Debt Awareness Week: A third of Brits Ignore Financial Advice due to a Lack of Personalisation

Close to half of Brits agree that financial education is incumbent on banks, yet communication continues to elude millions 

• 41% of Brits believe that banks have a responsibility to educate people on money management and understanding personal finance
• 27% of Brits ignore financial advice because it is not personalised to their financial situation
• 11% of Brits have encountered permanent implications to their borrowing and spending activities due to a lack of financial knowledge
• 9% of Brits disregard letters and statements regarding late/missed payments as they don’t understand the language that banks use

 
Zahra Hassan, co-founder of Eligible, explains how technology can bridge the gap between banks and their customers through personalised communication

 
On the tenth anniversary of Debt Awareness Week, Eligible – the UK’s first platform used by banks and lenders to provide tailored financial support to customers through artificial intelligence – have launched Decoding Banking Jargon, a landmark survey of banking customers across the UK that reveals the extent of the UK’s financial literacy crisis.

This comes as the latest figures from UK finance reveal that outstanding debt on UK credit cards jumped by almost 10% in 2023, whilst experts, including Martin Lewis, have highlighted an endemic ‘poverty of financial literacy and education in the UK’.

According to Eligible’s nationally representative data, 12% of Brits find the letters and emails received from banks “too confusing” (5,470,000). Data from Zensar further supports this, with 1-in-4 customers finding it hard to understand the terms and conditions of their banking product. Amidst the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, households have become more vulnerable than ever, with 11% of Brits encountering permanent implications to their borrowing a spending activity due to a lack of financial knowledge (4,150,000). 

According to Zahra, one of the key factors preventing consumers from engaging with their banks on questions of financial jargon is the distinctive lack of tailored communication. Eligible’s data finds that a staggering 27% of Brits ignore financial advice because it is not tailored to their financial situation (11,904,000). 

For the 41% of Brits who believe that banks have a responsibility to educate the public on personal finance Hassan asserts that the advent of new technology, particularly artificial intelligence, can allow banks to engage with customers on an unprecedentedly personal level – tailoring their communication style to the unique needs of customers from a variety of backgrounds. The overarching aim being the facilitation of a proactive, two-way communication between banks and their customer base.
 
Zahra Hassan comments:
 
“What AI can do today is interact with customers and measure the level of understanding of their existing product before providing bespoke financial expertise. Based on this, we can start to form views on the likelihood that they could struggle to meet their payments.

“AI has the power to transform customer support from a reactive relationship to a proactive one. Instead of banks providing support only when the customer asks for it, AI can detect those who are likely to need assistance and proactively engage with them, fostering education and active dialogue.”