Thu 8th Nov, 2007
British lack knowledge about personal finances
According to the latest research from Abbey most of us here in the UK don’t know much about our own personal finances.
In a survey of more than 1000 British adults a 10 question personal finance exam was set with a grading system similar to that of the GCSE standard. Questions on the survey ranged from credit card interest, secured loan repayments and negative equity.
One in ten Britons had deficient knowledge of their own personal finances scoring below a C grade. 25 percent achieved an A*, 30 percent scored A and 21 percent scored a B. The remaining 24 percent who scored below a B grade are in danger of making bad financial decisions due to their lack of information.
A bank spokesman claimed that the questions chosen were ones that Abbey felt everyone who has a current account should be able to answer. The hardest questions on the survey are related to pay back time of credit card balances before fees could be charged, which is 6 weeks in case you are wondering. Almost half of those surveyed did not know what negative equity meant and possibly the most worrying of all was that 23 percent of us are unaware that non-repayment of a secured loan could possibly lead to losing the house the loan is secured against.
So before you go and get yourself a loan make sure you understand all the terms and conditions. Otherwise you could be in for quite a shock.