A waist of money

How's that new year diet coming along:? Have you given up yet, or perhaps like me you never quite got round to starting one? And while we're on the subject of lapsed resolutions, what about that well-intentioned plan to divert more money into your savings account? Not going too well either, I'd wager.

In fact, fewer of us are managing to save anything given stagnant wage growth and the dismal failure of UK financial institutions to offer interest rates anywhere approaching the latest inflation increases.

If this sounds all too familiar, then fear not: we may have found just the account for you. The only problem is you have to move to South Korea to open it.

According to the Reuters news agency, Seoul's Hana Bank has an account called S-Line – apparently a common local expression used to describe an hourglass figure. The principle is this: if a customer loses more than 5% of their weight within a year, or holds a gym membership, the bank grants special interest rates. So the more calories you burn, the better the return on your savings.

I'm not sure if this is ingenious or just plain terrifying, but fitness-conscious South Koreans have taken the concept to their hearts – both in terms of affection and cardiovascular health – with more than 50,000 customers having invested around £220m into the account since 2008.

Hana Bank is not the only South Korean institution taking a creative approach to saving. Kookmin Bank has launched a smartphone app that encourages people to not fritter away their money on luxuries like takeaway coffee or taxis (or smartphone apps?!), but to squirrel away what they would have spent.

Whenever customers feel the urge to splurge, instead of actually spending the money they click on an icon of a cup of coffee or a taxi on their phone and the equivalent sum of money is transferred from their current account to their savings. Then there is Woori Bank, which markets a "bicycle fixed deposit" account, rewarding cycle commuters with higher interest rates and free bike insurance.

With the best instant access savings rates in the UK at a barely noticeable 2.9%, this may all be food for thought for our uninspiring high street banks.

Would you put your money in a slim-as-you-save account, or click on a coffee-deposit app? Or what about more social incentives to save: for example, an account that paid you higher interest for spending less on petrol or using public transport more often?

What other lifestyle incentives would encourage you to save money?