MORE than half a million savers with a major building society used traditional passbooks in branches last year.

Despite the rise in apps and new ways to transfer cash, new figures from Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society indicate that the power of the passbook as a way of managing money remains strong.

It reported that 550,000 members used passbooks – a physical record of money paid into or taken out of a savings account – between January and September last year.

The society, which has nearly three million customers, said 550,000 individual members used passbooks at least once between January and September, either updating them with transactions, withdrawing or depositing funds or transferring to another account.

Chris Irwin, director of savings at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "Digital adoption has understandably sped up as a quick and easy alternative to face-to-face contact, especially during recent years, but we know a large amount of people still value in-branch banking and physical records."

The Yorkshire also commissioned Opinium to survey 2,000 UK adults last October about how they operate their finances.

It found that 22 per cent said they prefer visiting their local branch to complete their banking, rising to 31 per cent for people aged over 55.