A recent British study has shown that more people today save their money, which is actually good news. The not so good news? These people trust their mattresses better than putting money away at a banking institution. The declining confidence the public has over banks has dipped to about 5% in the last year.

Savers are much more cautious now than a year ago, with one in ten people thinking their money would be safest under the mattress, reveals new research from Newcastle Building Society. In light of the credit crunch, the number of people preferring to stash their cash at home has almost trebled (from 4% to 11%), and peaks as high as 15% if you live in the Midlands and Wales region.

However, more savers would prefer to invest in building societies than anywhere else, with over a third (34%) believing them to be the safest places.

The past 12 months have seen the number of people choosing to invest in either banks or building societies decline by 17%, according to the research. A year ago, almost three quarters of people surveyed would have considered banks (28%) or building societies (46%) to be the safest places to invest their money.

With this in mind, this kind of mattress seem not to sound like a bad idea after all.

Via Easier Finance