits...

UK web users are more likely to visit online banks than their European counterparts, with over five million people logging on in July alone. Although half of Scandinavian web users bank online, the UK has more visitors to banking sites than France, Germany, Italy or Scandinavia. 1.2m new UK users banked online between January and July, according to a survey from web research group Net value. But UK users have also become more discerning about their online banking habits over the past six months, with consumers visiting fewer sites and spending less time on each one. In January UK users typically spent an average of 28.1 minutes on 83 different sites. By July that had fallen to 21.8 minutes on 62 different sites. Jannie Cahill, marketing manager at Netvalue said: "Its shows that UK users are fast catching up with the mature internet market in Scandinavia." She added: "People are realising that its much handier to bank online than queuing during your lunch break." The survey mirrors a report last week from pollsters Mori and online bank Egg which reported that UK users were more confident about online banking than US internet users. That report also found that users favoured the online arms of high street banks over pure play internet banks. This finding was backed by the Netvalue research which found that customers were most likely to conduct an online transaction with Lloyds TSB site than any other site.